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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy seize voting machines? What was the goal there?
I've been hearing a lot about these Executive Orders and other discussions among Trump and his group of fascist goblins related to seizing voting machines. The fact that it has never been done before, all of the experts saying that would have been extremely illegal, and even many Trump's own people saying "fuck no, absolutely not, I'm getting involved with that" is a pretty good sign of just how horrific of an idea that Trump was playing around with. However, I'm still a bit fuzzy on what exactly seizing voting machines was going to accomplish for Trump. If Trump had somehow done it, what would have been the goal at that point? What were they actually going to do with those machines and how would that have helped in the overall attempt to steal the election from Biden?
I understand that this is all incredibly serious and frightening, I just don't fully understand why it is so serious and frightening.
bullimiami
(13,095 posts)Tommy Carcetti
(43,182 posts)To the extent I'm sure Trump might have sought to petition the Courts to enjoin Biden's inauguration while the "audit" was being "conducted."
Hopefully the Courts would have told him to pound sand as they did on other occasions. But it would still have been a last gasp gambit by Trump to attempt to hold onto power.
Pantagruel
(2,580 posts)creates an aura that something was "wrong" with the totals despite the FACT it was probably the most closely watched election ever.
Further, it essentially disqualifies those machines from future use because of the possibility and suspicion of tampering. Huge, needless expense.
greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)I had the same question!
cilla4progress
(24,736 posts)Their drunken monkey god's complete and obvious playbook.
tanyev
(42,559 posts)Concrete examples of said proof would, of course, never be made available for anyone else to review.
LymphocyteLover
(5,644 posts)but never actually show the proof, and enough people would believe it
Haggard Celine
(16,846 posts)and show that there were discrepancies between the totals from the machines and the official numbers certified by the states. Trump never proves any of his assertions; he merely creates enough doubt so that the facts can be disputed. If enough people fell for his bullshit, it could have given him enough momentum to claim fraud and many people, probably close to half of them, were just gullible enough to fall for it.
He said at one time that he wanted to have another election. If that had happened, he most likely would have won because he would have made mail-in voting impossible. He was grasping at straws to find some way, any way, of invalidating the election he knew he'd lost.
FakeNoose
(32,641 posts)The goal was more or less to set the precedent that they CAN do it. It's going to be their standard MO if the Dems don't start passing laws to control these RWNJs.
Gaugamela
(2,496 posts)The articles conclusion:
And if all of that should come to pass, well, you know as well as I do what the outcome of a vote in the House would be: Trump would be declared the victor and he would remain in office.
So maybe that was the plan all along: chaos. Does chaos sound like it would appeal to anyone you know?
https://www.salon.com/2022/02/04/what-was-plan-after-seizing-the-voting-machines-a-very-outcome/
gristy
(10,667 posts)Chaos was the goal, and, indeed, it remains the goal.
Runningdawg
(4,517 posts)haele
(12,659 posts)I'm sure the seized machines would not be the less secure ES &S machines, but when election officials will need to purchase the replacements for machines compromised due to "audits", that will be the brand that provides special discounts to the states.
Haele
gristy
(10,667 posts)gibraltar72
(7,505 posts)That would give them a semi legitimate right to hold up the certifications. It just got weirder and weirder, as one after another their plans failed.