Media Message: Election Results Could Take a While
Numerous news stories are telling us all the reasons why we might not know who won the presidency until later this week.
It’s totally normal not to know who won the election on election night. Stop being such an election denier.
That’s the collective message of many Leftmedia outlets today, and it’s incredibly worrisome. These are, after all, the same people who spent the last four years accusing anyone who dared voice doubt about the 2020 election results of being an “election denier.”
They did not, of course, say the same thing about Democrats who challenged election results in 2000, 2004, or 2016.
Unfortunately, though few Americans say they trust the media anymore, not enough of them are adept at tuning out or filtering the propaganda. When the media are 85% negative about Donald Trump and 78% positive about Kamala Harris, it influences low-information voters. Try asking Harris supporters about her policies — most of them have no clue. They just know the Orange Man is bad.
Imagine for a moment what the nation would look like if the media were even remotely fair.
Here’s a sampling of headlines or story theses about why we should all just go to bed tonight and not worry our pretty little heads about knowing the results until … sometime later.
Associated Press: “Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. Why that’s unlikely.”
CBS News: “Waves of election results will begin coming in Tuesday night after polls close throughout the country, but in many key states it may take a while to know who has won — and much longer to get official, certified results.”
NBC News: “It may take as long as a week for the NBC News Decision Desk to project a presidential winner, or it could happen as early as Wednesday, even by Wednesday morning.”
The New York Times: “Declaring a winner could take a while. … The end of this high-drama presidential campaign on election night may not bring immediate clarity about who has won.”
You get the point.
Each of those stories goes on to explain why many states — coincidentally, the ones that will decide the election — could take several days to process ballots in a close election. The AP quotes an “expert”: “There’s nothing nefarious about it,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The time delay is to protect the integrity of the process.”
The process is just so complicated, you see. The AP says many races are run in “nearly 10,000 separate jurisdictions,” it takes time for the Pony Express U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots, and election officials need time to “process disputed, or ‘provisional,’ ballots, and to see if they were legitimately cast.”
That seems strange because, in previous news stories, the AP has assured us that illegitimate votes don’t happen because it’s illegal. Yes, that was effectively the “logic.”
Everyone drives the speed limit in my neighborhood, too.
Instead of really investigating allegations of voter fraud, the Leftmedia just dismisses it as right-wing fever dreams asserted “without evidence.” The truth is that it’s tough to know who receives or casts mail-in ballots, the pathetic window dressing of signature verification notwithstanding. One in five mail-in voters admitted to ballot fraud in 2020.
As for poll closings and vote counting in specific states, the Washington Examiner has a good rundown of what to expect. Notably, NBC News says Nevada “will take a week to count all their votes.” Nothing shady ever happens in Las Vegas, either.
We were told weeks ago that Pennsylvania had little intention of announcing a winner tonight. (Never mind that “accidental” test run on an ABC station there announcing a Harris victory.) NBC says there’s really nothing to worry about in the Keystone State, although its “unusual voting laws make it ripe for rigged election claims.” Not rigged elections, mind you. Claims.
As our Douglas Andrews recalled the other day, “Former MSNBC talkinghead and Philly native Chris Matthews used to brag about his hometown’s uncanny knack for mustering just enough votes to put Pennsylvania into the Democrats’ column. ‘How many do you need?’ he’d laugh.” It might take a few days for the Harris campaign to know how many votes she needs.
Maybe Democrat election officials in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, and Phoenix really are operating in good faith. Maybe windmills really are superior energy technology. And maybe Santa Claus really can fit down my chimney.
Americans would believe our elections have integrity if, with rare exceptions for legitimate absentees, elections were conducted in person with photo ID on Election Day. Short of that, millions of Americans will remain pretty distrustful, especially of delays, no matter how often media outlets tell us everything is Fair and Secure™.
The Federalist’s Kylee Griswold gets it right when she writes, “The best outcome for justice, democracy, and Americans’ everyday living would be not just a Trump win but an absolute landslide.” It would serve as a much-needed and well-deserved rebuke of the radical Left, it would help restore faith in the election system, and it would yield better days ahead for the country.
The Patriot Post may be based in the bright red state of Tennessee, but many of us live elsewhere. Just as Douglas Andrews is doing in Michigan today, I’ll be doing my part this afternoon in the all-important swing state of Georgia.
