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The 2000 election was decided by 537 votes in one state, Florida. With Florida in Bush's column, the outcome of the Electoral College was 271-266 — about as close as it gets. In fact, it was the closest electoral vote margin since 1876 that saw Rutherford B. Hayes beat Samuel Tilden by just one electoral vote, 185-184.
In the 2020 election, if Biden's leads hold, he is on track to win 306 electoral votes to 232 for Trump. (Somewhat ironically, that's the same margin Trump would have won by in 2016 if there weren't two faithless electors who brought his total down to 304.)
As opposed to focusing attention on a single state, Trump has several lawsuits in courts in multiple states, many of which have already been thrown out. There will be a recount in Georgia, and Trump is seeking one in Wisconsin, which the AP called for Biden, but he's unlikely to win either one because he is down almost 35,000 votes between the two states.
A FairVote study of 27 recounts between 2000 and 2015 found the average vote change in them was 282 votes — nowhere near the gap Trump is trying to overcome.
The president's allegations and conspiracy theories of sweeping voter fraud have so far been without merit. Fraud is hard to pull off in modern elections because of the safeguards in place, including electronic voter registration records, signature matching technology and post-election audits of the vote.
"I think it is more difficult now," Ginsberg said, noting, "The Trump campaign is basing all its actions on the thought that there was fraud, and now they're not able to prove it, so their basic premise is not holding up."
On Thursday, the government agencies overseeing the security of the election issued a joint statement defending the integrity of the election and calling it the "most secure in American history."
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," they wrote. They added, "While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too."
Now do but the Kraken...............
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