The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit backed by President Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, ending Trump’s attempt to get legal issues rejected by other judges before the high court. (Dec. 11)
USA TODAY’s coverage of the 2020 election and President-elect Joe Biden’s transition continues this week as he rolls out more of his picks for top jobs in his administration. With the final vote counts certified, the Electoral College will meet in statehouses across the U.S. Monday where the 538 electors will cast the ballots making Biden’s victory official.
President Donald Trump has cleared the way for Biden’s team to use federal resources and get briefings during the transition, although Trump has yet to formally concede the race.
Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.
Audit finds National Democratic Party complicated Iowa caucus problems
The national Democratic Party “aggressively interjected itself” into the 2020 Iowa caucuses, slowing down and complicating the development of a reporting app that crashed on caucus night and delayed the tallying of results, an audit of the process found.
The Iowa Democratic Party commissioned the audit shortly after the Feb. 3 caucuses, hiring a pair of Democratic lawyers to examine the technical and procedural failures that prevented it from announcing a caucus winner for days after the high-profile contest ended.
The party released the results to its State Central Committee Saturday morning. A copy was obtained by the Des Moines Register, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.
On caucus night, the report says the DNC demanded access to the state party’s reporting data in real-time. It wanted access so that it could calculate the results to confirm the state’s numbers before anything would be released to the public.
“When the DNC’s database conversion tool failed to work correctly, it caused the DNC to wrongly stop the IDP from reporting its results, and the IDP’s entire planned reporting process was thrown into disarray,” the report said. “The DNC’s interjection was the catalyst for the resulting chaos in the boiler room and the IDP’s attempts to manually collect and confirm caucus results by hand.”
The “boiler room” was a call center where the state party had staffed volunteers to take phone calls from precinct captains who wanted to report results over the telephone, rather than use the app. When the app failed, the call center was overrun.
U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig – a Trump nominee – concluded the president didn’t have the ability to bring his lawsuit in federal court and waited too long to file it.
Ludwig described the case as “extraordinary.”
“A sitting president who did not prevail in his bid for reelection has asked for federal court help in setting aside the popular vote based on disputed issues of election administration, issues he plainly could have raised before the vote occurred,” Ludwig wrote. “This court allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits. In his reply brief, plaintiff ‘asks that the Rule of Law be followed.’ It has been.”
Trump sought to have the Republican-led Legislature, rather than voters, decide how to allocate Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes. In a hearing Thursday, Ludwig told Trump’s legal team that giving that power to lawmakers would result in “probably the most remarkable ruling in the history of this court or the federal judiciary.”
MADISON, Wis. – President Donald Trump’s legal team goes before the state Supreme Court on Saturday in one of his last efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s election results after a string of legal defeats.
The arguments — a rarity on a weekend — come a day after a judge turned down the Republican president’s claims that several of Wisconsin’s election practices violated the law and concluded election officials were right to give the state’s 10 electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden.
The justices will review that decision and are expected to rule before the Electoral College meets at noon Monday.
Trump faces a difficult path. The state Supreme Court last week ruled 4-3 against Trump and his backers in three lawsuits.
In addition, this week the U.S. Supreme Court turned away an attempt by Texas to rescind the results in Wisconsin and three other states, a federal judge in Wisconsin dismissed a lawsuit brought by Trump allies and a different federal judge expressed deep skepticism of yet another case seeking to prevent Wisconsin’s electoral votes from going to Biden.
Biden won Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes out of 3.3 million cast, giving him a margin of victory of 0.6 percentage points. Trump paid $3 million for a recount in Dane and Milwaukee counties, but the recount slightly widened Biden’s win.
– Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Trump named ‘Loser of the Year’ by German news magazine
German news magazine Der Spiegel named President Donald Trump the “loser of the year” Thursday, the same day TIME named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Kamala Harris TIME’s 2020 person of the year.
The magazine bestowed the title – “Der Verlierer des Jahres” in German – on Trump in an article focused on the president’s unfounded claims of widespread election fraud since his defeat.
“Nothing is normal under Trump,” the article says. “He refuses to admit defeat. Instead, he speaks of massive electoral fraud, although there is no evidence for it. The whole thing is not surprising. Trump’s presidency ends as it began. Without decency and without dignity.”
Trump continues to refuse to concede after the Supreme Court rejected another lawsuit aimed at throwing out the election result and despite the official certification of the vote tallies ahead of the Electoral College vote Monday.
– Sarah Elbeshbishi
Sarah Palin stumps for Georgia’s GOP senators
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is on the campaign trail in Georgia, campaigning for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the lead up to their January runoff elections.
“Georgia we need you to not just show up Jan. 5, not just win, but to crush it,” Palin told a packed parking lot of supports in Marietta Friday.
Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, also repeated Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud and that the election was “rigged.”
The results of Georgia’s runoff elections will be the determining factor of what party will control the Senate. If Perdue and Loeffler’s democratic opponents Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both win their races, the Democrats will control the Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to break any ties.
“We’re going to keep making America Great,” Palin said. “And Georgia, it’s in your hands.”
– Sarah Elbeshbishi
GOP election official tells Wis. legislators no ‘credible evidence of large-scale voter fraud’
MADISON, Wis. – A Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission told legislative committees Friday that he has “not seen credible evidence of large-scale voter fraud in Wisconsin during the November election.”
“There were no dumps of ballots during the night, none,” Dean Knudson told lawmakers looking into the conduct of the Nov. 3 election that Democrat Joe Biden won by about 21,000 votes over President Donald Trump.
“There is no evidence of any fraud related to Dominion voting machines in Wisconsin,” Knudson said. “Counting in Wisconsin did not stop and restart. Election observers were allowed to be present throughout Election Day and election night proceedings. The number of voters on our poll books match the number of ballots cast.
“There has been no criminal evidence presented to the Elections Commission that any of these problems occurred in Wisconsin,” he said.
– Bill Glauber and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Trump supporters rally in DC
Thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to protest what they believe was massive fraud in the Nov. 3 election despite any credible evidence such fraud occurred.
The conservative Women for America First obtained the permit for the protest, which will feature South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and ex-Trump aide Sebastian Gorka.
Trump, who is scheduled to attend the Army-Navy football game in West Point, New York, Saturday afternoon, tweeted that he only learned the protesters were gathering and vowed he will “being seeing them.”
Counter-protesters are also expected to gather during the event. Clashes broke out between Trump supporters and counter-protesters at a similar rally in Washington last month, leading to the arrest of at least 20 people.
Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA
EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government’s $8.6-billion plan to fast-track building new schools will include a pilot project to incentivize private ones.
Smith said the ultimate goal is to create thousands of new spaces for an exploding number of new students at a reduced cost to taxpayers.
“We want to put all of the different school options on the same level playing field,” Smith told a news conference in Calgary Wednesday.
Smith did not offer details about how much private school construction costs might be incentivized, but said she wants to see what independent schools might pitch.
“We’re putting it out there as a pilot to see if there is any interest in partnering on the same basis that we’ll be building the other schools with the different (public) school boards,” she said.
Smith made the announcement a day after she announced the multibillion-dollar school build to address soaring numbers of new students.
By quadrupling the current school construction budget to $8.6 billion, the province aims to offer up 30 new schools each year, adding 50,000 new student spaces within three years.
The government also wants to build or expand five charter school buildings per year, starting in next year’s budget, adding 12,500 spaces within four years.
Currently, non-profit independent schools can get some grants worth about 70 per cent of what students in public schools receive per student from the province.
However, those grants don’t cover major construction costs.
John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges of Alberta, said he’s interested in having conversations with the government about incentives.
He said the province has never directly funded major capital costs for their facilities before, and said he doesn’t think the association has ever asked for full capital funding.
He said community or religious groups traditionally cover those costs, but they can help take the pressure off the public or separate systems.
“We think we can do our part,” Jagersma said.
Dennis MacNeil, head of the Public School Boards Association of Alberta, said they welcome the new funding, but said money for private school builds would set a precedent that could ultimately hurt the public system.
“We believe that the first school in any community should be a public school, because only public schools accept all kids that come through their doors and provide programming for them,” he said.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said if public dollars are going to be spent on building private schools, then students in the public system should be able to equitably access those schools.
“No other province spends as much money on private schools as Alberta does, and it’s at the detriment of public schools, where over 90 per cent of students go to school,” he said.
Schilling also said the province needs about 5,000 teachers now, but the government announcement didn’t offer a plan to train and hire thousands more over the next few years.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Tuesday praised the $8.6 billion as a “generational investment” in education, but said private schools have different mandates and the result could be schools not being built where they are needed most.
“Using that money to build public schools is more efficient, it’s smarter, it’s faster, and it will serve students better,” Nenshi said.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides’ office declined to answer specific questions about the pilot project Wednesday, saying it’s still under development.
“Options and considerations for making capital more affordable for independent schools are being explored,” a spokesperson said. “Further information on this program will be forthcoming in the near future.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
OTTAWA – Health Minister Mark Holland urged a committee of senators Wednesday not to tweak the pharmacare bill he carefully negotiated with the NDP earlier this year.
The bill would underpin a potential national, single-payer pharmacare program and allow the health minister to negotiate with provinces and territories to cover some diabetes and contraceptive medications.
It was the result of weeks of political negotiations with the New Democrats, who early this year threatened to pull out of their supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals unless they could agree on the wording.
“Academics and experts have suggested amendments to this bill to most of us here, I think,” Independent Senator Rosemary Moodie told Holland at a meeting of the Senate’s social affairs committee.
Holland appeared before the committee as it considers the bill. He said he respects the role of the Senate, but that the pharmacare legislation is, in his view, “a little bit different.”
“It was balanced on a pinhead,” he told the committee.
“This is by far — and I’ve been involved in a lot of complex things — the most difficult bit of business I’ve ever been in. Every syllable, every word in this bill was debated and argued over.”
Holland also asked the senators to move quickly to pass the legislation, to avoid lending credence to Conservative critiques that the program is a fantasy.
When asked about the Liberals’ proposed pharmacare program for diabetes and birth control, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has often responded that the program isn’t real. Once the legislation is passed, the minister must negotiate with every provincial government to actually administer the program, which could take many months.
“If we spend a long time wordsmithing and trying to make the legislation perfect, then the criticism that it’s not real starts to feel real for people, because they don’t actually get drugs, they don’t get an improvement in their life,” Holland told the committee.
He told the committee that one of the reasons he signed a preliminary deal with his counterpart in British Columbia was to help answer some of the Senate’s questions about how the program would work in practice.
The memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and B.C. lays out how to province will use funds from the pharmacare bill to expand on its existing public coverage of contraceptives to include hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms.
The agreement isn’t binding, and Holland would still need to formalize talks with the province when and if the Senate passes the bill based on any changes the senators decide to make.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s NDP are accusing the government of prioritizing landlords over residents who need an affordable place to live, as the opposition party tables a bill aimed at addressing the housing crisis.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender took aim at the Progressive Conservatives Wednesday ahead of introducing two new housing bills, saying the government “seems to be more focused on helping wealthy developers than everyday families.”
The Minister of Service Nova Scotia has said the government’s own housing legislation will “balance” the needs of tenants and landlords by extending the five per cent cap on rent until the end of 2027. But critics have called the cap extension useless because it allows landlords to raise rents past five per cent on fixed-term leases as long as property owners sign with a new renter.
Chender said the rules around fixed-term leases give landlords the “financial incentive to evict,” resulting in more people pushed into homelessness. She also criticized the part of the government bill that will permit landlords to issue eviction notices after three days of unpaid rent instead of 15.
The Tories’ housing bill, she said, represents a “shocking admission from this government that they are more concerned with conversations around landlord profits … than they are about Nova Scotians who are trying to find a home they can afford.”
The premier’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also included in the government’s new housing legislation are clearer conditions for landlords to end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing fellow tenants, repeated late rental payments and extraordinary damage to a unit. It will also prohibit tenants from subletting units for more than they are paying.
The first NDP bill tabled Wednesday would create a “homelessness task force” to gather data to try to prevent homelessness, and the second would set limits on evictions during the winter and for seniors who meet income eligibility requirements for social housing and have lived in the same home for more than 10 years.
The NDP has previously tabled legislation that would create a $500 tax credit for renters and tie rent control to housing units instead of the individual.
Earlier this week landlords defended the use of the contentious fixed-term leases, saying they need to have the option to raise rent higher than five per cent to maintain their properties and recoup costs. Landlord Yarviv Gadish, who manages three properties in the Halifax area, called the use of fixed-term leases “absolutely essential” in order to keep his apartments presentable and to get a return on his investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
