Obama Signs Executive Order Declaring Investigation Into Election Results; Revote Planned For Dec. 19th
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Following the results of Tuesday night’s election, President Obama has signed Executive Order 13805, which orders a full recount of all votes cast in the election and calls for a special election to be held on December 19th. Obama signed the order in response to the concerns of thousands of voters across the country who said that they were prevented from casting a ballot on election day, too many absentee ballots have not been found or counted, equipment failures, as well as concerns that some members of the electoral college may have acted unethically.
“People all over the country have been flooding my office with calls, telling my staff of horror stories about being harassed and intimidated by poll workers,” Obama told reporters. “Many have even said that they were flat out denied entry into the voting booths to cast their ballots if they were wearing a Hillary Clinton shirt or other signs showing support for her as President.
This was especially bad in areas of Florida and North Carolina where there are high numbers of Latino and African American voters. We must investigate these claims. The margin of victory is too close to call, and the outcome of this election is too important. There is just too many legal challenges in too many states to just call this a victory for Trump.”
This was especially bad in areas of Florida and North Carolina where there are high numbers of Latino and African American voters. We must investigate these claims. The margin of victory is too close to call, and the outcome of this election is too important. There is just too many legal challenges in too many states to just call this a victory for Trump.”
Under the President’s order, the votes cast in all precincts nationwide will be recounted, and all poll workers who took part in Tuesday’s election will be subjected to strict background checks. This process is expected to take 30 days. In precincts where the Department of Justice has cause to believe that voter suppression has occurred, new elections will be held on Dec. 19th, with those results being used to help determine who will represent the individual states in the electoral college.
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is not happy with the president’s decision.
“Crooked Hillary lost this election fair and square. They tried to rig this election against me, but the American people didn’t allow that to happen. President Obama doesn’t care about what the American people want. I said the system was rigged all along, and this proves I was right.”
The president also said that the DOJ will be taking a close look at the members of the electoral college.
“We have received information from a very reliable source that suggests there may have been some collusion between the members of the electoral college and poll workers in certain swing states. We still need to investigate these claims, but if they are true, we will take all the appropriate actions necessary.”
Paul Horner, a professor of political science at UCLA, believes that the issues with the electoral college run much deeper that this election.
“Most people feel that it is their right as citizens to pick the president of the United States, but there is nothing in the constitution that says that.
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 200,000 votes, but because of the electoral college, she still lost.
That decision is reserved solely for the 538 electors who meet in their respective states on December 19th. What the people are actually voting for are their states’ electors, not for the President.
Though the system is odd and unfair, it has persisted because many insist that it works just fine as it is, with the winner of the popular and electoral vote usually matching. That does not mean, however, that it will continue to work just fine in the future. The way the system is set up could cause it to malfunction in some potentially terrifying ways, this recent election being one of them.”
Political Analyst Matt Daemon told ABC News that he agrees with the President’s Executive Order and said that he would like to see the electoral college done away with altogether.
According to him, “[The electoral college] is a f—king joke; we should be using the popular vote instead. It may have made sense in 1788, but so did the three fifths compromise. Everyone should have an equal vote, and that’s just not the case with the electoral college. You know what the electoral college gave us? It gave us George W. Bush. It gave us a war in Iraq, and the worst recession since the great depression. It’s time to bring our system into the 21st century. I hope Obama fixes this, because president Trump is going to be a nightmare.”
Obama finished up the press conference explaining his plans for moving forward.
“We’re going to investigate the FBI into their role in all of this,” Obama said. “Why did FBI director James Comey on Sunday say that the agency is not recommending charges against Clinton after reviewing all of her emails; declaring Hillary Clinton a free women conveniently just one day before the election? Why wasn’t this news released earlier? How many votes were lost because of this?” Obama said. “If all of these questions cannot be answered by our deadline set in December, a recount will be ordered.”
If you have any questions about the recount or the special December 19th election, you can call the Obama administration’s special election hotline at (785) 273-0325.
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