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Election Q&A with Trey Orndorff

The United States presidential election has declared a winner, but there are still several questions remaining about the results.

While Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect, President Donald Trump has begun denouncing the results of the election, taking to Twitter to make claims about widespread voter fraud occurred in swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada.

To clear up some of the conflicting narratives, the Talon sat down with Trey Orndorff, associate professor of political science at Oklahoma Christian University.

Orndorff is the author of The Social Media Presidency and has focused research on President Trump’s social media use.

With mail-in and absentee voting being so prominent in this year’s election, what are some rules/regulations to mail-in voting?

“The Constitution leaves it to states to determine how they are going to have voting processes. Article 1 outlines that states get to determine the manner and the choosing of the place of elections and the same thing is in article 2 again for the manner in choosing electors. So, it’s actually up to states to implement those processes.”

Personally, do you see any hard evidence of voting fraud?

“No, there is nothing currently visible for anyone to have any major concerns about fraud. If you take a look at what President Trump’s team is suing over, it’s not primarily about fraudulent ballots although that is the language he is using.”

How can we better the voting process?

“We need to have students come and have an education. That’s why I’m so proud of what we do here at Oklahoma Christian, making everyone take American Government. I think part of that is to understand and inform about the system. If you understand the system you won’t have that much distrust.”

What is next; what can Trump do?

“Some states will have automatic recounts. You can sue over any particular issues, like we weren’t able to get close enough or what ballots are postmarked improperly.”

Is there a deadline for the court orders?

The best example we have is 2000 in Bush v. Gore. The Supreme Court expedited the process in part because the process had to be done by the time electors vote. Any party could file court cases, but the court would have to be done with that prior to the electors casting their vote.”

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