Republicans in the Bay Area are closely watching the vote count and raising concerns, but not everyone is on the same page when it comes to the president’s prospects.
As the votes continue to be counted in Pennsylvania, and the possibility that the results could mean the end of President Donald Trump’s chances at staying in office, his legal team is preparing an effort to respond.
National Republican Committee member Harmeet Dhillon is part of that legal team.
Their biggest concern are ballots that are arriving after Election Day. They don’t want them counted until the U.S. Supreme Court reviews a rule set by the Pennsylvania secretary of state which allows them to be counted if they’re postmarked by Election Day.
“If the election comes down to that close a margin, you can expect there to be further litigation about whether the ballots that were received after Election Day, but up to tomorrow at 5 p.m., are counted in Pennsylvania,” Dhillon said. “Maybe it won’t be close enough. I think we’re going to have to wait and see.”
There are a number of other lawsuits the Trump campaign has filed in other battleground states.
John Dennis, the president of the San Francisco Republican party, said the mail-in voting system that was adopted across the country because of the pandemic has created concerns for the election.
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“Under normal circumstances, if someone proposed that, I think there would be a commission and it would be studied for a couple years,” Dennis said. “Then it would have to be ratified, then implemented over a couple years. Instead we went to this mass mail balloting system, so there’s concern for fraud.”
But not everyone in the Republican party is falling in line behind Trump’s efforts.
Sean Walsh was deputy press secretary for President George Bush Senior, and was part of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s team.
“If indeed it goes the way it looks like it’s going to go, President Trump will no longer be in office and the Republicans will pivot for future candidates,” Walsh said. “And they’re going to take what is from our perspective in the Republican Party, a big win in the Senate by holding seats and picking up seats in the House of Representatives.”
Republicans are already strategizing to take advantage of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s weakened position in congress.
She will likely have a tough time over the next two years because Democrats lost a few seats.
