November 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, released a video on Saturday warning viewers of the “media manipulation” in declaring Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election.
“Contrary to media manipulation,” he said, “Joe Biden has not won the election for president of United States.”
Addressing the media’s naming of the former vice president as the “projected” winner, he lamented that the “ignorance of the Democrats, the crass ignorance of the media who support them, the ignorance and malice of the Biden supporters, is once again on full display as they try to fool the American public by making them think that the election has been decided.”
“This is not a matter of opinion,” he explained. “We actually have a process in the United States of America, defined by the Constitution and by state law as to how a president gets elected.” Further, “the media, neither in state law, federal law, nor in the [U.S.] Constitution,” has any “role in declaring the winner of a presidential election. You won’t find it there… zero.”
Focusing on the specific wording used in media reports, Fr. Pavone clarified, “If you are hearing media reports that Biden has won the election you will hear the word, ‘projected,’ and, ‘projected to win.’ And do you know what that is? It’s an opinion. It’s not the winning of the election.”
The native New York City priest explained the official process of how and when the winner of a presidential election in declared.
First, there is “the Certification of Ascertainment, namely the official declaration of that state as to who won the presidential vote.” And each of the states, “have different deadlines” for accomplishing this task throughout November and into early December. However, “by December 8 the states have to have their certifications sent in to the federal government.”
Secondly, he made clear, “When you go to the voting booth to elect your choice for president, you’re choosing your electors from your state,” who will vote for the President.
On December 14, these winning electors meet in each state to cast individual votes for both the President and Vice President. The tally of this process is recorded in “Certificates of the Vote,” and are given to the electors to take to Washington, D.C. for the final step of the process.
This will occur on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. “in a joint session of the United States Congress, the House and the Senate,” where “they will hear the votes of the electors. And then, and only then, will the winner of the presidential election be official.”
Pavone emphasized that our states haven’t even made it to the first step yet, of certifying the vote counts. “There are a lot of states where the margin is very slim, and in particular, there are several disputed states right now… And voting counts are still being tallied.”
“There are hundreds of thousands of ballots that still remain to be counted and are being counted in states where the margin is razor-thin,” he said.
“Moreover, either at the request of the campaign, or according to state law, if the margin of difference is within a certain slim margin, states will automatically trigger a recount, or a campaign can request a recount. Georgia is definitely going to have a recount. Pennsylvania may well have a recount,” he said (see reference here).
Further, he stated, “If ballots are challenged as many of these ballots are because, besides being slim margins in some of these states, there is also evidence, evidence, of impropriety and it is being investigated. And also, the courts are getting involved and there are legal challenges” (see references here, here, and here).
The Priests for Life national director gave some final advice, “Pay attention to the words that they are using. If they say he [Biden] is the ‘projected’ winner, [do] you know what that is? That’s an educated guess. It’s an opinion. An alternate opinion might be just as true. The word you have to be looking for is ‘certified.’ Did the state certify the election? If the state didn’t certify the election, then friends, it is not decided.”
Prior to the election, the Biden campaign signaled that they expected it would be contested in the courts, and that the media would, indeed, name him the winner, without concern for the customary concession from his opponent.
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