‘Chaos and confusion is the goal’: Gee says Trump’s mail-in voting push is designed to undermine trust in elections

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted one of two injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting Monday, opening the door for the administration to begin implementing new rules that would require states to provide voter lists to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), use federally approved ballot envelopes with unique tracking barcodes, and allow USPS to refuse to carry ballots that don’t meet the requirements, according to SCOTUSblog.

A second injunction still blocks the changes from taking effect for this November’s elections. Washington is among 23 states that have sued, arguing the president has no constitutional authority to rewrite election rules. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has stressed that states control elections, not the president.

For Gee Scott, co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, the timing tells the whole story.

“Chaos and confusion is the goal for all of this,” Gee said. “Next Friday, the state of North Carolina, they send out their ballots. So you want to talk about timing, you want to talk about an opportunity to kind of cause some confusion in conversation. An opportunity, when it’s all said and done, to argue and talk about whether the elections were rigged. The elections are here.”

Gee noted that the Supreme Court did not rule the executive order is constitutional. It simply said the states’ lawsuits were filed too early.

Gee says stop treating Election Day like the day you start voting

Gee urged listeners to vote early and use ballot drop boxes rather than relying on the mail.

“Stop treating Election Day like it’s the day you should start voting. Period,” Gee said. “Mail-in voting is here; it’s here to stay. The president, he continues to vote by mail-in. It’s not a problem. It’s a safe thing that happens.

“But going forward, gone are the days where you grab your envelope and you fill it out on election day, and then you put it in the mailbox,” he continued. “I’m asking week in advance, fill that thing out, go to the dropbox, and drop it in right there.”

Gee compares election skeptics to Little League parents

Gee drew a parallel between voters who only trust election results when their candidate wins and parents who blame the referees after a loss.

“We have reached a place where some people only trust the election results when their candidate or themselves win,” Gee said. “They don’t trust the results if and when their candidate loses, or themselves lose.

“It reminds me of just that: Have you ever asked, ‘Hey, how did little Joey’s game go yesterday?’ And they say, ‘The referees were terrible. They were awful. You should have seen it, Lois. I mean, they were cheating. I’m telling you,'” he continued. “So did you win? ‘No, we didn’t win, because they were cheating.’ But have you ever, on the other way around, seen somebody where their babies win 35 to 7? ‘Hey, how was the game?’ ‘Oh, it was fantastic.’ How were the referees? ‘Oh, they were good.'”

Producer adds key detail on the federal voter lists

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier added a critical piece of context: the federal government has admitted in court that it cannot complete accurate lists of eligible voters, meaning legitimate ballots from citizens would be rejected under the new system.

“They have argued and admitted in court, and this is an agreed-upon fact, that they will not be able to complete accurate lists of who’s eligible to vote,” Andrew said. “And regardless of whether these rules go into place, ballots will be rejected for people who are citizens and who are legally voting.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.