Abdul Dosunmu
With Trump claiming that his lawyers will be swooping in to make sure vote counting around the country is shut down tonight, and that if he is leading the race by the end of the evening, he will just step up to the podium and declare himself the winner, some folks are worried that the process will be short-circuited and some — maybe many — votes won’t get counted. But the thing is, that’s not how this works. Trump’s lawyers and his declarations can’t circumvent the process.
(By the way, if just declaring it to be so were all it takes for one to become president, I would declare myself president right now, and that would be that.)
Of course, in these times of the trumps and tribulations, we all know that things don’t always go the way they are supposed to go, the way the law says they should go. So yeah, people are worried. But at least in Arkansas, those worries can be put to rest, thanks to the Young Black Lawyers Organizing Coalition.
The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners issued an order today stating that the counting of absentee ballots must continue until counting is complete. The litigation that led to that order, which was initiated when the state’s arbitrary counting deadline placed thousands of absentee ballots at risk of not being counted, was coordinated in part by the YBLOC, headed by Dallasite Abdul Dosunmu.
Dosunmu, who founded YBLOC, said in a statement today, “Prompted by the legal action we coordinated to protect every ballot cast in this election, the new order from the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners provides reassurance to thousands of absentee voters in Arkansas that all absentee ballots will be counted. COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted Black communities, and, in response, many Black Arkansas voters are proactively protecting themselves and their loved ones by voting absentee for the first time in their lives. We must ensure that every absentee ballot is counted.”
— Tammye Nash
