HAUNTED: 10 ways strangeness surrounds the 2024 election

When the Associated Press, Fox, and NBC called the election around 5 a.m. ET Nov. 6, most ballots were still uncounted. After 2020's election took four days to call, voters were surprised that what was predicted to be a close race appeared to be won & conceded within 24 hours.

My state's electoral votes went to Kamala Harris on election night, but as of this publication, my own ballot still has not been counted. Similar reports from voters across the country indicate that final 2024 election results are still pending.

This in mind, I've collected some of the strange news surrounding the 2024 election to date, which may indicate we're in for a chaotic lead-up to inauguration.

1. Mail-in ballots were discarded or lost in multiple states.

• "Southern California man discovers stack of mail-in ballots in storm drain," ABC 7 Chicago, Oct. 18, 2024:
  • "Jay Senese was doing some landscape work at his Sierra Madre home Saturday when saw something strange in the storm drain next to his house: nearly a dozen mail-in ballots. He said he got on his hands and knees and started scooping them out and noticed the addresses were from his Arcadia neighbors a block away."
• "Ballots found in Florida storm drain were stolen from mailboxes with USPS master key," FOX 35 Orlando, Oct. 23, 2024:
  • "People living in Orlando’s Pinewood Reserve subdivision said thieves broke into their mailboxes and shoved several unwanted items into a storm drain, including vote-by-mail ballots. The United States Postal Service said the thefts occurred after an arrow key, also known as a master key, was stolen."
• "Watch: Moment US ballot box found in middle of road," BBC, Oct. 29, 2024:
  • "Dashcam footage shows the moment US election ballots were found in the middle of a road in Cutler Bay, Florida. A sealed bin and sealed bag of ballots fell off the back of an election worker's truck and were discovered by a passing car. The ballots were taken to a local police department, where election staff verified all items and seals were intact."

2. Election interference occurred in several states.

• "Fires set in drop boxes destroy hundreds of ballots in Washington and damage 3 in Oregon," Associated Press, Oct. 28, 2024:
  • "Ballot drop boxes have faced increasing criticism from Republicans and have been the focus of baseless right-wing conspiracy theories in recent years, tied to former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. An Associated Press survey of state election officials across the U.S. found that there were no widespread issues with drop boxes in 2020, and none that could have affected the results."
  • "Authorities said at a news conference in Portland that enough material from the incendiary devices was recovered to show that the two fires Monday were connected—and that they were also connected to an Oct. 8 incident, when an incendiary device was placed at a different ballot drop box in Vancouver. No ballots were damaged in that incident."
• "Election officials warned of 'insider threat' from polling place volunteers," ABC 7 Chicago, Oct. 31, 2024:
  • "One poll last year by New Jersey's Monmouth University found, 'three in 10 Americans' still believe 'that Joe Biden only won the presidency because of voter fraud.' Federal authorities—including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Election Assistance Commission—fear that skepticism could lead to the planting of election volunteers with corrupt motives, as it has happened in other parts of the country."
  • "In a federal memo released earlier this year, officials warned of the 'insider threat' or 'an individual or group who uses their authorized access or special knowledge to cause harm,' including 'malicious acts that impact the security and integrity of election systems and information.' Those individuals including poll workers, watchers, and election judges working with ulterior motives."
• "Trump dismisses potential for violence as polling places are hit with bomb threats," Rolling Stone, Nov. 5, 2024:
  • "On Election Day, amid reports of record turnout throughout the country, several states’ election infrastructure were rocked by bomb threats, swatting incidents and other threats. ...In several states, authorities linked the threats—which were found to not be credible—to Russian election influence operations."
  • "In Georgia, several polling locations in Democratic areas were forced to pause operations after receiving what officials called 'non-credible' bomb threats supposedly linked to Russian influence operations. DeKalb county received bomb threats at five polling locations."

3. Established political analysts were taken by surprise.

• "Who called the election right and who got it wrong?" Newsweek, Nov. 6, 2024:
  • "As one of the most recognizable names in polling, Nate Silver's prediction carried a significant amount of weight throughout the election. His model, the Silver Bulletin, predicted on Tuesday that Harris had a 50 percent chance of winning the Electoral College, compared to Trump's 49.6 percent after weeks of showing Trump with the edge. In the final days of the election, Silver said that the race was a 'pure toss-up' and that '50-50 is the only responsible forecast.' However, a couple of days before Election Day, he also said his gut told him that Trump would win."
  • "Nate Silver's former election forecast model, FiveThirtyEight, is the most well-known polling aggregation site in U.S. politics, and it correctly predicted Biden's win in 2020. On the eve of the 2024 election, the model, owned by ABC News, gave Harris a 50 percent chance of winning the election, while Trump had a 49 percent chance of winning."
• "Historian with streak of accurate election forecasts since 1984 falls short after 2024 Trump victory," Fox News, Nov. 6, 2024:
  • "Lichtman, an election forecaster who had previously correctly predicted nearly every presidential race since 1984, developed a formula that is used to make predictions about presidential elections. He predicted, after the Democratic National Convention, that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the White House this cycle—but election night results show his prediction was wrong."
  • "According to Lichtman's prediction, Harris held nine of the 13 keys before Election Day. These included no primary contest, no third party, short-term economy, long-term economy, policy change, no social unrest, no scandal, foreign/military success, and no challenger charisma."
• "'Keys to the White House' guru Allan Lichtman: This is what went wrong predicting Harris would beat Trump," Forbes, Nov. 14, 2024:
  • "'[The Keys are] based on the premise that a pragmatic, rational electorate decides whether or not the White House party deserves four more years or not,' Lichtman says. 'But we have shattered the pragmatism and rationality of the electorate this time because of the explosion of misinformation.' Lichtman heaped blame on Fox News, conservative media outlets, and podcasts for spreading what he calls misinformation, and singled out Elon Musk’s control of X for helping put Trump over the top. The Tesla billionaire, Lichtman says, is putting 'his thumb on the scales and vastly disseminating misinformation.'"

4. No candidate has won all swing states since 1984.

• "US election: How have the seven swing states voted in the past?" Al Jazeera, Nov. 5, 2024:
  • "Georgia: Since 1972, only two Democrats managed to win here: Jimmy Carter, who was from the state, won in 1976 and 1980, and Clinton won in his first election, in 1992. Trump won in 2016 by five percentage points over Hillary Clinton. But Biden flipped the state, winning narrowly—by 0.2 percentage points—in 2020."
  • "Nevada: Voting in recent elections has swung both ways, although since 2008, Democrats have won consistently. The state has a growing immigrant population and large numbers of third-party voters who could prove influential in shaping the outcome."
• "Pennsylvania: Voters in the northeast state had voted for the Democratic Party candidate consistently since Bill Clinton’s 1992 win—until Trump beat the odds, and Hillary Clinton, in the state in 2016."
• "Trump is first candidate in 40 years to sweep key 2024 swing states," New York Post, Nov. 7, 2024:
  • "President-elect Donald Trump pulled off an electoral map feat no candidate has achieved in four decades: capturing all seven key swing states that have become pivotal to securing a White House victory. Trump prevailed in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—the first presidential candidate of either party to do so since Ronald Reagan’s historic 1984 re-election landslide victory against Walter Mondale, in which the Republican won 49 states."

5. While campaigning, Trump hinted at plans to stop a "steal," boasting plenty of votes & a secret with Mike Johnson.

• "Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump's lack of concern about votes," MSNBC, July 30, 2024: "Rachel Maddow rounds up instances in which Donald Trump not only assures his supporters that if he is elected they won't have to vote in the future, but also that even for this 2024 election he does not need votes. Maddow posits that the reason Trump doesn't care about votes is that he intends to win by manipulating the administration of the voting tabulation."

• "Maddow: ‘Trump doesn’t believe election results should be binding'—as GOP apparently plans THIS," MSNBC, Sept. 18, 2024: "...there was this weird moment at a rally in Georgia where Trump from the stage shouted out by name new members of the Georgia State Election Board. And the Georgia State Election Board is not supposed to be like a partisan entity. ...In fact, three pro-Trump members have been assigned to this board. They are the majority of the board. And since they have taken over this board, they have been passing all of these new rules in Georgia that are designed, among other things, to let local Republican election officials refuse to certify the vote, refuse to say what the vote total is in individual counties."

6. Trump allies and associates have been raided by federal agents and hacked by foreign governments.

• "Trump attorney told by FBI his phone was targeted by Chinese hackers, report says," The Independent, Nov. 7, 2024:
  • "Todd Blanche, an attorney who represented Donald Trump in his hush money trial, was reportedly one of the individuals whose phones were targeted by Chinese hackers. ...The hackers were able to obtain voice recordings and text messages from the device phone, none of the information was related to the president-elect, one of the sources said."
  • "Blanche is the second of two Trump attorneys believed to be targeted by foreign hackers, further details of which emerged last month. CNN reported in August that attorney Lindsey Halligan was targeted as part of a separate Iranian hacking effort, though the timing of that attempt and the extent of any breach of her devices or accounts remains unclear. Last month The New York Times reported that multiple people in Trump’s inner-circle, including JD Vance and the president-elect himself, may also have been the target of Chinese hackers."
• "State, federal law enforcement seen at Alfie Oakes' Naples home and Immokalee business," USA Today, Naples Daily News, Nov. 8, 2024:
  • Federal and state law enforcement vehicles surrounded celebrity farmer/grocer Alfie Oakes' North Naples home and Immokalee business Thursday. Part grocery, part bakery, part butcher shop, part bar, Oakes' $30-plus million Seed to Table is the popular hangout for the local GOP's Make America Great Again wing...."
  • "John Meo, chair of Collier County's Republican Executive Committee fears this is weaponization of federal law enforcement. 'We know they showed up and took some material,' he said. 'It's kind of funny that they're doing it now. I think they want to get info on Jan. 6.'"
• "Why Did Alfie Oakes Sue Collier School Board And Why Was His Estate Raided: What We Know So Far," International Business Times, Nov. 8, 2024:
  • "...federal agents from the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Inspector General, alongside the IRS and Florida Highway Patrol, raided Oakes' Naples estate and his Immokalee-based business, Oakes Farms. According to Fox4Now, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), an agency that typically handles fraud, corruption, and bribery cases, conducted 'official law enforcement activity' on Oakes' properties."
• "FBI raids apartment of election betting site Polymarket's CEO and seizes cellphone, source says," NBC News, Nov. 14, 2024:
  • "The FBI seized a cellphone and other electronic devices of betting site Polymarket’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, in a raid on his New York City apartment early Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. The company’s markets wagered correctly and controversially in Donald Trump’s favor in bets on who would win the presidential election, even though opinion polls showed a tight race."
  • "Speculation has swirled around the identities of major bettors who wagered on Trump and whether or not the odds and the existence of the markets could have had an effect on voters. Though U.S. election betting is newly legal in some circumstances, Polymarket is not supposed to allow U.S. users after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission halted its operations in 2022, but its user base largely operates through cryptocurrency, which allows for easy anonymity."

7. Elon Musk and his businesses are embedded in Trump's campaign, as well as in several government contracts.

• "Elon Musk spent a sliver of his fortune helping to elect Trump. What's in it for him?" NPR's Steve Inskeep with Ronan Farrow, Nov. 8, 2024:
  • "RONAN FARROW: Elon Musk has become this indispensable figure across the U.S. government. And there are certain services he can provide, like his Starlink satellite services, like certain space shuttle abilities to bring astronauts into space. There aren't a lot of valid competitors when the government is looking at companies to bid. And by the way, this manifests everywhere from the war in Ukraine, where he was providing through his Starlink services essential internet access for the Ukrainians, and that became strategically important. INSKEEP: ...And turned out to have opinions about the war. FARROW: Yeah. Well, exactly so. You know, he was providing internet services and then curtailing it in certain ways. And there were these questions of, is that because he's loyal to Putin? So this is a person who just has immense sway really to a kind of unprecedented extent, according to historians I talked to who kind of track the role of business titans in American politics over the years."
• "Claims of exploding satellites and leaky voting machines raise election rigging suspicions," Forbes, Nov. 13, 2024:
  • "While it's hard to prove a negative, there's no evidence at all that any such manipulation has happened—or even that it could be remotely possible. In some cases ballot scanners are used to transmit unofficial results after voting closes via a mobile private network. However, in order to prevent any hacking, voting machines aren't connected to the internet during the voting process."
• "The conspiracy theory that Elon Musk stole the election using Starlink is everywhere now," Wired, Nov. 14, 2024:
  • "Other conspiracy theorists claimed Trump spoke about 'a little secret' he made onstage that he had with Musk, referencing a comment he made during his Madison Square Garden rally last month. In fact, the comment was directed at House speaker Mike Johnson. Some left-leaning accounts have also pointed to podcaster Joe Rogan’s comments this week that Musk had developed a bespoke app to give him early access to election results. 'Apparently Elon created an app and he knew who won the election four hours before the results,' Rogan said. 'So as the results are coming in, four hours before they called it, Dana White told me Elon said, ‘I’m leaving. It’s over. Donald won.’' It’s unclear how this app worked or what data it used."

8. Trump's post-election behavior on social media deviated from his past patterns, and voters took notice.

• "Trump takes a rare break from social media after election win," CNBC, Nov. 7, 2024:
  • "Donald Trump has never been shy about touting his accomplishments. Yet after achieving what is arguably the greatest political feat of his career, the new president-elect has so far been silent on the social media platforms where he is normally a ubiquitous presence. As of Thursday afternoon, Trump had not posted on Truth Social, the platform operated by his social media company Trump Media, since before all polls closed on Election Day. Nor has he trumpeted his victory on X, the social media site owned by his top campaign backer Elon Musk. Trump’s official Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts also have not been updated since Tuesday."
• "'Something is afoot': Donald Trump causes concern by remaining silent on Truth Social following 2024 election win," OK Magazine, Nov. 8, 2024:
  • "The fact that President-elect Trump has refrained from posting on social media has raised questions and speculation about the reasons behind his silence. News outlets have attempted to reach out to Trump's office for comment but have not received any response as of yet. Several critics on social media have pointed out how 'weird' and 'unusual' it is for the normally chatty politician to go radio silent after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris."
• "Trump teases he'd bail out Harris campaign debts for sake of ‘unity’ in latest troll," Fox News, Nov. 9, 2024:
  • "'I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 (sic) Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over,' Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth [Social]. 'Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do. We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'"

9. The Harris campaign changed disclosures on its donation pages to allocate funds for a recount.

• "Harris fundraising fine print signals recount effort," Wall Street Journal, Nov. 6, 2024:
  • "The Harris Victory Fund—a joint fundraising committee that allocates contributions to her campaign, the Democratic National Committee and to state Democratic committees—quietly updated the information on its donations page on Wednesday morning. The donation page now says that a portion of money donated to the fund will be allocated to 'Harris for President’s Recount Account,' signaling that Kamala Harris’s team is gearing up to watch the count of votes in contested states closely. 'This is a razor thin race. We need your help to make sure every vote is counted,' it says. The Harris campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment."
• "If I get one more email from Democrats asking me for money, I’m going to lose my mind," Slate, Nov. 12, 2024:
  • "The Harris campaign—now inexplicably dubbed the Harris Fight Fund—allows that, perhaps, Harris’ voters are hurting from an existential political defeat, one that has reduced morale in the party to a low not seen in two decades. Then, in a genuinely gaslighting turn, it asks for $50. (Or $75, or $100, or $500, which is a swindle that frankly approaches Stop the Steal proportions.) Why does the campaign need this money? Well, according to the email, 'there are U.S. Senate and House races that are either too close to call, or within the margin of recounts or certain legal challenges.'"
• "Clashes, confusion and secrecy consume the Harris campaign's finances," NBC News, Nov. 14, 2024:
  • "Donors have leveled complaints about transparency of the spending to campaign officials, according to three Harris sources. The officials said they were at a loss over how to respond because they, too, said they were kept in the dark over the state of the finances as well as Harris’ winning prospects. 'I always knew we could lose,' a senior member of the team said. 'I was never prepared for us to lose the night of the election.' Another source who has frequent contact with donors complained of a lack of transparency from the campaign, saying, 'I feel misled.'"

10. Trump failed to meet ethics agreement deadlines for presidential transition.

• "Trump still hasn’t signed ethics agreement required for presidential transition," CNN, Nov. 9, 2024:
  • "A source familiar with the process acknowledged that details are still being worked out with the Biden administration regarding the ethics agreement, which is required by law under the Presidential Transition Act and which applies to all members of the transition team. Updates to that bill requiring the ethics pledge were introduced by Trump ally Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, and signed into law by Trump himself in March 2020. The source would not expand further on the Trump team’s concerns over the ethics pledge."
• "In Trump’s second term, evidence suggests corruption will be worse, not better," MSNBC Maddow Blog, Nov. 11, 2024:
  • "Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, noted that Trump’s transition team was supposed to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration by Sept. 1. That didn’t happen. Why does that matter? Because, while that would’ve released millions of dollars in funding to cover transition costs, it also, as the Times’ report noted, would impose a $5,000 cap on donations to the transition team and require the public disclosure of all its donors."
• "Trump transition team ‘already breaking the law’ says senator who wrote it," The Independent, Nov. 13, 2024:
  • "Before September 1, candidates are supposed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the General Services Administration to get a hold of support services. Before October 1, candidates are supposed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the federal government regarding conditions of access to agencies—and to include an ethics plan. Trump plans to sign the documents, a Trump adviser told the outlet, but first is focusing on making Cabinet picks. The source didn’t make clear when the president-elect would sign the agreements, but said the delay is 'not at all a concern.'"

There's more unsubstantiated weirdness, but final thoughts:

If I'm a conspiracy theorist for suggesting that a lifelong conman may have conned his way into winning an election after he prepared his (demonstrably violent) base for an election "steal," well, so be it. With his own words, legal actions, and even the stars against him, I'd argue any day that believing Trump won the 2024 election fair & square is a bigger logical leap.

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This post was updated with an additional news clip and embeds on Nov. 17, 2024.