Long_Hunter
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I do not believe that this is true. The GSA does not certify the results. The GSA "ascertains" who the apparent winner of the election is. The states certify the election results under their election rules. GSA does not play a role in election certification. Here is a decent read on the process. https://www.govexec.com/management/...on-winner-formally-kicking-transition/169854/
“In accordance with the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended, the GSA administrator ascertains the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear based on the process laid out in the Constitution,” a GSA spokesperson told Government Executive on Friday. “The administrator’s ascertainment is done for the purposes of making services provided by the [transition act] available. Until an ascertainment is made, the statute allows for the Biden transition team to continue to receive the pre-elect services from the government (e.g., limited office space, computers, background investigations for security clearances). GSA has met all statutory requirements under the [transition act] for this election cycle and will continue to do so.”
Post-election activities for an incoming administration include: sending agency review teams to visit the agencies, making personnel and Cabinet appointment decisions, and cultivating policy and management agendas, as the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service outlined in its 2020 transition guide.
GSA would need to ascertain a winner before Biden could send teams into the agencies, obtain briefing books prepared mainly by career civil servants and receive access to certain facilities and funds. In its required report to Congress six months out from the election, GSA noted it requested $9.9 million for transition-related activities ($6.3 million of which is designated for a potential new administration), which was included in the continuing resolution enacted on Sept. 30. GSA manages the funds on behalf of the incoming administration, but the funding would become available to Biden only after “the administrator ascertains an apparent winner of the general election that is not the incumbent,” said GSA.
“There don’t seem to be standards for how and when [the ascertainment] needs to happen,” Don Kettl, the Sid Richardson professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, told Government Executive. “GSA has been supporting the candidates up to Election Day. The government’s support of the transition, however, can’t begin until the GSA administrator authorizes it.”
At this point he is speaking technically as a private citizen and agencies like the ATF can tell him to pound sand if they want to. They are not under obligation to speak with him before the GSA has ascertained the results. They cannot see get access to the Presidential security briefing which is standard prodigal. Even during Bush V Gore the Clinton admin gave the in coming Bush Admin access to the info they would need to run the country. This is how the transition of power has traditionally work. I am not making a judgement call on the issues before the ATF or on the election results but I am just illustrating what the actual process should be.
nMoving forward we will see what is actually being purposed. I think those who might be effected should start thinking about a plan but at the same time not panic.
Thanks...certify or ascertain, transitions can’t begin until the GSA authorizes it, which is what I wanted to convey and you have clarifie.
