In an hour-long call with the Republican Secretary of State, President Trump reiterated a number of false and misleading allegations about election results in the state that spread on social media. Here is a fact check.
What mr. Trump said
“Then it was full of voices. They were not in an official voter box, but in suitcases or suitcases, suitcases, but not in voters. The minimum number it could be because we watched it and that they watched it in immediate replay if you can believe it, but it had slow motion and it was increased many times, and the minimum was 18,000 ballots, all for Biden. ”
Untrue. Mr. Trump most likely referred to refuted allegations that a water leak at a polling station in Fulton County forced an evacuation and made it possible to roll in tribes full of ballots. Election officials said surveillance videos show this was not happening.
A water leak caused a delay of about two hours in the count at State Farm Arena, but no ballots or equipment were damaged. Georgia Chief Electoral Officer Frances Watson testified that an “overview of all security material revealed that there were no mysterious ballot papers brought from an unknown location and hidden under tables.”
During the telephone conversation, Trump also repeatedly suggested that an election worker seen in the surveillance videos “filled the boxes” and “they thought she would be in jail” – referring to an unfounded conspiracy theory posted on social media has been promoted.
[Read more about the voting in Georgia so far.]
What mr. Trump said
“There was no ballot box. There were no Democrats or Republicans. There was no security. ”
This is misleading. Election observers and journalists were present at the State Farm Arena when the water leak occurred. Watson said they were not asked to leave, but simply ‘on their own departure’ when they saw one group of workers leaving their job leaving.
What mr. Trump said
So dead people voted. And I think the number is almost 5,000 people. ”
Untrue. The actual number was two, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a call to the president.
What mr. Trump said
“You had state voters – they voted in Georgia, but they were from outside the state – of 4,925.”
This is misleading. Ryan Germany, the chief councilor for the office of mr. Raffensperger, refuted this description in the call.
“All we went through were people who lived in Georgia, moved to another state, but then legally moved back to Georgia,” he said. “They withdrew years ago. It was not like something just before the election. So there is something to the fact that it is just not accurate. ‘
What mr. Trump said
‘In Fulton County and other areas – and it may or may not be true, because it just came up this morning – that they burn their ballots, that they shred the ballot boxes, shred the ballot boxes and remove equipment. They change the equipment on the Dominion machines, and you know it’s not legal. ‘
Untrue. Mr. Trump apparently referred to images of ballot papers in Fulton County that were circulated on social media and posted by a supporter, Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.
The photos showed heaps of ballots that were visibly not filled in and wrapped in plastic. Mr Byrne described the ballot papers as ‘forged’ and said it was later fragmented.
But these images were merely of emergency rugby, said Gabriel Sterling, a Republican official who is the implementation manager of the voting system in Georgia. According to state law, provinces must prepare additional ballots if voting machines cannot be used.
Dominion Voting Systems, which has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and false rumors, has not removed any machinery from Fulton County, Mr. Germany told the president.
What mr. Trump said
In Detroit, 139 percent of the people voted. This is not too good. In Pennsylvania, they had more than 200,000 more votes than people voted. ”
Untrue. About 51 percent of registered voters and 38 percent of the entire population voted in Detroit.
The figure for Pennsylvania was a reference to erroneous analysis done by state Republican lawmakers. The analysis is based on a voter registration database that was incomplete, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State, as some counties – including Philadelphia and Allegheny, the two largest in the state – have yet to fully upload their data. The department calls the analysis ‘obvious misinformation’.
What mr. Trump said
‘She led you to sign a completely unconstitutional agreement, which is a disastrous agreement. You can not check signatures. I can not imagine that you may harvest in the agreement. ‘
Untrue. It was an inaccurate reference to a settlement between Georgia and the Democratic Party. Under the March settlement, officials must notify voters whose signatures have been rejected within three working days and give them a chance to rectify problems. It does not prevent officials from verifying signatures, nor can it “harvest,” or collect and cast the ballot in large quantities.
‘Harvesting is still illegal in the state of Georgia. “And that settlement agreement did not change the one iota,” he said. Raffensperger said in the call.
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