The president was no longer businesslike on Thursday. As of 4 p.m., Twitter had posted a warning label on three of its tweets that day, making it nine labels since Wednesday. Trump’s allies also flooded the zone with so much misinformation that it was difficult to know where a fact checker should start.
We will not run into a Thursday media event during which Trump surrogates, such as former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, made a series of unproven allegations about the vote in Nevada.
Ballot papers accepted after election day
Trump
tweeted, “ANY VOTE THAT COMES AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT COUNT!”
Facts first: This is false. Twenty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, accept ballots that arrive after election day – as long as they arrive on a certain date after election day and are mailed on election day (or in some cases by a certain date). before election day). States that accept these ballots include Mississippi, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Ohio and West Virginia – all of which are ruled by Republicans and all of which were won by Trump in 2016 and 2020. (I know these are just projections on this point in 2020, but they are all clear victories.)
Ballot papers from members of the military are among the votes that will be counted, even if they come after election day.
Trump might have tried to make a prediction – that Republicans, for example, would win legal challenges for the rules for accepting ballot papers – but his statement sounds like an official proclamation.
The legality of the votes
Trump said in an all-caps
statement that his campaign emailed reporters: “IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I WILL EASILY WIN THE ELECTION! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, THEY CAN STOLE THE ELECTION FROM US!”
Facts first: This is just fake again. Nobody is trying to ‘steal’ the election. Votes are simply counted.
Trump was vague here about what he meant by ‘late’, but the only votes counted are the votes cast by voters who have met the deadlines of their states to post their ballots – which in any case on election day or before.
Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House and a Trump ally,
tweeted“It’s becoming increasingly clear that Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are all being stolen by Democrats and the research is likely to yield far more stolen votes than Biden’s current margins.”
Facts first: Like Trump’s allegation of election theft, Gingrich’s allegation is untrue. There is no basis for the allegation that Democrats are stealing the election in any state.
The behavior of states in general
Trump
tweeted“All the recent Biden-alleged states will be legally challenged by us for voter fraud and state election fraud. Lots of evidence – just look in the Media.”
Facts first: There is no evidence of any widespread voter fraud in states that Biden apparently won. And there is no evidence that any state commits any electoral fraud at all.
It is certainly possible that some cases of voter fraud will eventually emerge; there are often a few issues after presidential elections. But all the evidence from previous presidential elections shows that voter fraud is extremely rare, representing a small percentage of votes.
The ballot papers in Pennsylvania
Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General who is one of the
public faces of the Trump campaign’s legal effort after election day, claimed in the Fox News show “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning that there are “false ballots” in Pennsylvania that “come late,” after election day.
When Steve Doocy, co-host of Fox & Friends, asked Bondi if she had just said ‘fake ballots’, Bondi replied: ‘There could be, that’s the problem.’ When Doocy asked for details, she did not provide them.
Facts first: There is simply no evidence of ‘false ballots’ in Pennsylvania. There is nothing false about ballot papers arriving after election day.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in September that ballot papers can be accepted if they arrive on Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day (or do not have a legible postmark but the “balance of evidence”). ). do not prove that they were posted after election day).
The U.S. Supreme Court in October granted the decision of the court in Pennsylvania to stand at least temporarily and not block the decision immediately.
During the state vote, officials in Pennsylvania separated the ballot boxes received after election day from all other ballots in case the courts later decided to invalidate them.
The number of votes
Hogan Gidley, the national press secretary of the Trump campaign,
tweeted: “Ever notice how no one ever … … all of a sudden … … out of nowhere … … at the exact time they need … ‘find’ ballots FOR REPUBLICANS?”
Facts first: This conspiracy insinuation is unfounded. Democrats at the time gained ground in some key states, such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, because some postal votes were last counted, and more Democrats than Republicans voted by mail. There are no crooks on this count – and it’s notable that the votes are being posted in Pennsylvania could have been counted earlier if Republican state lawmakers did not reject a proposal to begin the process earlier.
In addition, over time, Republicans have made a profit in some states where the counting process is different. In Florida, where counties were allowed to count votes as soon as they received postal votes, Joe Biden jumped at what was finally an aerial image of a big lead on election night, but Trump overtook him after personal votes were counted.
And at the time of Gidley’s tweet, Trump had also risen in Arizona, causing Biden’s initial margin to shrink just as former Vice President Trump’s margin ate elsewhere.
Count after election day
It’s also worth addressing two of the allegations, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News on Wednesday night. One was another complaint about the number of votes in Pennsylvania.
“We have election days in this country for a reason, because votes are counted on election day,” McEnany said.
Facts first: This is misleading at best. Although many votes are counted on election day, some votes are always then counted. While media sometimes predict a winner on election day, the media calls are not official.
The 2012 election and Philadelphia
McEnany reiterated a conspiracy theory that propelled Trump over the Philadelphia vote in the 2012 election between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. She claims that there were ’59 different areas where Mitt Romney received exactly no votes, which is very unlikely and curious. ‘
Facts first: There is no basis for the suggestion that Romney’s actions in Philadelphia are suspicious. Romney received 96,467 Philadelphia votes, about 14% of the total city. Romney did not get any votes in 50 of the 1,687 voting ‘sections’ in the city. according to the Philadelphia Inquirer – initial reports use the figure “59” that McEnany quoted – but these neighborhoods were overwhelmingly populated by black residents, and Romney tilted against the first black president. Even Republican leaders in the city said there was no reason to claim the results in the 50 divisions were proven fraudulent.
Voter identification
Grenell suggested that the democratic opposition to certain voter identification practices was a way in which they tried to gain illegal votes in their favor.
In a
tweet Grenell tweeted more than 16,000 times, including by Donald Trump Jr., and Grenell wrote: “Democrats have always been against showing an ID to be able to vote. Now we know why. They want to count illegal votes. Claim that we only count LEGAL votes. “
Facts first: Grenell’s tweet was misleading in several areas. Democrats were not ‘always’ against showing identification to vote, and there is no evidence that they ‘want to count illegal votes’.
There are several situations in which the voting of a ballot paper without showing an ID is legal, specifically in the 15 states (plus Washington, DC) that rely on other forms of voter verification. In the rest of the states, voters must present some form of identification before voting.
In Michigan, voters are asked to provide photo IDs. In the event that a voter is unable to produce one, the voter may sign an affidavit stating that he does not have a photo ID, and may vote on a regular ballot paper.
It is true that in the past most Democrats were opposed to stricter voter ID laws, but on the grounds that these laws may withdraw voters who may not have access to the necessary identification – not to obtain illegal votes.
Republicans have used this democratic stance on voter laws to portray Democrats as complicit in election fraud, despite the fact that voter fraud is extremely rare – and that even states that do not require ID have other methods of preventing fraud, such as signature checks.
