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The President and other senior Republicans are making relatively vague allegations about fraud and lack of transparency, telling people to get angry. But they haven't offered evidence and their specific claims don't hold up.
Some examples. "Poll watchers are being denied entry to polling places in Philly." One was, erroneously by an official who did not know the law. But Trump's lawyer concedes that Trump poll watchers are actually monitoring counts. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/03/tweets/fact-checking-claim-about-poll-watchers-turned-awa/ https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1324529506401570816?s=20
Another claim shared by Trump and others: "Detroit vote counters officials boarded up windows." Sounds bad! But this was to block a crowd who were banging on windows. Inside the count center, lots of GOP poll watchers and media. https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1324093288920567819?s=20
With some of these claims there is a grain of truth that becomes the basis for a misleading claim by unscrupulous people. Someone burnt some *sample* ballots. Eric Trump then alleged there were real ballots and it became a viral claim. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/04/business/ballot-burning-fake-video/index.html?__twitter_impression=true
Claim: it is suspicious that mail votes or later counts are going to Biden. But Trump discouraged people to vote by mail, and we knew from polls that mail voters would be mostly Dem. In some cases (MI, WI, PA) GOP officials refused to make it easier to count earlier.
There are viral videos claiming to expose wrongdoing by people like James O' Keefe. This is someone who has a record of fraudulent videos, and is most recently accused of offering a bribe of $10K as part of an effort to generate a fraud story. Not someone who can be trusted.
In some cases people discover fraud, but really it reflects some quirk with administrative systems they do not understand (or bother to investigate). Example: voters who seem to be born in 1900. https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1324358555055640579?s=20
Claim: WI had an 89% turnout rate - that's unpossible! Reality: you don't understand how the denominator is being calculated. https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump-jr/
I could go on: a lot of media is trying to shoot down these false claims, but hard to keep up.
We have seen nothing that looks like a large-scale credible violation of election law that altered the results, but one party is claiming that there is. This will have lasting damage.
We have seen nothing that looks like a large-scale credible violation of election law that altered the results, but one party is claiming that there is. This will have lasting damage.
There is always going to be one more viral story that looks plausible, but then doesn't hold up, or someone asking you to prove there is not fraud.
Reality: We don't have meaningful election fraud b/c it is hard to pull off on any scale in secret and it's a felony.
Reality: We don't have meaningful election fraud b/c it is hard to pull off on any scale in secret and it's a felony.
