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Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of misinformation in a speech at the White House that attempted to undermine the legitimacy of the US elections.
One accusation after another had no basis in fact, including claims that election officials in Pennsylvania and Detroit attempted to bar poll watchers from polling stations. The president left without answering questions.
This is what the president stated and what is really true:
‘We have so much evidence’
TRIUMPH: “We are hearing stories that are horror stories … We think there is going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence and so much evidence.”
THE FACTS: Trump has presented no evidence of systemic problems in voting or counting. In fact, the vote counting process across the country has run smoothly for the most part, even with the United States in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
One of his main complaints, that the count was extended on election day, is unfounded. In no presidential election have all the votes been counted on the same day, and there is no law, not even the expectation that this is the case. The rise in mailed ballots and high turnout have made the process slower than usual in some cases, but not all.
Pennsylvania
TRIUMPH: “In Pennsylvania, partisan Democrats have allowed ballots to be received in the state three days after the election and we think a lot more than that and are counting the ones without any postmarks or identification.”
THE FACTS: The state supreme court, not the “partisan Democrats,” ordered that ballots completed before the end of Election Day could be received up to three days later and still be counted. The United States Supreme Court reviewed the case and did not file within three days, but it can review the matter later. Several other states have also arranged for additional ballots sent by mail.
TRIUMPH: “Pennsylvania Democrats have gone to state supreme court to try to ban our poll watchers… They don’t want anyone there. They don’t want anyone to watch them count the ballots. “
THE FACTS: That is false. The president is totally misrepresenting the court case. No one tried to ban the election observers who represented each side, and the Democrats did not try to prevent Republican representatives from observing the process.
The main question was how close observers representing parties could get to poll workers processing mail-in ballots. The Trump campaign sued to allow observers to get closer than the guidelines allowed. A court ruled in favor of that request.
Michigan
TRIUMPH: “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any count in Detroit.”
THE FACTS: That is false. Absentee ballots were counted at a downtown convention center, where 134 counting tables were set up. Each party was allowed one election observer per meeting, said City Clerk Janice Winfrey. He was not aware of the removal of any Republican election observers, but noted that some had been “very aggressive, trying to intimidate poll workers and processors.”
Mark Brewer, former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said it was inside the convention center and that at one point some people on both sides were cut off due to capacity restrictions related to the pandemic.
Georgia
TRIUMPH: “The electoral apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”
THE FACTS: False. State elections are supervised by a Republican: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
TRIUMPH: “The 11th Circuit ruled that in Georgia votes must be received before Election Day, that they must be received before Election Day. And they were not. The votes come after Election Day. “
THE FACTS: Although the court ruled that votes must be received by 7 pm on Election Day to be counted, an exception was made for ballots for US military forces serving overseas. They can be received until 5pm on Friday and they still count. Election officials in Georgia are still counting the votes, but they are votes that have been legally received.
Legality of votes
TRIUMPH: “If you count the legal votes, I win easily. If they count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. “
THE FACTS: This is unfounded. Neither Trump’s campaign aides nor election officials have identified a substantial number of “illegal” votes, much less the large numbers it would take to spoil an easy Trump victory. He often speaks as if voting by mail is illegitimate. But it has been done in accordance with state voting rules, in some cases adapted by officials to help voters safely overcome the pandemic.
TRIUMPH: “We were winning all the key locations, a lot actually.” (Complaining that clandestine activity undermined his advantages in important careers.)
THE FACTS: The change of fortune you speak of is explained by the nature of the vote count in the states, not by a sudden increase in illegal acts.
Big cities are often slower to report their numbers, and those big city votes tend to skew Democrats. Also, states tend to count vote-by-mail ballots at the end of the process. That part of the voting has tended to favor Biden, because Trump had told his supporters to avoid voting by mail and to vote in person either early or on Election Day. This explains why Trump ended election night with leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, among the states most at stake, and then saw his lead begin to unravel on Wednesday and beyond.
With Associated Press
