Validity intact despite Trump’s claims of fraud

The U. S. presidential election was not tainted by widespread voter fraud or irregularities in how ballots were counted, despite a huge effort by President Trump to declare otherwise.

In refusing to concede the election, Trump claims that he would have won were it not for “illegal” votes counted in several states that he lost or where he is currently trailing. But Trump and his allies haven’t offered any proof, and their legal challenges have largely been rejected by the courts.

Nonpartisan investigations of previous elections have found that voter fraud is exceedingly rare. State officials from both parties, as well as international observers, have also stated that the 2020 election went well.

More than 150 million people voted in the presidential election. As of Wednesday, Presidentelect Joe Biden had received over 5 million more votes than Trump.

Biden has 290 votes in the Electoral College to Trump’s 217. Trump added three votes when he won Alaska on Wednesday. The Associated Press has not yet determined the winner in Georgia or North Carolina.

Of the states Trump has most targeted as allegedly tainted by fraud, Biden holds small but significant leads in all of them. The Democrat leads in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Vote counting was slow in three Midwestern states that went for Trump four years ago and flipped to Biden this time: the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That’s because of an increase in mailin ballots, which the Biden campaign pushed its supporters to use as a safety measure because of the pandemic. Trump baselessly argued that mailin ballots were subject to fraud and encouraged his supporters to show up to vote in person on Nov. 3.

As a result, Trump led all three states in election day voting, but those leads were erased as mailin ballots were counted.

The Trump campaign has filed more than a dozen lawsuits in at least five states. Late Tuesday, the campaign said it filed a new one in Michigan alleging, in part, that their poll watchers were harassed or turned away; the suit asked the secretary of state not to certify the election results.

Poll watchers have no role in counting votes.

Trump has won one victory so far: A state court ruled his campaign observers had to be allowed closer to the actual vote counting. That ruling had no impact on the outcome of the race.

All disputes over the counts in each state must be complete by Dec. 8. Members of the Electoral College vote on Dec. 14. The House and Senate hold a joint session on Jan. 6, 2021, to count the electoral votes in each state.