The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Trump relies on falsehoods to deny Biden win
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump rebelled this past week against Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election with denial, delay and outright misrepresentation. Trump raged about widespread cases of fake ballots that aren’t so and undertook legal challenges that even state GOP election officials say can’t overcome Biden’s lead.
As the coronavirus surged nationwide, Trump said little about public safety measures. Instead he tried to take full credit for drugmaker Pfizer Inc.’ s news that its COVID- 19 vaccine may be 90% effective and suggested the mission was basically done.
His assertions on both matters are untrue.
A review:
Election GEORGIA
TRUMP: “Georgia will be a big presidential win, as it was the night of the Election!” — tweet Monday.
THE FACTS: Georgia wasn’t a win for Trump on election night. It still isn’t. He’s falsely suggesting that any ballot counted after nov .3 in georgia and other states must be illegitimate and illegal. In fact, such counting is explicitly allowed in about 20 states, and the Supreme Court did not stand in theway of it.
Trump refused to concede and said he will press his legal challenges, despite seeing several lawsuits dismissed by courts.
Studies have repeatedly shown that voter fraud is exceptionally rare. Currently Biden leads Trump in Georgia by 14,000 votes.
The state’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has repeatedly assured the public there were no widespread problems.
“Was there illegal voting? I’m sure there was, and my office is investigating all of it,” Raffensperger said. “Does it rise to the numbers or margin necessary to change the outcome to where President Trump is given georgia’ select oral votes? That is unlikely .”
Raffensperger has rejected the demands of Republican Sens. David Perdue andkelly Loeffler — who face January runoffs that will decide control of the Senate — that he resign over what they say are “too many failures in Georgia elections this year.” He announced an audit of presidential election results that will trigger a full hand tally in the state.
His assurances of a smoothly run election were broadly affirmed Thursday by a coalition of federal and state officials, who described the voting nationwide as the “most secure inu. S. history.”
“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” said the Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Securityagency, which spearheaded federal election protection efforts. “When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”
PENNSYLVANIA
TRUMP: “Pennsylvania ... wouldn’t let our Poll Watchers & Observers into counting rooms. Illegal!” — tweet Thursday.
TRUMP: “Pennsylvania prevented us from watching much of the Ballot count. Unthinkable and illegal in this country.” — tweet Monday. THE FACTS: His assertion is false.
TRUMP is wholly misrepresenting a court case in the state and what happened at voting places. No one tried to ban poll watchers representing each side in the election. Democrats did not try to stop Republican representatives from being able to observe the process.
Themain issue inthe case was how close observers representing the parties could get to election workers who were processing mail- in ballots in Philadelphia. Trump’s representatives sued to allow the observers to get closer than the guidelines had allowed. A court ruled in favor of that request.
The counting in Philadelphia was being livestreamed and Trump’s lawyers admitted in court that their campaign had observers in the room—“a nonzero” number of them, as they put it.
It was well- known that huge numbers of mailed- in ballots as well as in- person ballots were to be counted after Election Day and that many would be from Democratic- leaning areas. Poll watchers have no role in counting votes.
CALIFORNIA
TRUMP, tweeting a video widely shared on social media pointing to alleged voter fraud in California: “You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?” — tweet wednesday.
THE FACTS: Trump’s suggestion of voting fraudor impropriety is a gross distortion. The video, which shows two men collecting ballots from collection boxes the day after the election, does not show evidence of anything nefarious.
Mike Sanchez, speaking for the Los Angeles County Registrar- Recorder County Clerk’s office, which oversees elections for the county, told Theassociated Press that the two men were staff fromhis office carrying out a scheduled pickup.
“All vote by mail ballot drop boxes were closed and locked at 8 p. m. on Election Day.” Sanchez said. “Ballots fromall boxes throughout the county were picked up the following day.” Hesaid: “The ballots are valid ballots and will be processed and counted.”
The video was shared on various socialmedia sites, including on Tiktok with the caption, “The cheating is unreal!!!” A post on Instagram with over 500,000 views shared the video with the caption, “The lies, the cheating, the hypocrisy must be exposed.”
Under California law, voters can submit vote- by- mail ballots as late as Election Day. Election officials must count those ballots as long as they have a Nov. 3 postmark and arrive within 17 days of the election.
TRUMP: “WATCH FOR MASSIVE BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE .”— tweet Tuesday.
TRUMP: “WE WILL WIN!” — tweet Tuesday.
THE FACTS: He’s making unsubstantiated claims. There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which led federal election protection efforts, said Thursday it had no evidence that any voting system had deleted or lost votes, had changed votes, or was in any way compromised. The officials said all of the states with close results have paper records, which allows for the recounting of each ballot, if necessary, and for “the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.”
“America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too,” tweeted Chris Krebs, the agency’s director.
The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail- in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. With Biden leading Trump by wide margins in battleground states, none of those issues would have any impact on the outcome of the election.
Trump’s campaign has also launched legal challenges complaining that its poll watchers were unable to scrutinize the voting process. Many of those challenges have been tossed out by judges, some within hours of their filing, and none of the complaints shows any evidence that the outcome of the election was affected.