Donald Trump has spoken often about his fears for the upcoming 2020 election, pointing mostly to mail-in voting as a potential way for Democrats to commit fraud and steal the election from him. He’s even taken his fears to court in Pennsylvania in an attempt to suppress the vote, but came up short when asked to provide discovery materials.
Two of the groups fighting Trump’s lawsuit, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and the Sierra Club, asked the judge to demand that the Trump campaign’s legal team provide evidence of widespread mail-in ballot fraud to avoid having their case thrown out in court. It didn’t go well for them.
The Intercept reports that:
‘President Donald Trump’s campaign, ordered by a federal court judge in Pennsylvania to back up its claims of fraud in the state’s vote-by-mail system, has documented only a handful of cases of election fraud in recent years — none of which involved mail-in ballots. The revelation, which came in the form of a partially redacted 524-page document produced by the Trump campaign last week, undermines the claim by Trump team operatives that mail-in ballot fraud is a grave risk to Pennsylvania voters.’
Judge in Pennsylvania asked Trump campaign to provide evidence of mail-in ballot fraud after it sued to prevent state from using drop boxes for mail voting
In 524 pages Trump campaign couldn't cite a single instance of mail-in voting fraud https://t.co/rjYvOopkog
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) August 20, 2020
Trump has stoked fears of election fraud at every turn, and most political analysts believe that he is trying to set up a challenge for 2020 should he lose to Joe Biden, which is looking more likely every day. Trump has pointed to individual cases of fraud, including one of a postal worker who was indicted for changing votes on ballots. As it turns out, the postal worker changed a total of five ballots, not nearly enough to impact an election, and he changed them from Democrat to Republican.
In speeches, Trump has said that
‘The campaign is suing Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar and each of the state’s county election boards to prevent election administrators from providing secure drop boxes for mail-in ballot returns. These drop boxes allow voters to return their mail-in ballots by hand, without sending them through the postal system and risking delays. The Trump campaign alleges that the practice “provides fraudsters an easy opportunity to engage in ballot harvesting, manipulate or destroy ballots, manufacture duplicitous votes, and sow chaos.”’
President Trump, who's repeatedly railed against mail-in voting, says he has concerns about in-person voting as well, and wants to use law-enforcement as poll watchers on Election Day. https://t.co/ZWDTuQHRy6
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 21, 2020
The truth is that mail-in voting has been an option in most states for many years and our system of voting has been in place since voting began. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and the Trump campaign team knows it.
Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause PA
‘Not only did the campaign fail to provide evidence that voter fraud was a widespread problem in Pennsylvania, they failed to provide any evidence that any misconduct occurred in the primary election or that so-called voter fraud is any sort of regular problem in Pennsylvania.’
Trump impersonator and comedian Sarah Cooper: "I have heard Donald Trump say some pretty unhinged things. I have heard them over and over and over again. But nothing is more dangerous to our democracy than his attacks on mail-in voting during a pandemic." https://t.co/GtFLIpIPzX pic.twitter.com/bZM8Xa3sa7
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 21, 2020
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
