Fantastical tales of voter fraud now abound in social media, fueled by the Trump family, Rudy Giuliani and conservative opinion hosts. These falsehoods have met with some success because many Americans do not understand the complicated election process and the multitudinous safeguards that are built into the system.
In the days before technology, it was possible to literally “stuff” the ballot box. With the advent of new technology and modern-day safeguards, such an effort is impossible. Machines will only count ballots printed in a precise layout and on a particular type of paper provided by election vendors. The machines can detect photocopies. One cannot simply cart in boxes of ballots and feed them into the tabulator because the ballots are electronically tied to a precinct. For each precinct there is a record of each voter who cast an in-person or absentee vote in the precinct. The actual number of votes cast in the precinct must match the number of participating voters in the precinct. Because of safeguards, it is impossible to fraudulently reconcile the two.
I have been sent all kinds of claims regarding vote fraud. For example, I received a video of a man who was obviously reading aloud the candidates selected by a voter to a woman who was entering the choices on a ballot. The claim was that they were manufacturing fraudulent votes. In actuality, in full view of an overhead camera intended to record their actions, the pair was either “remaking” a ballot that had been damaged or entering the choices of someone overseas (such as military personnel) who can send their selections to the election board via email or on another form which must then be entered on a ballot. (For obvious reasons, I won’t discuss the video I was sent of a man who claimed Trump had all genuine ballots marked with an isotope so any ballot testing negative for the isotope was fraudulent).
Massive voter fraud requires the participation of hundreds of people who serve in the election process in a wide variety of roles. We know from human nature that the greater the number of people with knowledge, the more likelihood it would be made public. What are we hearing? Crickets.
While one can claim fraud by simply stating, “There was vote fraud,” explaining the complicated voting process and safeguards cannot be done in a 30-second soundbite (something with which Trump is all too familiar). Because of this and because his supporters refuse to accept the idea that Trump lost, the claim of vote fraud has gained traction among millions of Americans.
When this is over, Donald Trump will be gone, and we will be left to pay the price of Trump’s lies. Segments of the American public will completely distrust the electoral system and believe that their vote does not matter. Because Democrats utilized vote by mail, Republican legislators will fight against it, using Trump’s claims as justification. U.S. representatives serve as election observers in other countries. Thanks to Trump’s fraud claims regarding our own elections, how seriously will our election observers be taken?
If Trump wants to exercise his legal right to a recount, then I am all for it. What I cannot abide are his sweeping lies of fraud. Our electoral system has flaws but none of those allow for wholesale, massive vote fraud. Trump does not want to let go of his presidential power and the price he is willing to pay is us.•
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Celestino-Horseman is an Indianapolis attorney. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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Yet more baloney from yet another unhinged liberal writing for Indianapolis Business Journal. Lord, does anyone there have brains enough to see what is in plain mathematical view regarding targeted towns and precincts as regards voter fraud?
Post links, Bob. Then let us know why the judicial system (including judges appointed by both parties and Trump himself) doesn’t seem to regard any of this information as credible.
As a reminder, Trump alleged fraud before the election he won in 2016. He convened a committee to look into his fraud allegations. They quietly disbanded … after finding none.
It seems much more likely that Trump and his enablers are spreading nonsense because it a) makes him feel better about losing, b) it’s helped him rake in the cash to live on, c) theirs is a party of grievance that requires someone to blame for their own issues. But if you pay attention, whatever Trump and his ilk accuse someone else of, it’s something that they themselves are guilty of.
That this behavior threatens the underpinnings of the American democratic system is apparently of little regard for Trump or any of those “rule of law” Republicans…
Bottom line – Trump would have won the election easily with a minimal federal response to the coronavirus. Just any display of leadership would have gotten him re-election. That he was unable to do so speaks to the numerous flaws that he came into office with, and I’d argue, should have disqualified him from holding office in the first place. One of the points of having an Electoral College was to prevent the people from electing someone unqualified to be President … which obviously didn’t happen in this case.
Thank you Karen for your informed and practical explanation. Good to know. It’s unfortunate that reason and truth don’t always win out in this super-heated time, but hopefully it will reach a few.
Joe B: Despite your Trump Derangement Syndrome being front and center, you got THIS much right if Biden is inaugurated!
Quote: One of the points of having an Electoral College was to prevent the people from electing someone unqualified to be President … which obviously didn’t happen in this case.
I do have a good link for you. I’ll post in a moment, not that you’ll pay any attention to the obvious in it.
I prefer the term “I’m a Republican, not a Trumpublican”.
https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-winning
Here ya’ go, Joe:
https://eur06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DL-VOSEU3ybs&data=04%7C01%7C%7C07ab58d1b3fa4dd4a5b508d89c00b266%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637430874086315340%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=wZKpVDyWGSr5wmTN5rA0UMbSblKy%2FiR9YnXDu0RPIj0%3D&reserved=0
Bob – this was addressed by the flaming liberals at the National Review weeks ago.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/no-joe-biden-did-not-only-improve-in-four-major-swing-state-cities/
Also, get better sources… as opposed to something from “Real America’s Voice” hosted by the former governor of Missouri, who resigned to avoid impeachment.
Also, the Washington Post gave a nice detailed timeline of how this nonsense keeps popping up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/09/big-lie-that-wont-die-how-trump-his-allies-favorite-bogus-fraud-claim-keeps-surviving/
Right. Like I’d trust anything from WaPo any more than you would trust anything that wasn’t in WaPo or The New York Times!
Have to read everything knowing the bias in the source. Same reason I read both The Hill and Politico. And the same reason I roll my eyes at both the stuff that Trumpubicans post and the stuff I see from Daily Kos.
But you have to read it all to discern the truth. You can’t call all news that you don’t like “fake news” and just decide to only consume news that tells you what you want to hear. That’s not taking civic responsibility seriously.
Here’s two more for ya.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-dumb-statistical-argument-in-texass-election-lawsuit/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/texass-frivolous-lawsuit-seeks-to-overturn-election-in-four-other-states/
Have to read everything knowing the bias in the source. Same reason I read both The Hill and Politico. And the same reason I roll my eyes at both the stuff that Trumpublicans post and the stuff I see from Daily Kos. But you have to read it all to discern the truth.
You can’t call all news that you don’t like “fake news” and just decide to only consume news that tells you what you want to hear. That’s not taking civic responsibility seriously.
Here’s another link for ya https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-dumb-statistical-argument-in-texass-election-lawsuit/
Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertarian Niskanen Center, told me he sees a fateful watershed in the party’s postelection deference to Trump. “Once the Republican Party got into this idea that voter suppression was the way to go, once it stopped believing it was the majority party—and the entire American project was at stake, and Democrats would ruin the country if they hold power—then anything would be permitted, including antidemocratic means,” said Kabaservice, who is also the author of Rule and Ruin, a history of moderate Republicans. “This was all before Trump came on the scene, so Trump simply furthered what was there.”
The Republican Party, “without acknowledging or realizing it, has become an antidemocratic force,” he added.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/12/gops-anti-democratic-bid-overturn-election/617358/