As votes are counted across the country to determine who will be the next President of the United States, there are a lot of accusations of fraud and misconduct, some coming directly from the incumbent, President Donald Trump.
The News4Jax Trust Index Team is putting these claims to the test.
Trump’s claims have led to a series of lawsuits in tightly contested states. So far, two of the lawsuits have already been dismissed.
Trump is following through with his promise of lawsuits.
“All of the recent Biden claimed states will be legally challenged by us for voter fraud and state election fraud. Plenty of proof,” Trump tweeted.
STOP THE FRAUD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020
However, many election experts say the president’s proof is slim.
In Georgia where the elections are managed by a Republican Secretary of State and a Republican Governor, officials say they have no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the race between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
“We’re not seeing any widespread irregularity, we’re not seeing anything that would make us question the outcome of the election, we’re not seeing anything widespread, we are investigating any credible accusation with any real evidence behind it," said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia Voting Systems Manager. Sterling said Friday there will likely be a recount in the state due to the narrow margin. Biden holds a more than 4,000 vote lead in the state.
Another one of President Trump’s tweets claims election observers were banned from watching ballot counting.
In Philadelphia, Trump’s argument was disproven when lawyers conceded to a federal judge that they had people in the room. A judge in Michigan dismissed a similar claim over observers noting the state had already finished its count.
News4Jax Political Analyst Rick Mullaney says it’s going to be an uphill battle for President Trump legally if the margin of defeat continues to grow.
“As the margin of the vote continues to increase in Pennsylvania, the margin in Michigan is bigger than when Donald Trump won four years ago, the margin in Wisconsin is bigger than four years ago, that’s going to be a bit of a challenge because the court will decide, will the litigation make a difference, so the margin is going to matter,” Mullaney said.
Mullaney said the president’s allegations could be harmful to the country.
“Some of the language can be potentially damaging and inflammatory,” Mullaney said. “I think some of that will lessen as the margins widen and the votes widen, that could become less relevant.”
In the 24 hours after the election, Twitter flagged six tweets posted by Trump because they included unsubstantiated claims.
We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
On one tweet, a disclaimer reads, “You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes."
So based on information from elections supervisors, and political experts, we give these claims by Trump a rating of not true on our Trust Index.
After review, we've found this information is Not True.