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By Reality Check group
BBC News
President Trump spoke early on Friday in regards to the US election depend, making quite a few accusations of fraud for which he didn’t present proof.
We’ve fact-checked a few of his claims.
Trump: “I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time. It’s really destroyed our system. It’s a corrupt system and it makes people corrupt, even if they aren’t by nature, but they become corrupt.”
Mr Trump has posted greater than 70 tweets casting doubt on mail-in voting, referencing voter fraud or “rigged” elections since April.
But there isn’t a proof the system is corrupt.
Electoral fraud could be very uncommon within the United States – the speed is lower than 0.0009%, in accordance with a 2017 research by the Brennan Center for Justice. There’s no proof to counsel it has been a serious challenge at this election both.
The president himself has voted by submit prior to now. He lived exterior the state he was registered in, Florida, and requested a postal vote.
This is named an absentee poll, which Mr Trump has mentioned he’s in favour of as a result of he believes it has higher safeguards.
But he has made a distinction with different types of mail-in voting, resembling when states robotically ship out ballots to all registered voters.
Oregon and Utah have accomplished so efficiently in earlier elections.
Trump: “They mailed out tens of millions of unsolicited ballots without any verification measures.”
Registered voters in 9 states (plus Washington DC) have been robotically despatched mail-in ballots with out having to ask for them. Five of those states launched this measure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But eight of the 9 states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Washington, California, New Jersey, and Vermont – usually are not presently in rivalry.
All types of postal voting have safeguards – resembling authorities checking that ballots have come from a voter’s registered handle and requiring signatures on envelopes.
Voting by mail just isn’t new – it has been used for a lot of elections.
Trump: “It’s amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided too.”
President Trump repeatedly criticised plans to increase postal voting, saying – with out actual proof – it was open to “tremendous fraud.”
He urged Republican voters to show up on the day, quite than utilizing mail-in ballots.
There’s proof from the vote depend that that is what has occurred – Democratic voters favoured voting by submit and Republicans voted on the day in particular person.
The depend just isn’t completed however in Pennsylvania, one estimate is that of greater than 2.5 million postal votes acquired, practically 3 times as many got here from registered Democrats than from Republicans.
Trump: “In Georgia, a pipe burst in a far away location, totally unrelated to the location of what was happening and they stopped counting for four hours.”
The pipe burst at State Farm Arena and affected a room the place absentee ballots have been being tabulated.
Here is the press launch put out by the employees on the area.
Trump: “There are now only a few states yet to be decided in the presidential race. The voting apparatus of those states are run in all cases by Democrats.”
That’s not true “in all cases”.
In Georgia, which is but to be determined, the governor and each homes of the legislature are Republican-controlled.
The secretary of state, who’s accountable for the administration of the election, is Brad Raffensperger who’s a Republican.
Here is a tweet from 2018 the place Donald Trump endorses him.
Brad Raffensperger shall be a unbelievable Secretary of State for Georgia – will work carefully with @BrianKempGA. It is absolutely vital that you just get out and vote for Brad – early voting….
— Donald J. Trump (@actualDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018
To take one other instance, Nevada has a Republican secretary of state overseeing its election.
Trump: “They wouldn’t allow legally permissible observers”
President Trump is speaking about ballot watchers. These are individuals inside polling stations who observe the counting of votes, with the goal of making certain transparency.
These are allowed in most states, however they need to be registered earlier than election day, normally affiliated with a celebration or a candidate, though guidelines range from state to state.
President Trump has taken challenge with a perceived lack of entry for Republican observers in sure Democrat-run cities, resembling Philadelphia and Detroit.
But ballot watchers have been allowed to look at the depend in each cities.
The variety of ballot watchers allowed at a counting facility varies relying on its dimension. These limits are set out earlier than election day.
In some areas numbers have been restricted, partially to restrict capability attributable to coronavirus. There are additionally limits set to keep away from intimidation.
In Detroit, greater than 130 observers representing each the Democrats and Republicans have been allowed contained in the conference website.
The City Clerk Janice Winfrey mentioned she wasn’t conscious of Republican observers being eliminated.
In Philadelphia, there was a viral video exhibiting a licensed ballot watcher being turned away from a polling station, however as we reported, this was attributable to confusion over the foundations and he was later allowed in.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has mentioned: “Every candidate and every political party is allowed to have an authorised representative in the room observing the process. Some jurisdictions including Philly are also livestreaming, so you can literally watch their counting process.”
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