Reality Verify: Trump Asserts Baseless Midterm Election Fraud Claims In Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania

Topline

With out proof, former President Donald Trump reiterated midterm election fraud theories all through the day Tuesday as Republicans vied for management of Congress, claiming election officers in Arizona have been tampering with voting machines and {that a} “giant” variety of absentee ballots in Detroit have been fraudulent—though election officers denied each accusations.

Former President Donald Trump pushed voter fraud theories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, … [+] the place pro-MAGA gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s race in opposition to Katie Hobbs has not but been known as.

AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Key Information

In Michigan, the place Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won her re-election in opposition to Trump-backed Tudor Dixon, Trump claimed on his social media platform Reality Social that voters who present up at their polling areas have been instructed they’d already voted and that the alleged scheme was “occurring in giant numbers, elsewhere as properly,” calling the “scenario in Detroit” “REALLY BAD.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) denied the claim, stating the problem was the results of an error message on the laptops used to find out whether or not voters had already forged absentee ballots, and that voters who encountered the error message have been checked in on a separate checklist.

Then, after vote-counting machines in roughly 20% of polling websites in Maricopa County, Arizona, malfunctioned, Trump adopted the lead of the state’s GOP chair Kelli Ward by advising voters at polling areas with the malfunction to not get out of line primarily based on the speculation that they gained’t have the ability to vote elsewhere.

Maricopa County officers, nevertheless, clarified voters who enter a polling website can, the truth is, try, return their poll and vote at one other location.

County officers additionally urged voters who encountered the glitch to drop their ballots right into a separate field the place they might be counted, though Trump claimed, with out proof, “they’re making an attempt to steal the election with dangerous machines and DELAY,” calling it a “full Voter Integrity DISASTER” and suggesting the machines have been damaged in “Solely Republican areas.”

Trump additionally mentioned it was “outrageous” when Philadelphia officers introduced its vote rely could be delayed, although the delay was the results of a lawsuit from a conservative authorized advocacy group difficult town’s vote counting course of—officers reimplemented the method after the lawsuit was filed, the New York Times reported.

The Related Press known as the contentious Pennsylvania Senate race for Democratic candidate John Fetterman over Trump ally Mehmet Ozwith 94% of ballots counted.

Essential Quote

Benson denied Trump’s election fraud claims in a tweet, saying, “Please don’t unfold lies to foment or encourage political violence in our state. Or wherever. Thanks.”

Tangent

Trump lashed out at Republican New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc after he lost his bid to incumbent Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), saying in a Reality Social submit that Bolduc misplaced as a result of he “disavowed” his “longstanding” 2020 election fraud claims, which Bolduc used as a speaking level earlier than the first, however backed away from as he tried to achieve Independents within the months earlier than Tuesday’s election.

Key Background

Trump-backed candidates largely adopted the previous president’s lead in selling the baseless declare that the 2020 election was stolen, together with 202 GOP congressional candidates working this yr who believed it was both flawed or primarily based on fraud, in keeping with the Brookings Institution. In Arizona, Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake had campaigned on a pro-MAGA platform across the 2020 fraud principle. The state’s Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters, nevertheless, had backed away from the baseless declare, though Trump reportedly inspired him to comply with Lake’s instance in selling the speculation—the Arizona races haven’t but been known as. In Michigan, Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon additionally unfold 2020 election fraud conspiracies within the run-up to the election, whereas Ozwalked a political tightrope, saying at an April debate “we can not transfer on from the 2020 election,” however later saying he would have affirmed Biden’s win if he had been within the Senate in 2020. Trump had previously claimed the state’s counting delay within the major election in Might was half of a bigger conspiracy in opposition to Oz.

What To Watch For

Key Senate, Home and gubernatorial races. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Senate races in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada haven’t been known as, in keeping with the Related Press. Republicans Herschel Walker in Georgia and Masters in Arizona are behind within the counting, whereas Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Nevada GOP candidate Adam Laxalt are up. Republican Home candidates at the moment maintain a 199-172 lead in Home races, with 64 races but to be known as, in keeping with the Related Press. In Colorado, Democratic candidate Adam Frisch is forward of Trump ally Lauren Boebert in a surprisingly shut race, whereas Democrats gained seats in historically Republican districts in North Carolina’s thirteenth District and Ohio’s thirteenth District. Republicans, nevertheless, are nonetheless expected to win the Home, in keeping with FiveThirtyEight, after large wins in Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.