Fact Check: Trump Asserts Baseless Midterm Election Fraud Claims In Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania
Topline
Without evidence, former President Donald Trump reiterated midterm election fraud theories throughout the day Tuesday as Republicans vied for control of Congress, claiming election officials in Arizona were tampering with voting machines and that a “large” number of absentee ballots in Detroit were fraudulent—although election officials denied both accusations.
Former President Donald Trump pushed voter fraud theories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, … [+]
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
In Michigan, where Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won her re-election against Trump-backed Tudor Dixon, Trump claimed on his social media platform Truth Social that voters who show up at their polling locations were told they had already voted and that the alleged scheme was “happening in large numbers, elsewhere as well,” calling the “situation in Detroit” “REALLY BAD.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) denied the claim, stating the issue was the result of an error message on the laptops used to determine whether voters had already cast absentee ballots, and that voters who encountered the error message were checked in on a separate list.
Then, after vote-counting machines in roughly 20% of polling sites in Maricopa County, Arizona, malfunctioned, Trump followed the lead of the state’s GOP chair Kelli Ward by advising voters at polling locations with the malfunction not to get out of line based on the theory that they won’t be able to vote elsewhere.
Maricopa County officials, however, clarified voters who enter a polling site can, in fact, check out, return their ballot and vote at another location.
County officials also urged voters who encountered the glitch to drop their ballots into a separate box where they would be counted, although Trump claimed, without evidence, “they are trying to steal the election with bad machines and DELAY,” calling it a “complete Voter Integrity DISASTER” and suggesting the machines were broken in “Only Republican areas.”
Trump also said it was “outrageous” when Philadelphia officials announced its vote count would be delayed, though the delay was the result of a lawsuit from a conservative legal advocacy group challenging the city’s vote counting process—officials reimplemented the process after the lawsuit was filed, the New York Times reported.
The Associated Press called the contentious Pennsylvania Senate race for Democratic candidate John Fetterman over Trump ally Mehmet Oz with 94% of ballots counted.
Crucial Quote
Benson denied Trump’s election fraud claims in a tweet, saying, “Please don’t spread lies to foment or encourage political violence in our state. Or anywhere. 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 Truth Social post that Bolduc lost because he “disavowed” his “longstanding” 2020 election fraud claims, which Bolduc used as a talking point before the primary, but backed away from as he tried to gain Independents in the months before Tuesday’s election.
Key Background
Trump-backed candidates largely followed the former president’s lead in promoting the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen, including 202 GOP congressional candidates running this year who believed it was either flawed or based on fraud, according to the Brookings Institution. In Arizona, Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake had campaigned on a pro-MAGA platform around the 2020 fraud theory. The state’s Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters, however, had backed away from the baseless claim, although Trump reportedly encouraged him to follow Lake’s example in promoting the theory—the Arizona races have not yet been called. In Michigan, Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon also spread 2020 election fraud conspiracies in the run-up to the election, while Oz walked a political tightrope, saying at an April debate “we cannot move on from the 2020 election,” but later saying he would have affirmed Biden’s win if he had been in the Senate in 2020. Trump had previously claimed the state’s counting delay in the primary election in May was part of a larger conspiracy against Oz.
What To Watch For
Key Senate, House and gubernatorial races. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Senate races in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada have not been called, according to the Associated Press. Republicans Herschel Walker in Georgia and Masters in Arizona are behind in the counting, while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Nevada GOP candidate Adam Laxalt are up. Republican House candidates currently hold a 199-172 lead in House races, with 64 races yet to be called, according to the Associated Press. In Colorado, Democratic candidate Adam Frisch is ahead of Trump ally Lauren Boebert in a surprisingly close race, while Democrats won seats in traditionally Republican districts in North Carolina’s 13th District and Ohio’s 13th District. Republicans, however, are still expected to win the House, according to FiveThirtyEight, after big wins in Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Further Reading
Arizona Vote-Counting Issues Lead To Baseless Fraud Claims—And Contradictory Advice—From GOP Leaders (Forbes)
‘Red Wave’ Optimism Quickly Fizzles Among Republicans—Here’s Why (Forbes)
Election officials fear counting delays will help fuel claims of fraud (Washington Post)
Trump amplifies nonsense claims of voter fraud in Michigan that a judge already dismissed as a ‘false flag’ (Business Insider)
