Trump Continues To Share Debunked Voter Fraud Affidavit That Mixes Up Michigan And Minnesota
Topline
President Donald Trump on Tuesday retweeted an affidavit some of his allies have offered as a smoking gun for voter fraud in Michigan, but the document mistakenly uses data from Minnesota instead of Michigan, a problem that was widely reported over the weekend but has not stopped the document from spreading in pro-Trump circles.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White … [+]
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Key Facts
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted a link to the affidavit on Sunday, claiming it was from an “IT expert,” and Trump retweeted it on Tuesday morning.
The affidavit — originally cited in a Georgia lawsuit by pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood that was dismissed last week — claims dozens of Michigan precincts reported more votes than voters, citing turnout rates above 100% in places like Kandiyohi, Oslo and Eyota.
In reality, many of the small towns listed in the document are actually located in Minnesota, not Michigan, conservative blog Powerline discovered last week.
The document may not have uncovered any problems in Minnesota, either: The voter turnout rates cited in the affidavit don’t appear to line up with post-election data from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, the Washington Post reported.
Gosar’s office and Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Big Number
17,200. That’s the approximate number of retweets Gosar’s tweet has earned.
Tangent
Trump’s legal team has repeatedly pointed to this misleading affidavit in the last week. At a now-notorious press conference on Thursday, Rudy Giuliani cited data from the document to prove voting irregularities in Michigan. Also, Trump baselessly claimed Detroit reported more votes than voters in several tweets Tuesday and Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether he got this impression from the affidavit or from some other source.
Key Background
The Trump campaign and its allies claim they’ve amassed hundreds of signed affidavits proving voter fraud and irregularities, part of their quest to prevent states from certifying President-elect Joe Biden as the winner. But judges say many of these documents are vague, unrelated to fraud or rooted in fundamental misunderstandings of how vote-counting works. Judges have thrown out lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia because their evidence — based largely on affidavits from Republican poll-watchers — was too thin.
Further Reading
Trump Ally Confuses Michigan And Minnesota In Affidavit Claiming Voter Fraud (Forbes)
The Trump campaign’s much-hyped affidavit features a big, glaring error (Washington Post)
No, Detroit Did Not Report More Votes Than People (Forbes)
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Forbes can be found here ***
