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Analysis | Trump's falsehoods about voting by mail are part of a broad campaign to discredit the elections

2020-08-06T18:34:20.165Z


Trump is launching false accusations of mass fraud in the mail vote leaving the absurd impression of a mail vote only fair in states with Republican governors ...


Trump voted on a provisional ballot in 2004 4:20

(CNN) - President Donald Trump's barrage of challenges to the reputation, structures, and traditions of the election is evoking a contentious, potentially, and constitutionally critical three-month period for America's democracy.

Trump is launching false accusations of massive fraud in the mail vote, although he has now reversed his position on the practice in Florida, a state in which he must win, leaving the absurd impression of a mail vote only fair in states with republican governors.

"I'm doing our country a huge favor by mentioning it, and you know, from a common sense point of view, if you look at it just for common sense and beautiful pure basic intelligence, you know it can't work," Trump said. this Wednesday.

  • The Mail Voting Cases That Could Decide the 2020 US Elections
Trump says voting by mail creates massive fraud 1:47

Trump has unsubstantiated that the outcome of the Nov. 3 vote will not be known for "years," apparently seeking to discredit an election in advance that polls suggest suggests he could lose to Democrat Joe Biden.

His campaign has now also launched a new attempt to take advantage of the usual arrangements for three presidential debates. He wants a fourth meeting to be added and the fighting to start before the scheduled date of September 29, to take into account early voting that begins in some key states six weeks before the election.

"Move the first debate," Trump tweeted Thursday morning.

This request makes a fair point and is within the traditional parameters of competing for position on debates held in past presidential campaigns. But Trump's comment in his tweet that the debates are a "public service" is undermined by his campaign claims that show no evidence that Biden is fleeing the debate and does not want to face it at all. And the campaign also featured a list of potential moderators, including Fox News presenters, conservative commentators who have done easy interviews for him, and opinion journalists who have published papers supporting his presidency.

Now the president says he can deliver his speech at the virtual Republican National Convention from the White House, removing the tradition of presidents seeking to safeguard their office from politicization.

Some of these steps, such as trying to influence the conditions of voting by mail, are not necessarily sinister and fall more into the category of legal challenges that are often done by both parties to gain advantage within the structure of elections. But others look like the actions of a campaign that creates its own claims that it is winning.

Demanding more debate, as Trump is doing, is a traditional tactic of a candidate in the home stretch who needs a game changer. The result of Trump's complaints about voting by mail often appears to be an attempt to limit the number of people who can vote, when they may fear showing up at a polling place during a pandemic exacerbated by their own mistakes. There is also a key attempt by the Trump campaign to lay the groundwork for the legal and political challenges that could discredit Biden's victory if he wins and take a look at Trump's ego if voters reject him.

None of this is surprising. After all, the President made inaccurate claims of massive electoral fraud in the popular vote in the 2016 election he won.

Evidence at the impeachment strongly suggested that the president used his power in an attempt to compel a foreign power to interfere in the election based on false allegations of corruption against Biden.

And as president, Trump has relentlessly attacked the institutions that have held him accountable and countered his false narratives, including the courts, the press, intelligence agencies, and independent government vigilantes. Casting doubts about electoral institutions is consistent with their normal behavior.

Throughout his life in business before entering politics, Trump broke rules, laws, traditions, and ethics. Your willingness to do so now indicates that you are prepared to do anything within your power to win the election. And he suggests that he is also willing to drag the country through a corrosive period of legal and political instability if the elections are closed.

Study shows that vote-by-mail fraud is almost non-existent 1:58

If he loses power in such circumstances, Trump's tactics could sow a sense of grievance and deprivation of rights among his voters that would shatter his successors' attempts to forge unity and could harm American democracy in the years to come.

A politically motivated setback

The president issued a new warning to his opposition to voting by mail on Wednesday, something that may reflect concern among Republicans that Trump is at risk of losing the vote in several undecided states.

If the system is operating in a Republican-led, and presumably pro-Trump, state, that's fine. Elsewhere, you are mired in fraud.

“In Florida, they have done a very good job. In Nevada, it would be a disaster. In New York, it has been a disaster. In many other places, it has been a total catastrophe, "Trump said Wednesday in one of those rare flashes of openness that perfectly reveals his true motives.

Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey walked a fine line when he met Trump at the White House.

"In Arizona, we will do well. [Elections] will be free and fair. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to cheat. And it will be easy to vote, "she said, noting that 78% of the Grand Canyon state has already voted by mail.

But he also warned: “This is not the time to experiment. This is a time to go with the tried and true, and in Arizona, our system works very well. ”

The President has made multiple false claims about mail vote fraud. He warned that the process is vulnerable to counterfeiting and that the ballots will be illegally printed and fraudulently signed and that it will be easy for foreign powers to inject millions of false voting documents into the system.

US intelligence officials last week ruled out the possibility that foreign nations could flood the elections with false ballots.

Trump and Barr insist that voting by mail lends itself to electoral fraud in the US 2:55

There is little evidence that voting by mail is more susceptible to fraud than any other type of voting. And irregularities are still extremely rare in the US election, according to multiple academic studies.

Trump also makes the wrong distinction between absentee voting and voting by mail. And he affirmed on Wednesday in "Fox and Friends", for example, that in Nevada "anyone who has walked" will receive a ballot. That's not true: The state plans to send ballots to all active registered voters who can only be adult citizens of the United States. The president is making fraud claims in the New York primary election in which the count has been slow. But there is no evidence that there is cheating.

Like all the conspiracy theories he has made while in office, it doesn't matter if he is being honest from his point of view. Trump's goal is to create uncertainty and doubt among voters about the elections to advance his political goals and destroy any objective view of reality.

If the president were really concerned about the efficiency of the electoral machinery, he could do something about it. Instead, it has been Democrats in Congress along with some Republicans who have lobbied for increased election funding on stimulus bills.

The president tweeted that there is no way the Post Office can "handle mail voting traffic without preparation."

But the agency said in a statement Monday that it had "ample" capacity to meet projected electoral demand.

The appointment of a loyal Trump official, Louis DeJoy, to head the agency was a warning to Democrats. Decreasing delivery times due to new procedures has so far led to unproven allegations of a deliberate effort to delay the distribution of mail ballots. And Trump has resisted efforts to offer more funds to the USPS, thereby holding a long-term grudge.

What you need to know about the 2020 US election 3:23

Discussion maneuvers

While Trump is behind Biden in most polls, he has a strong incentive to maximize the televised chances of inciting his opponent to make a disastrous mistake. His campaign asked the Presidential Debates Commission for a fourth meeting on Wednesday, in a legitimate attempt to push for changes.

But his motives are questionable as pro-Trump figures in the conservative media have launched an unsubstantiated campaign to portray Biden as a candidate who escapes the debates.

Joe Biden will be there. We look forward to Donald Trump's decision, and perhaps the president should spend as much time managing covid as he does on this, "Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Wednesday.

Campaigns are often fought over by moderators. But the Trump campaign again amounts to pushing the limits.

On Wednesday, the President's campaign released a list of suggested moderators, including front-line journalists like Norah O'Donnell and CBS Commander Garrett. But it also featured several Fox presenters known for the president's friendly treatment, such as Maria Bartiromo and radio host Hugh Hewitt, who has just written a strongly pro-Trump op-ed in The Washington Post.

This tactic paved the way for falsely portraying other potential mainstream moderators who have exposed Trump's lies as biased, and thus lessening the possibility of the president being held accountable in debates.

Once again, as in the campaign against the vote by mail and the potential use of the people's house, the White House, as a political backdrop, the Trump campaign appears to be pushing for benefits beyond reasonable limits.

There is a clear attempt to erode the arrangements that have ensured a peaceful transfer of power for generations, and to offer him a way out if his own hyperbolic predictions of success do not materialize.

2020 Elections United States

Source: cnnespanol

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