Information and disinformation.
The United States Post is at the heart of the upcoming American elections.
In these times of coronavirus, the United States has expanded the possibility of postal voting, so that 80% of the population will be able to vote this way on November 3.
Read also: US Presidential: Does postal voting encourage fraud, as Donald Trump asserts?
In recent months, Donald Trump has fiercely attacked the USPS, the United State Postal Service, and questioned its ability to ensure reliable postal voting.
The president accuses postal voting of promoting fraud.
“
Postal ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters.
They will look for them.
They are fraudulent in many cases,
”he said at a White House press conference at the end of August.
“
Millions of ballots will be printed by foreign countries.
It will be the scandal of our time!
", He tweeted again.
The USPS has been led since June 16 by major donor to the Republican Party, Louis DeJoy.
This close friend of Donald Trump is leading reforms aimed at making the federal service profitable.
Only, he is accused of destroying this public service, so much so that on August 25, three states - New York, New Jersey and Hawaii, led by Democrats - filed a complaint with the New York prosecutor, Letitia James.
"
The slowing of the mail is nothing more than a tactic of suppression of the ballots
", affirmed the magistrate in a statement.
No evidence of massive fraud
The coronavirus pandemic, however, has pushed American states - including Republicans - to encourage postal voting.
This practice is not new to the United States.
In 2016, 20.9% of Americans had chosen this voting method, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.
For 25 years, this share has continued to increase: in 1996, they were only 7.8%.
The situation varies from state to state.
Some, like Oregon and Washington, conduct their elections almost entirely by mail (97% of voters in those states sent their ballots by mail in 2016).
In West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, postal voting only reached 2% of voters.
It would be extraordinarily difficult to change the results of a federal election with this type of fraud alone.
An FBI officer
According to the FBI, there is no evidence to suggest that postal voting is more susceptible to fraud than traditional voting.
“
It would be extraordinarily difficult to change the results of a federal election with this type of fraud alone,
” added a senior agency officer at a press conference in late August, quoted in the last issue of
Time
.
An analysis of data collected in three states affected by postal voting, conducted by the
Washington Post
and the Electronic Registration Information Center, identified only 372 cases of possible fraud out of approximately 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the election of 2016 and 2018, i.e. 0.0025%.
United State Postal Service employees mail out ballots in Charlotte, North Carolina.
LOGAN CYRUS / AFP
Undermine the legitimacy of upcoming elections
Some observers explain President Trump's hostility to the electoral risks that postal voting represents for him.
It makes it easier to vote and thus would allow populations inclined to abstention and traditionally closer to Democrats, such as Latinos or African-Americans, to vote.
Yet, for David J. Becker, of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, postal voting has traditionally been more about white and elderly people - and therefore the target Republicans electorate.
A study from Stanford University dated May 2020 also pointed out that postal voting did not in itself benefit either party.
Donald Trump is preparing his arguments to question the election results.
It creates doubt on postal voting, to undermine the legitimacy of the result
David J. Becker, Director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research
This data does not escape the Republicans.
Because if Donald Trump is angry with the postal services, the Conservative Party at the same time encourages Americans to vote by mail.
Americans have received ballot papers in their mailboxes to be returned by mail.
How to explain this paradox ?
For David J. Becker, of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, the president seeks to weaken the electoral process.
"
Donald Trump is preparing his arguments to question the election results," he
explains to Le Figaro.
It creates doubt about the postal vote
to undermine the legitimacy of the result
”.
A view shared by Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Worker Union (the union of American postal workers).
"
He
[Donald Trump]
wants to raise enough questions for people to lose confidence,
" he explains.
Read also: According to Donald Trump, the result of the presidential elections could "never" be known
Donald Trump has already warned that he may not accept the election results.
"
I'll have to see
," he told conservative FoxNews.
I'm not just going to say “yes”.
I'm not just going to say 'no'
”.
By calling into question the post office, a federal institution several hundred years old, Donald Trump is weakening not only confidence in postal voting, but also in democracy itself in a country plagued by doubts.
On August 4, 2020, a study revealed that 59% of citizens admitted not to trust the honesty of national elections.
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