Still no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election

After more than a year and countless investigations into election fraud, the big lie continues to be a big lie

On the eve of the anniversary of the January 6th riots, the Republican-led local government of Maricopa County Arizona released a 93 page affirming that there was no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. From the Washington Post coverage:

The 93-page document debunks, one by one, vague allegations of potential problems previously identified by the GOP-led state Senate and championed by former President Donald Trump and his allies. County officials said the blunt rebuttal, released on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was intended to highlight the ongoing dangers of unfounded claims of mass election fraud.

In part, this report was prompted by a previous report issued by the Republican-led Arizona State Senate on the election. While the Senate report affirmed the Maricopa County Election Results–that Biden received more than 45,000 votes more than Trump in the county–Cyber Ninjas, the inexperienced auditing firm* hired by Senate Republicans, claimed to have found a number of inconsistencies. Again, from the Washington Post:

[T]he Senate’s contractors also identified various potential problems, including suggesting that tens of thousands of ballots might have been improperly accepted and counted, and that county officials might have improperly deleted data after the election.

The new report, produced by the Maricopa County Elections Department, concluded that the work of the private contractors hired by the GOP-led state Senate amounted to “faulty analysis, inaccurate claims, misleading conclusions” and was based on “a lack of understanding of federal and state election laws.”

It found that of the claims made by the Senate and its contractors, 22 were “misleading,” 41 were “inaccurate” and 13 were “demonstrably false.”

The report found that even the contractors’ hand recount, which involved weeks of work by dozens of workers in colorful shirts toiling on the floor of a former NBA basketball arena, was marred by problems.

Washington Post

The Maricopa report is the latest in a long string of investigations into former President Trump and various state and national Republican leaders’ continued lies about widespread voted fraud and other forms of election tampering. Tax-payer-funded investigations have been undertaken in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, in Red states like Texas, and surprise Blue states like Georgia. While these and other investigations have identified cases of individuals illegally voting (intentionally and unintentionally)–the AP identified only 475 cases of potential voter fraud in battleground Biden states–none have provided any evidence of widespread tampering or even enough illegal voting to sway the election results. In fact, the New York Times called election officials in every state and not a single one could produce evidence of rampant voter fraud.

Additionally, the President and his supporters have yet to win any of the court cases** they have brought around the election results. In fact, a number of those supporters including Rudy Guiliani, Sydney Powell, and Lin Wood have the dubious honor of receiving a rare federal court sanction for submitting a frivolous lawsuit in Michigan. They are also awaiting news on sanctions in other states. And of course, there is the looming civil suit that Dominion Voting Systems has brought against the above and a number of other parties (including Fox News) alleging defamation over their spread of the Big Lie.

And yet, in the face of all of this evidence, the former President and his supporters continue to publicly lie that the election was stolen (despite many acknowledging the reality in private). So long as adherence to the big lie (or at least pretending it doesn’t exist) is Republican party orthodoxy, our Democracy remains on poor footing.

* – Cyber Ninjas is a Florida-based computer security firm, owned by a Trump supporter, with no election experience prior to being hired to conduct the audit. And in a sweet bit of grifters getting grifted, they are accusing the Arizona State Senate of failing to pay them for their services.

** – Also note that in those cases, none of the former President’s allies have included any of the more extreme claims of fraud and tampering into the record. This may be due to the legal ramifications of submitting demonstratively false claims to the court.

FILED UNDER: 2020 Election, Democracy, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Matt Bernius
About Matt Bernius
Matt Bernius is a design researcher working to create more equitable government systems and experiences. He's currently a Principal User Researcher on Code for America's "GetCalFresh" program, helping people apply for SNAP food benefits in California. Prior to joining CfA, he worked at Measures for Justice and at Effective, a UX agency. Matt has an MA from the University of Chicago.

Comments

  1. gVOR08 says:

    Still no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election

    And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

    There never was a shred of credible evidence but 100+ GOPs voted against certifying the election. If the Ds have any sense each of them will run for re-election against continuous ads with 1/6 video.

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  2. Kathy says:

    There’s something similar when you look at pseudoscience, alternative “medicine,” conspiracies, and other such nonsense: 1) a tendency to discard the broad consensus reached by a preponderance of evidence, both experimental and from observations, 2) favoring weak, badly designed studies, involving statistical manipulations or not, over stronger, well-designed studies without p-hacking or other tricks.

    That’s aside from other things like anomaly hunting, making up “evidence,” and of course massive bias.

    I suppose when people love Benito with all their heart and whatever little remains of their mind, they find it inconceivable that anyone else would feel differently. Therefore, if Biden won he must have cheated. Evidence be damned.

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  3. grumpy realist says:

    @Kathy: People without the guts to admit reality.

    It’s the same mindset as with people who get addicted to self-pity and blaming all of their problems on other people. It’s too nerve-shattering to admit that you might be responsible.

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  4. Michael Cain says:

    I’m particularly fond of your last footnote, and have said a similar thing to a few acquaintances. Once these “cases” have actually gotten to court, where there are real penalties for lying or failing to show any actual evidence, all of the election fraud claims disappear and a handful of possible procedural errors are all that remain. All the way back in November 2020, I noted that it was telling the usual white-shoe law firms that handle things for the Republicans nationally were missing in action.

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  5. Matt Bernius says:

    @Michael Cain:
    Yup! It’s quite telling. This may also ultimately harm Powell in the defamation case as it demonstrates that while she might be making crazy claims in public, she is unwilling to make those same claims in court. That suggests that on some level she really doesn’t believe those public pronoucements.

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  6. CSK says:

    @Michael Cain: @Matt Bernius:
    Powell’s public pronouncements have earned her more than $14 million through her Defending the Republic website. Making outrageous claims (though not in court) has earned her a huge amount of money.

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  7. Matt Bernius says:

    @CSK:

    Making outrageous claims (though not in court) has earned her a huge amount of money.

    For the moment. Dominion is currently seeking $1.3 billion in damages. And their legal team is much better not to mention the case law and evidence appears to be in their favor. And generally speaking, Powell is not the type of client a court tends to have sympathy on.

    I am sure HL92 can speak more accurately on this, but Powell’s future (not to mention solvency) is not looking great.

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  8. CSK says:

    @Matt Bernius:
    Well, she could always grab the cash and skitter off to a country with which we hold no extradition treaty, I suppose.

    Wasn’t Ms. Kraken the person who claimed in her response to Dominion that no rational person would take her statements about them seriously?

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  9. grumpy realist says:

    @CSK: My feeling is that anyone who uses the excuse “no one intelligent would ever believe me” should be barred from any public communications (or communications planned to be made public) for the next five years.

    (But then, I have similar feelings about pundits who deliberately state falsehoods on TV.)

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  10. Matt Bernius says:

    @CSK:

    Wasn’t Ms. Kraken the person who claimed in her response to Dominion that no rational person would take her statements about them seriously?

    I believe her defense lawyers raised that in court (suggesting that this was hyperbole that she didn’t really believe) and then she immediately turned around and undercut that argument if memory serves (by saying “hell yeah I believe it”).

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  11. Kathy says:

    @Matt Bernius:

    But that does nothing to disprove the assertion that no rational person would believe it.

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  12. CSK says:

    @Matt Bernius: @Kathy:
    Trump told Hugh Hewitt last December that Powell worked for Mike Flynn and that he barely knew her, despite the fact that she was in the Oval Office many times advising him.

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