2 main reasons Trump's unsubstantiated 'fraud' claims don't make much sense
President Trump and his allies are claiming, in court, on Twitter, and in public — even from the White House — that Democrats are "stealing" the election as urban and mail-in votes get counted in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan, slowly building an Electoral College tally that points to a Joe Biden win. Trump and his team have not provided evidence for these claims, and they don't even really make sense.
This "blue shift" after a "red mirage" was widely predicted months ago, when it became clear Democrats were more likely to mail in their ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic while Trump urged his supporters to vote in person. There was no mirage-and-shift in states like Florida because election officials are allowed to process mail-in votes before Election Day, but in the Upper Midwest, GOP-controlled state legislatures refused to let the count start until Nov. 3.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The other problem is that elections are run by state and local governments, not any nationwide entity, making coordinated fraud very implausible, as University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck notes. Also, state elections in places like Georgia and Arizona are run by Republicans.
Separately, Trump's legal and PR strategy Thursday centered on alleging that his campaigns observers are being blocked from watching the ballot counting. That, also, is demonstrably not true.
-
Grok in the crosshairs as EU launches deepfake porn probeIN THE SPOTLIGHT The European Union has officially begun investigating Elon Musk’s proprietary AI, as regulators zero in on Grok’s porn problem and its impact continent-wide
-
‘But being a “hot” country does not make you a good country’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why have homicide rates reportedly plummeted in the last year?Today’s Big Question There could be more to the story than politics
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Maduro pleads not guilty in first US court hearingSpeed Read Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy
-
Iran’s government rocked by protestsSpeed Read The death toll from protests sparked by the collapse of Iran’s currency has reached at least 19
