Trump Is Pushing a False Argument on Vote-by-Mail Fraud. Here Are the Facts.

[CousinIT]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/trump-is-pushing-a-false-argument-on-vote-by-mail-fraud-here-are-the-facts/ar-BB12kX53?ocid=st

AUTHORS FAIL TO DISTINGUISH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'VOTER' FRAUD AND 'ELECTION' FRAUD. ELECTION FRAUD - BALLOT HARVESTING - IS WHAT WENT ON IN NORTH CAROLINA AND IT WAS CARRIED OUT BY THE PARTY WHO ALWAYS COMMITS ELECTION FRAUD: REPUBLICANS.

With concerns mounting over how the country can conduct elections during a pandemic and Democrats pressing for alternatives to in-person voting, President Trump has begun pushing a false argument that has circulated among conservatives for years — that voting by mail is a recipe for fraud.

Here’s a look at the facts on the matter.

All voter fraud is extremely rare.

Studies have shown that all forms of voting fraud are extremely rare in the United States. A national study in 2016 found few credible allegations of fraudulent voting. A panel that Mr. Trump charged with investigating election corruption found no real evidence of fraud before he disbanded it in 2018.

Even so, experts say that the mail voting system is more vulnerable to fraud than voting in person.

“What we know can be boiled down to this: Voting fraud in the United States is rare, less rare is fraud using mail ballots,” said Charles Stewart III of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Stewart pointed to several documented voting fraud cases of recent decades involving mail or absentee ballots, most recently the race in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District in 2018, when an operative who rounded up absentee ballots for the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, was charged with election fraud. The practice is known as ballot harvesting.

“They’re stories, they’re dramatic, they are rare,” said Mr. Stewart, a professor of political science who studies the machinations of voting.

The North Carolina case also illustrates the fact that frauds big enough to sway the outcome of an election — those involving campaigns rather than individual voters — will likely be detected, said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political scientist and elections scholar.

. . .

States that vote entirely by mail see little fraud.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. And it seems as if every single case of voting fraud is done by Republicans.

No wonder they are so convinced it happens all the time.

[OnlinePoker]

2. Here's his latest tweet about this

Link to tweet

What's funny is yesterday he brought it up at a news conference. A reporter then pointed out that he voted by mail in the Florida election. His response was something along the line of "Well, it meant I didn't have to travel there to vote." He demonstrated his own hypocrisy in less than 30 seconds.

[CousinIT]

7. "States that vote entirely by mail see little fraud."

Quote from the article/OP.

Shithead Donnie is lying again.

[Baked Potato]

3. Dump is teeing up his next round of bullshit.

[smirkymonkey]

4. He knows that if people can vote by mail, then more people will vote.

And if more people vote, the worse it looks for Trump and the republicans. They will do anything to avoid fair elections. The only way they ever win is by cheating.

[uponit7771]

5. Unfortunately it looks like there'll be national support for vote by mail if CV19 effects last longe

[niyad]

6. KNR