The 2024 presidential election is tomorrow and Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican cronies across the country are doubling down on their violent rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and lies about our election processes to lay the groundwork for their second attempt at a coup if they lose. They spent 2020 spreading lies about the election, claiming it was stolen from Trump, without a single shred of evidence whatsoever. But ahead of tomorrow’s election, GOP election officials– including those in swing and battleground states – are denouncing Trump and his allies’ fake voter fraud claims and reassuring voters in their states that there is no election fraud and voters can trust the process in 2024.
Axios: GOP Secretaries Of State Swat Down Election Conspiracies While Trump Sows Doubts.
- “Republican secretaries of state in crucial battleground states are combating baseless conspiracies to undermine the integrity of the 2024 election. Why it matters: Former President Trump has made baseless claims of cheating and election fraud one of the staples of his political career and those erroneous beliefs are widespread among his supporters in the Republican Party.”
- “The big picture: Election officials have had to take extraordinary security measures this year in the face of mounting threats stoked by Trump’s baseless claims that the voting system is rigged against him. Republicans across the country have already filed over 100 lawsuits over various voting and election procedures. While Trump has softened his previous aversion to early voting, he has attacked overseas and military voters and the U.S. Postal Service, arguing the latter can’t be trusted to deliver ballots.”
- “The intrigue: Trump admitted last month that there had actually been no evidence of election fraud in 2024, but hours later reverted to pushing baseless claims of cheating. This has left some Republican state officials to try and combat the claims themselves.”
CBS News: Why Georgia Election Officials Say Voters Can Trust The Process In 2024.
- “Whether Jan. 6, 2021 was the end of chaos or the beginning. Election fraud lies are aimed at destroying confidence. You’re about to hear why they are lies. Gabriel Sterling is a messenger of election truth. He’s the Republican chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state who runs elections there. Georgia was the center of the scheme to overthrow the 2020 election. Sterling says these are the stakes this Tuesday.”
- “Gabriel Sterling: And there’s some you’re never gonna convince and you just have to accept that you’re never gonna convince them. But for the vast majority of Americans who have questions, basically they think, ‘Well, if there’s this much smoke, there must be something. Nobody would lie this much about it.’ So I think there’s savable souls there, who basically they want to understand. We have to tell ’em over and over again, ‘Voter suppression’s fake. Voter fraud is fake. It’s used to raise money and get you angry.’ Trump riled supporters with election denial from the very first time he was ever on a Republican ballot. He lost the Iowa caucus in 2016 and wrote… ‘Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.’ Later, when Trump won the national electoral vote but not the popular vote, he posted ‘I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.’ Later, a fraud commission he appointed, disbanded when it couldn’t find the evidence.”
- “Gabriel Sterling: ‘I’m sorry that your candidate lost. But the rules are the rules. The law is the law. And the count is the count.’”
Axios: Georgia Election Officials Denounce “Fake” Voter Fraud Claims.
- “Georgia’s Republican officials spoke out against voter mis- and disinformation ahead of Tuesday’s election during a ‘60 Minutes’ program that aired on CBS Sunday evening. Why it matters: Former President Trump has made baseless claims of cheating and election fraud this year, as he did during the 2020 and 2016 election campaigns. Georgia official Gabriel Sterling said he told doubters, ‘Voter suppression’s fake. Voter fraud is fake. It’s used to raise money and get you angry.’“
- “Between the lines: Extensive research shows instances of voter fraud in the U.S. is ‘very rare, voter impersonation is virtually nonexistent, and many instances of alleged fraud are, in fact, mistakes by voters or administrators,’ per the Brennan Center for Justice. ‘It’s a federal crime for noncitizens to register or vote in federal elections, and it’s a crime under every state’s laws. So it should come as no surprise that every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare.’”
CNN: GOP Official In Charge Of Voting Responds To Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims In His State.
- “Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth: ‘I have investigated hundreds of allegations of voter fraud, and that’s why I feel like I can speak with some degree of authority and knowledge about when it occurs and when it doesn’t occur and when it does occur. The extent to which there’s evidence of it and allegations of widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania are completely and totally unfounded. Voters should have confidence that we will have a free, fair, safe and secure election in 2024 just as we had in 2020.’”
CBS News: Maricopa Election Officials Work To Restore Belief In The Ballot As Some Continue To Sow Doubt In Elections.
- “Scott Pelley: What evidence of widespread fraud was found in Maricopa County in 2020?
Stephen Richer: Oh, none. And I would say Maricopa County’s 2020 election is the most scrutinized election in human history.
Scott Pelley: When you began to tell your fellow Republicans in Maricopa County that the election was fair and there was no fraud that would change the outcome, how did they react to you?
Stephen Richer: Not well. Yeah. Not well at all.”
Deseret News: ‘Doubt The Doubters’: Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson Delivers Remarks On Election Security And Election Worker Safety.
- “Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s chief election officer, urged voters to become more familiar with the election process before believing claims of electoral fraud, during remarks on Thursday. A growing climate of distrust toward election officials threatens the safety of poll workers and the peaceful functioning of democracy, Henderson said in a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah.”