Liberal Forum

There is no voter fraud: But chasing truth in the age of Donald Trump’s big lies is almost pointless.

The New York Times published a big report today confirming what we already know: There is no significant voter fraud tainting elections in the United States.

The Times contacted election officials in all 50 states to see if any reports of voter fraud had surfaced in relation to the 2016 race, and the “overwhelming consensus” was that there were vanishingly few credible reports of fraudulent voting.

The Times report also shows something else: the disadvantage reporters, journalists, and other conscientious people face when taking on determined liars who have large megaphones and unscrupulous enablers.

I am referring primarily to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, whose post-election allegations of massive voter fraud made the Times’ investigation necessary.

Trump, clearly irked by his historically large popular-vote deficit, tweeted on Nov. 27 that he would have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” from the tally.

As multiple fact-checkers pointed out at the time, there was no credible evidence for Trump’s claim of widespread voter fraud.

The Times’ investigation shows that Trump was, in fact, wrong.

But let’s take a look at what happened in the three weeks between Trump’s tweet and the publication of the Times story.

Immediately after Trump made the false claim, conservative media outlets started crafting bad-faith defenses of his allegation, leaning on thin reeds of distorted and cherry-picked evidence to give the president-elect cover for his lie.

Trump supporters closed their ears to the mainstream press and turned to disreputable news sources as proof that their preferred candidate was right.

And a dishonest bit of pre-election conspiracy theorizing by a credibility-deficient right-wing cable news host was presented as conclusive evidence that Trump had told the truth.

At the same time as all that disinformation was bubbling up from the internet, high-ranking officials close to the president-elect used their positions to lend credibility to Trump’s lie.

Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, said it was “possible” that millions of undocumented immigrants had voted, adding:
“I don’t know if that’s not true.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan pointedly declined to say anything about the veracity of Trump’s allegation, saying “I’m not really focused on these things.”

Kris Kobach, Kansas’ Republican secretary of state, stated flat-out that Trump was telling the truth: “I think the president-elect is absolutely correct when he says the number of illegal votes cast exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton at this point.”

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:22 pm » wrote:There is no voter fraud: But chasing truth in the age of Donald Trump’s big lies is almost pointless.The New York Times published a
big report today confirming what we already know: There is no significant voter fraud tainting elections in the United States.

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 1:26 pm » wrote:Oh well gosh, if the corrupt NY Times and moonbat Salon make a claim, it must be true!

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:22 pm » wrote:There is no voter fraud: But chasing truth in the age of Donald Trump’s big lies is almost pointless.The New York Times published a
big report today confirming what we already know: There is no significant voter fraud tainting elections in the United States.

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:31 pm » wrote: So why do you think that the elections officials in Republican states are lying Puss?

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:05 pm » wrote: So IOW you know he's lying.
Duly noted.

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:04 pm » wrote:That's because there is no MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD jackass.
You think if you keep repeating it, that will make it true?

Show me one state that has produced the proof that massive voter fraud is taking place.

A SAMPLING OF ELECTION FRAUD CASES FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRYThe United States has a long and unfortunate history of election fraud. The Heritage Foundation is providing a list of election fraud cases from acrossthe country, broken down by state, where individuals were either convicted of vote fraud, or where a judge overturned the results of an election. This is not anexhaustive list but simply a sampling that demonstrates the many diferent ways in which fraud is committed. Preventing, deterring, and prosecutingsuch fraud is essential to protecting the integrity of our voting process[url=https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/pdf/VoterFraudCases-8-7-15-Merged.pdf]https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2015 ... Merged.pdf[/url]

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 1:31 pm » wrote: As Bill Maher would say, 'You don't know it for a fact that there is massive voter fraud, you just know it's true.'

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 1:45 pm » wrote:I have cited to entire books filled with examples of mostly Democrat-committed voter fraud.

The conservative Heritage Foundation has published online what it calls an incomplete list of voter fraud and other election-law violations dating to 1982, roughly 450 cases involving both voters and public officials.

Misty » 18 Dec 2016 11:42 am » wrote:
You gave up the moral authority to complain about politicians lying when you voted for the Liar-In-Chief.

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 3:18 pm » wrote:A fawning, groveling toad.y who has told years of lies on behalf of sociopathic liar/ serial felon/ serial rapist is going to lecture me about "moral authority?"

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 3:17 pm » wrote: People can write anything in a book, and books are not current.

The NY Times made inquiries of election officials in all 50 states concerning the election that just took place.

So 450 cases dating back to 1982 and most of those it seems were not in-person voter fraud.

President-elect Donald Trump continues to question whether Russia was behind the hacks during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Just two years ago, however, Trump said he was very aware of Russia's hacking, calling it out -- along with China -- as a "big problem."

In an interview with Fox News Sunday earlier this month, Trump questioned the CIA's assessment that Russia played a role in the election, calling it "ridiculous" and saying, "It's just another excuse. I don't believe it."

On Fox News in 2014, however, Trump was quick to agree with a similar assessment by FBI director James Comey about hacking by China, and also raised the threat from Russia.

"I think that's great, I think what he said is fantastic," Trump said, referring to comments Comey had made on "60 Minutes."

"I've been talking about China for a long time," Trump added.

"You know, they put on the front like, we're your friend and everything, and in the meantime the cash comes out of your back pocket.

It's disgraceful what's going on with China generally.

No, I think he's 100% right, it's a big problem, and we have that problem also with Russia.

You saw that over the weekend. Russia's doing the same thing."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/ ... index.html

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 3:20 pm » wrote: You've been repeating that **** for years.
It doesn't make it any more true.

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 3:17 pm » wrote: People can write anything in a book, and books are not current.

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 3:23 pm » wrote:Voter fraud is voter fraud, "in person" or not, Dim, and Democrats have countless ways of engaging in it.

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 3:26 pm » wrote: Why did you smear John Fund as a child molester when I cited his extensive evidence?

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 3:31 pm » wrote: Is that the John Fund who schtupped his ex-girlfriend's daughter?

I'm not going to help you dredge up these old tired issues.
If you're going to continue to ignore the present and dwell on the past, then you can do it alone.

Termin8tor » 19 Dec 2016 3:25 pm » wrote:It's true, because I've countless times caught you lying, and never once do you offer a correction.

Misty » 19 Dec 2016 3:51 pm » wrote: Never once do you ever prove that anything I've said is a lie.
You just keep yelling 'LIAR!' like some demented Tourette's syndrome victim.