The election denial movement often refers to a belief of widespread rigging or fraud in recent US presidential elections with members of the movement referred to as election deniers. The false conspiracy theory has spread online and through conservative conferences, community events, and door-to-door canvassing. Some Republican politicians have sought elective office or taken legislative steps to address what they assert is weak election integrity leading to widespread fraudulent elections, though no evidence of widespread voter fraud has come to light and voter fraud in general is quite rare.

Donald Trump has a long history of questioning elections from before he ran for office, which ABC News described as part of his "playbook". He grew the movement among his supporters after he made consistently debunked complaints of fraud during the 2016, and in particular the 2020 presidential election. Citing unsubstantiated and false claims, Trump and his associates tried to nullify the 2020 election of Joe Biden, for which some have been indicted on federal and state charges around election subversion. This came to be known as Trump's "big lie". Trump has only endorsed candidates who also state they believe Democrats engage in widespread voter fraud and not committed to accepting the results of a 2024 presidential election.

Context

Going back decades, some influential people who express concerns around election security have been accused of using the fear of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression.[1][2] A notable quote that has been used as evidence of bad faith efforts to address voter fraud comes from Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who said in a speech in 1980: "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."[2]

Prevalence of voter fraud

Election experts have found that election fraud is vanishingly rare, not systemic, and not at levels that could have impacted a presidential election.[3][4][5] In response to Donald Trump's 2016 claims of millions of fraudulent votes, The Brennan Center in 2017 evaluated voter fraud data and arrived at a fraud rate of 0.0003%–0.0025%.[6] That year the center also analyzed the Heritage Foundation's database of voter fraud as tiny, reaching back to 1948, and one in which the vast majority of cases would still occur under the Foundation's proposed election reforms.[7]

1876 election

This bitterly contested election had significant amounts of voter suppression and fraud throughout the southern U.S. and had been cited, controversially, as precedent for throwing out votes from disputed states in 2020.[8][9]

Origins of the movement

Professor Andrew Smolar and Dr. Geoffrey Kabaservice believe this election denial movement began with the Tea Party after Obama's election, citing the Birtherism conspiracy theory as helping to dissolve trust in institutions and objective truth.[10][11] Other dates that have been suggested for the start of this movement include 2012,[12] 2016[13] and 2020.[14]

Analyst Chris Sautter argues the movement is the latest stage of wrangling about election rules that began in the 1960s regarding severe restrictions to stop Blacks from voting in most of the South. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discrimination and enabled the federal government to block new restrictions. During the Reagan presidency in the 1980s, the Republican National Committee (RNC) launched "ballot security" and "voter integrity" campaigns to reduce what it alleged to be voter fraud. They focused on minority communities with large Democratic majorities. They stationed off-duty police officers in conspicuous locations near polling places; distributed leaflets suggesting voters could be subjected to prosecution; and made unsupported challenges of registered voters. Federal courts concluded the techniques were designed to frighten minority voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican party officials were forced to sign a consent decree agreeing to stop. However in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its ruling on Shelby County v. Holder. This enabled Republican legislatures in at least 20 states to impose new obstacles for the 2018 elections.[15][16]

Disputed elections

President

2012

Trump called the 2012 U.S. presidential election on election night a "total sham" and said the United States was not a democracy, which ABC News writer Terrence Smith described as the first example showing a broader playbook of election denial.[12]

2016

During the 2016 Republican primaries, Trump alleged (without evidence) that his opponent Senator Ted Cruz stole the Iowa Caucus.[12]

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump asserted that the only way he could lose was if there was election fraud.[17] Trump political advisor Roger Stone created a "Stop the Steal" organization in 2016 in the event Trump lost; it was revived after Trump's loss in 2020.[18]

Trump claimed, without evidence, that millions voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, costing him the popular vote victory.[19] As a result, Trump established an election integrity commission in May 2017, but the commission was disbanded several months later, with member Matthew Dunlap, the Maine secretary of state, writing to commission chair Mike Pence and vice chair Kris Kobach that, contrary to public statements by Trump and Kobach, the commission did not find "substantial" voter fraud.[20] Dunlap alleged the true purpose of the commission was to create a pretext to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote. Critics said the commission's intent was to disenfranchise or deter legal voters.[21] Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state, had a history of making false or unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud to advocate for voting restrictions.[22][23]

2020

Donald Trump complained of widespread voter fraud leading up to and following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which was widely debunked. Having never conceded, Trump used this allegation of fraud as justification to try multiple times to subvert the election results and remain in office. Trump has demanded those seeking his endorsement to support his unfounded allegations of fraud. Many of those involved in the plots, including the riot on January 6, 2021, have been convicted, charged or are under investigation for crimes such as insurrection.

2024

As of May 2023, Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election if he loses.[24] Trump's niece, Mary L. Trump, and retiring Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R) among others predict that he would once again deny the results of a loss and try to steal the election.[25][26] According to NPR, the continuation of election denial tactics by Trump for the 2024 election is 'likely.'[27]

Statewide

2022

In addition to making "The Big Lie" a centerpiece of her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial campaign, Kari Lake refused to concede her loss, traveling the country into 2023 to promote her election fraud allegations amid speculation she was considering a run for Senate or being named as Trump's running mate in 2024. Her two lawsuits challenging her loss have been thrown out, as has a lawsuit to stop using electronic machines.[28][29] Lake continues with a fourth lawsuit to release the signatures of all voters in Maricopa County, which the County Recorder fears could have a chilling effect on voters if released.[30]

Prevalence of election denialism

Elected officials

An October 2022 Washington Post analysis found that 51% of Republican nominees for House, Senate and key statewide offices in nearly every state that year denied or questioned the 2020 presidential election outcome.[31] Secretaries of state oversee elections in states. In 2022, nearly one in three Republican candidates for those offices supported overturning the 2020 presidential election results.[32][33] The America First Secretary of State Coalition, co-founded and led by Nevada Republican Jim Marchant, was created in 2021 to promote election deniers for secretary of state in the 2022 United States secretary of state elections.[34] All but one of nearly twenty candidates the group endorsed in 2022 lost in the general election.[35][36] According to analysis by the nonpartisan States United Action, election denialism cost Republican candidates from 2.3 to 3.7 percentage points of votes in the 2022 midterm elections.[37]

Trump made his election fraud claims a litmus test for Republican candidates and the heart of his platform.[38] After Mike Johnson won the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House election, David A. Graham posited that only members of the election denial movement had a chance to win the speakership with only Republican votes.[39]

Voters

As of August 2023, a large majority of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents continued to believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected in 2020.[40]

Analysis

Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist who strongly opposes Trumpism, wrote in April 2022 that she asked Trump voters in focus groups why they continue to believe the election was stolen from him. She perceived that for many it was a hard-to-explain tribal response to a message that is echoed throughout the participants' social and media environment.[41]

Analysis of polls by Charles Stewart, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, shows that there are deep ideological roots involving belief in conspiracies, racial tensions and religion as well as partisanship. He argues:

Among Republicans, conspiracism has a potent effect on embracing election denialism, followed by racial resentment. Among independents, the strongest influences on denialism are Christian nationalism and racial resentment. And, although election denialism is rare among Democrats, what variation does exist is mostly explained by levels of racial resentment.[42]

Some election experts and historians contend that, left unabated, election denial could further reduce concessions by losing candidates, disrupt the peaceful transfers of power and weaken or even dismantle American democracy.[43][44] Lisa Bryant, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno, warned of the erosion of trust in the democratic process and the institutions it produces, which might lead to a breakdown in the rule of law if the government (and by extension the laws they create) are not viewed as legitimate.[45][46]

Priorities and supporters of the movement

Following Trump's 2020 loss amid his false allegations of fraud, Republican lawmakers initiated a sweeping effort to make voting laws more restrictive in several states across the country and to take control of the administrative management of elections at the state and local level.[47][48][49][50] Some planned to deploy an "army" of poll workers and lawyers to challenge votes in Democratic districts.[51][52][53]

Notable supporters of the election denial movement

Dennis Montgomery promoted widely debunked 'evidence' for both the birther conspiracy theory movement and the 2020 election denial movement (among other far-right conspiracies), was frequently widely cited by supporters of President Trump's efforts to overturn the election.[54]

By 2022, My Pillow founder Mike Lindell had become a prominent figure in the movement, spending millions of his money for conferences, activist networks, a media platform, legal actions and research. Lindell asserts the 2020 election was stolen through a complex global scheme to hack into voting machines. Through his My Pillow advertising placements, he became a major financial backer of an expanding network of right-wing podcasters and influencers.[55] Lindell's legal firm said in an October 2023 court filing that Lindell was in arrears by millions of dollars in fees and that the firm could no longer afford to represent him, which Lindell confirmed.[56]

Organizations funded by dark money have met quietly with officials in Republican-controlled states to create an incubator of policies that would restrict ballot access and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in elections. Led by the Heritage Foundation, the groups include the Honest Elections Project, which is among a network of conservative organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in the Federalist Society.[57]

The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) was founded in 2017 by former Republican senator and Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint. CPI employs Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark and has been described as the "nerve center" for the MAGA movement. CPI's funding increased from $1.7 million 2017 to $45 million in 2021. CPI includes the Election Integrity Network, led by Cleta Mitchell.[58][59][60][61] Mitchell was a Trump advisor after the 2020 election who participated in the Trump-Raffensperger phone call during which Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to "find" ballots that would secure him a victory in the state. Trump and 18 others, including Meadows and Clark, were indicted in the Georgia election racketeering prosecution for allegedly running a "criminal racketeering enterprise." Mitchell was one of 39 individuals a special grand jury recommended for indictment on multiple charges, though prosecutor Fani Willis declined to charge her.[62] By 2022, Mitchell said she was "taking the lessons we learned in 2020" as she held seminars around the country to recruit election deniers to monitor elections because "the only way [Democrats] win is to cheat."[63]

In 2022, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School identified several individuals or groups that together were spending tens of millions to support election deniers in that year's midterm elections. These included the billionaire couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein; Trump's Save America PAC; and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said he spent $20 million to convince people that the 2020 election was stolen; he was also a major funder of the 2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit that sought but failed to find election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Byrne has been the largest funder of The America Project, which pushes election denial narratives. That group was founded by former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn in 2021, with an agenda that includes undermining trust in elections.[64][65] Byrne, Flynn and others attended a December 2020 Oval Office meeting with Trump to discuss ways to overturn the president's election loss.[66]

Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison joined a November 2020 conference call with Sean Hannity and senator Lindsey Graham to discuss ways to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election.[67] By October 2022, Ellison was donating millions of dollars to a SuperPAC to support four Senate candidates who had cast doubt on the 2020 election results.[68]

The 2022 Dinesh D'Souza film 2000 Mules film alleged unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with the Democratic Party paid "mules" to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in five swing states during the 2020 presidential election.[69][70][71][72]

Some analysts and politicians both Republican and Democrat have suggested that election denial may include an element of grifting to solicit donations from unwitting supporters.[73][74][75][76] With an email campaign, Trump raised about $250 million for what he told donors was an "official election defense fund" that did not actually exist.[77][78] By September 2022, a federal grand jury was investigating whether Trump and his allies were soliciting donations on the basis of claims they knew were false, which might violate federal wire fraud laws.[79][80] The Smith special counsel investigation was also examining the fundraising of former Trump attorney Sidney Powell by September 2023.[81]

References

  1. ↑ Wines, Michael (February 27, 2021). "In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules". The New York Times. Republicans have long thought — sometimes quietly, occasionally out loud — that large turnouts, particularly in urban areas, favor Democrats, and that Republicans benefit when fewer people vote. But politicians and scholars alike say that this moment feels like a dangerous plunge into uncharted waters.
  2. 1 2 Malone, Clare (June 24, 2020). "The Republican Choice". 538. Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in a speech in 1980: "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
  3. ↑ Sullivan, Andy; Ax, Joseph (September 9, 2020). "Despite Trump claims, voter fraud is extremely rare. Here is how U.S. states keep it that way". Reuters.
  4. ↑ Reid J. Epstein; Nick Corasaniti (March 17, 2022). "Republicans Push Crackdown on Crime Wave That Doesn't Exist: Voter Fraud". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ Yoon, Robert (August 27, 2023). "Trump's drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts". Associated Press.
  6. ↑ "Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth | Brennan Center for Justice". www.brennancenter.org. January 31, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Analysis: Heritage Foundation's Database Undermines Claims of Recent Voter Fraud | Brennan Center for Justice". Brennan Center. September 8, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  8. ↑ McGreevy, Nora (January 5, 2021). "Five Things to Know About the 1876 Presidential Election". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Why the 1876 election was the most divisive in U.S. history". National Geographic. November 8, 2022. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  10. ↑ Andrew Smolar, "How Group Identifications Have Contributed to Our National Discord." Group 47#12 (2023): 115-147.
  11. ↑ Kabaservice, Geoffrey (December 4, 2020). "Perspective | The forever grievance". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 4, 2023. ...characteristic mistrust of norms was evident from the beginning in its embrace of birtherism, the racist conspiracy theory that claimed without evidence that Obama was secretly a foreign-born Muslim and ineligible for the presidency. Social media accelerated the spread of such conspiratorial beliefs, which further dissolved trust in established institutions and objective truth....the tea party never really died; its energies were reactivated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump — who of course was the leading purveyor of birtherism.....both the tea party and Trump's movement also were rooted in fact-free conspiracy theories about the treachery of Democrats and elites, who allegedly plotted to destroy the livelihoods and traditions of "real Americans" for their own benefit.
  12. 1 2 3 Smith, Terrence (November 11, 2020). "Trump has longstanding history of calling elections 'rigged' if he doesn't like the results". ABC News. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  13. ↑ Axelrod, Ted (September 8, 2022). "A timeline of Donald Trump's election denial claims, which Republican politicians increasingly embrace". ABC News. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Democracy on the ballot—election denial and the Electoral Count Act". Brookings. November 1, 2022. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Voting Rights: A Short History" Carnegie Reporter (November 18, 2019) online
  16. ↑ Chris Sautter, "U.S. Elections on the Brink," in Candice J. Nelson and James A. Thurber, eds., Campaigns and elections American style: The changing landscape of political campaigns (5th edition, Routledge, 2018) pp. 136-159, at p. 140.
  17. ↑ Blitzer, Jonathan (October 8, 2016). "Trump and the Truth: The "Rigged" Election". The New Yorker.
  18. ↑ Rob Kuznia; Curt Devine; Nelli Black; Drew Griffin (November 14, 2020). "Stop the Steal's massive disinformation campaign connected to Roger Stone". CNN.
  19. ↑ Kilgore, Ed (November 14, 2019). "Bevin Concedes After Republicans Decline to Help Him Steal the Election". Intelligencer. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  20. ↑ Williams, Joseph (January 10, 2018). "Trump Panel Finds No Voter Fraud". U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  21. ↑ Horwitz, Sari. "Trump's voter commission hasn't even met — and it's already off to a rough start". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  22. ↑ Foran, Clare (August 4, 2018). "Trump voting commission had no evidence of widespread voter fraud, former member says". CNN.
  23. ↑ Horwitz, Sari (April 6, 2016). "The conservative gladiator from Kansas behind restrictive voting laws". The Washington Post.
  24. ↑ Gans, Jared (May 11, 2023). "Trump won't commit to accepting 2024 election results". The Hill. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  25. ↑ Writer, Fatma Khaled Staff (March 11, 2023). "Mary Trump predicts what Donald Trump will do if he loses again". Newsweek. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  26. ↑ Zhao, Christina (November 6, 2021). "GOP Lawmaker Warns Trump Will Try 'Steal' Election Again In '24 If He Loses". Newsweek. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  27. ↑ Bond, Shannon; Parks, Miles (November 10, 2023). "Why the fight to counter false election claims may be harder in 2024". NPR. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  28. ↑ Kornfield, Meryl (February 12, 2023). "Defiant Kari Lake carries election denier banner across Iowa amid divided GOP". The Washington Post.
  29. ↑ "Kari Lake's lawsuit over metro Phoenix's electronic tabulation systems has been tossed out". AP News. October 17, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  30. ↑ Billed, Jacques; Tang, Terry (September 20, 2023). "Kari Lake's 3rd trial to begin after unsuccessful lawsuit challenging her loss in governor's race". Associated Press.
  31. ↑ Gardner, Amy (October 12, 2022). "A majority of GOP nominees deny or question the 2020 election results". The Washington Post.
  32. ↑ Riccardi, Nicholas (September 8, 2022). "Support of false election claims runs deep in 2022 GOP field". Associated Press.
  33. ↑ Berzon, Alexandra (June 5, 2022). "In Races to Run Elections, Candidates Are Backed by Key 2020 Deniers". The New York Times.
  34. ↑ Halpern, Sue (September 20, 2022). "Behind the Campaign to Put Election Deniers in Charge of Elections". The New Yorker.
  35. ↑ Corasaniti, Nick (November 12, 2022). "Voters Reject Election Deniers Running to Take Over Elections". The New York Times.
  36. ↑ Edelman, Adam (November 16, 2022). "Election deniers overwhelmingly lost in battleground states". NBC News.
  37. ↑ Corasaniti, Nick (May 15, 2023). "How Much Did Election Denial Hurt Republicans in the Midterms?". The New York Times.
  38. ↑ Colvin, Jill; Peoples, Steve (May 4, 2021). "Whose 'Big Lie'? Trump's proclamation a new GOP litmus test". AP News. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  39. ↑ Graham, David A. (October 25, 2023). "The House Republicans' Troubling New Litmus Test". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  40. ↑ Jennifer Agiesta; Ariel Edwards-Levy (August 3, 2023). "CNN Poll: Percentage of Republicans who think Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate ticks back up near 70%". CNN.
  41. ↑ Longwell, Sarah (April 18, 2022). "Trump Supporters Explain Why They Believe the Big Lie". The Atlantic.
  42. ↑ Charles Stewart III, "Public Opinion Roots of Election Denialism" (January 4, 2023). Available at SSRN: or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4318153
  43. ↑ Greenblatt, Alan (November 12, 2020). "Trump's Not the First Politician Who Refused to Concede". Governing. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  44. ↑ Elving, Ron (November 8, 2020). "The Tradition Of A Candidate Concession Is Far More Than Mere Courtesy". NPR.
  45. ↑ Harb, Ali (November 1, 2022). "Eroding trust: How election deniers endanger US democracy". Al Jazeera.
  46. ↑ Axelrod, Tal (September 6, 2022). "Why election experts worry for American democracy and what they say can be done". ABC News.
  47. ↑ McCaskill, Nolan D. (March 15, 2021). "After Trump's loss and false fraud claims, GOP eyes voter restrictions across nation". Politico. Archived from the original on March 15, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  48. ↑ Izaguirre, Anthony; Coronado, Acacia (January 31, 2021). "GOP lawmakers seek tougher voting rules after record turnout". Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  49. ↑ Nick Corasaniti; Alexandra Berzon (May 8, 2023). "Under the Radar, Right-Wing Push to Tighten Voting Laws Persists". The New York Times.
  50. ↑ Riccardi, Nicholas (December 29, 2021). "'Slow-motion insurrection': How GOP seizes election power". Associated Press. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
  51. ↑ Przybyla, Heidi (June 1, 2022). "'It's going to be an army': Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections". Politico.
  52. ↑ Miles Parks; Allison Mollenkamp; Nick McMillan (June 30, 2022). "Election deniers have taken their fraud theories on tour — to nearly every state". NPR.
  53. ↑ Miles Parks; Bente Birkeland (July 21, 2022). "The election denial movement is now going door to door". National Public Radio.
  54. ↑ Roston, Aram; Eisler, Peter (December 20, 2022). "The man behind Trump World's myth of rigged voting machines". Reuters. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  55. ↑ Alexandra Berzon; Charles Homans; Ken Bensinger (October 27, 2022). "How Mike Lindell's Pillow Business Propels the Election Denial Movement". The New York Times.
  56. ↑ Gregorian, Dareh (October 5, 2023). "MyPillow lawyers say CEO Mike Lindell owes them millions of dollars". NBC News.
  57. ↑ Ed Pilkington; Jamie Corey (April 5, 2023). "Dark money groups push election denialism on US state officials". The Guardian.
  58. ↑ Olivia Buckley; Anna Massoglia (September 15, 2023). "Billionaire megadonor couple funding election denial with extensive influence machine and dark money network". OpenSecrets.
  59. ↑ Schwartzman, Paul (March 15, 2023). "Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus". The Washington Post.
  60. ↑ "Trump Lawyer Cleta Mitchell Escaped Georgia Indictment — And Still Leads Election Denial Movement". The Intercept. September 13, 2023.
  61. ↑ Przybyla, Heidi (March 16, 2023). "Inside the Trump world-organized retreat to plot out Biden oversight". Politico.
  62. ↑ Julia Shapero; Nick Robertson (September 8, 2023). "The 39 people the Georgia special grand jury recommended charges against". The Hill.
  63. ↑ Berzon, Alexandra (May 30, 2022). "Lawyer Who Plotted to Overturn Trump Loss Recruits Election Deniers to Watch Over the Vote". The New York Times.
  64. ↑ Julia Fishman; Ian Vandewalker (November 3, 2022). "Big Donors Working to Overturn the 2020 Election Are Backing Election Denial Candidates in 2022". Brennan Center for Justice.
  65. ↑ Smith, Michelle R. (October 18, 2022). "How Michael Flynn goes local to spread Christian nationalism". Associated Press.
  66. ↑ Cohen, Zachary (July 12, 2022). "What we know about infamous Oval Office meeting held by Trump's inner circle in December 2020". CNN.
  67. ↑ Isaac Stanley-Becker; Shawn Boburg (May 20, 2022). "Oracle's Larry Ellison joined Nov. 2020 call about contesting Trump's loss". The Washington Post.
  68. ↑ Durot, Matt (October 12, 2022). "Tech Billionaire Larry Ellison's Record Political Giving Funds Election Deniers In Midterms". Forbes.
  69. ↑ Swenson, Ali (May 3, 2022). "FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot 'mules'". Associated Press.
  70. ↑ Bill McCarthy; Amy Sherman (May 4, 2022). "The faulty premise of the '2,000 mules' trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election". PolitiFact.
  71. ↑ Bump, Philip (April 29, 2022). "The dishonest pivot at the heart of the new voter-fraud conspiracy". The Washington Post.
  72. ↑ Marques, David. "Right-Wing Flop of the Year: Dinesh D'Souza's 2000 Mules". The New Republic.
  73. ↑ Wines, Michael (September 24, 2021). "Arizona Vote Review Is 'Political Theater' and 'Sham,' G.O.P. Leaders Say". The New York TImes.
  74. ↑ Rebecca Falconer; Jeremy Duda (October 30, 2022). "Arizona's Republican AG calls election fraud claims "horses**t"". Axios.
  75. ↑ Rob Kuznia; Bob Ortega; Casey Tolan (September 13, 2021). "In the wake of Trump's attack on democracy, election officials fear for the future of American elections". CNN.
  76. ↑ Hananoki, Eric (November 25, 2020). "Right-wing media figures are lying about the election being stolen to grift their followers for money". Media Matters.
  77. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (June 18, 2022). "The 'big rip-off': how Trump exploited his fans with 'election defense' fund". The Guardian.
  78. ↑ Lowell, Hugo (June 15, 2022). "Trump's raising of $250m for fund that 'did not exist' suggests possible fraud". The Guardian.
  79. ↑ Alan Feuer; Maggie Haberman; Adam Goldman; Kenneth P. Vogel (September 8, 2022). "Trump's Post-Election Fund-Raising Comes Under Scrutiny by Justice Dept". The New York TImes.
  80. ↑ Maggie Haberman; Alan Feuer; Jonathan Swan (April 28, 2023). "Prosecutors in Jan. 6 Case Step up Inquiry Into Trump Fund-Raising". The New York TImes.
  81. ↑ Zachary Cohen; Paula Reid (September 5, 2023). "CNN Exclusive: Special counsel election probe continues with focus on fundraising, voting equipment breaches". CNN.

Further reading

  • Albertson, Bethany, and Kimberly Guiler. "Conspiracy theories, election rigging, and support for democratic norms." Research & Politics 7.3 (2020): online
  • Craig, Maureen A., and Jennifer A. Richeson. “On the Precipice of a ‘Majority-Minority’ America: Perceived Status Threat From the Racial Demographic Shift Affects White Americans’Political Ideology.” Psychological Science (2014) 25(6): 1189–97.
  • Graham, Matthew H., and Milan W. Svolik. “Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States.” American Political Science Review 2020. 114(2): 392–409. online
  • Sautter, Chris. "US Democracy Survives a Challenge." in Campaigns and Elections American Style: The changing landscape of political campaigns'ed by Candice J. Nelson, James A. Thurber, and David A. Dulio, (6th ed. Routledge, 2023) pp. 33-51. doi 10.4324/9781003166375-3
  • Wu, Jennifer, et al. "Are Dead People Voting By Mail? Evidence From Washington State Administrative Records" (Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research, 2020) summary; Examination of 4.5 million distinct votes in Washington state (2011 to 2018) found 14 cases of individuals whose ballots were cast suspiciously after their death, representing one vote per 300,000.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.