FACT CHECK: Trump tweets a tall tale of 'deleted' votes

President Donald Trump falsely claimed on Twitter that an election techlogy firm “deleted” large numbers of his votes or “switched” m to count for Joe Biden — latest in a series of baseless ories suggesting vote counting problems that president has been promoting.

His tweet Thursday amplified a “report” built on empty claims that originated in anymous comments on a pro-Trump blog.

Trump and his supporters have launched groundless attacks on one of most widely used techlogy firms in U.S., Dominion Voting Systems, seeking to sow doubt in results of 2020 election, despite evidence of any serious irregularities.

Here's a look at claims in Trump's tweet:

TRUMP: “REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.”

FACTS: re’s evidence of widespre fraud in 2020 election, or of major problems with Dominion’s systems. Election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that election went well, and international observers confirmed re were serious irregularities.

re have been only a “small handful” of issues that were result of human error involving voting techlogy, t software itself, said Eddie Perez, a voting techlogy expert at OSET Institute, a npartisan election techlogy research and development nprofit.

OSET Institute has helped monitor more than 1,000 reports of voting issues throughout U.S. since Election Day.

Perez said he was t aware of any systemic issue related to problems with Dominion software that would affect tabulation of results.

Technical issues during voting this year occurred at a lower rate than in most elections because “election procedures (were) followed more scrupulously than usual,” said University of Iowa professor Doug Jones, co-author of “Broken Ballots,” a voting techlogy history.

re is also “ factual basis” for Trump’s claims that 221,000 votes were switched from Biden to Trump in Pennsylvania, Ellen Lyon, spokesperson for Pennsylvania Department of State, said in an email.

“report” Trump mentions in his tweet was aired on conservative television network One America News Network, which promoted a ory posted to a pro-Trump blog that claimed that millions of votes were switched or deleted in Biden’s favor. TV network did t immediately respond to a request for comment.

anymous commenter who posted ory claimed findings are supported by data from polling firm Edison Research. Yet company has t produced such a report, said Larry Rosin, president of Edison Research.

“We have evidence of any voter fraud,” Rosin said in an email.

biggest example of a tabulation problem in 2020 election involved a few thousand votes in Antrim County, Michigan, and was result of human error, Perez said.

When Republican-leaning county initially reported a landslide win for Biden, social media users grew suspicious about Dominion election manment system used to tabulate data.

It turned out Dominion was t to blame , according to Michigan Department of State. “re was malice, fraud here, just human error,” County Clerk Sheryl Guy told Associated Press. tabulation error was corrected.

Dominion is one of largest voting techlogy providers in U.S., with more than 30 states using its software.

company has been target of a number of false claims about election pushed by Trump supporters, among m that company has ties to prominent Democrats.

Dominion did t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a press release issued v. 7, company said re was credible evidence to support claims of system software errors in states like Michigan.

(Im credit: AP)