Published 14:51 IST, August 22nd 2020
Trump campaign fails to produce evidence of vote-by-mail system frauds
Trump said that universal access to mail-in voting has led to stolen ballots “out of mailboxes”, and had hurled theories of Democrats rigging elections.
Pressed for evidence by a federal court judge in Pennsylvania about Trump’s unfounded claims of vote-by-mail system frauds, the Republican campaign on August 20 failed miserably to provide any solid proofs in its 524-page court filing, according to reports. Among his many claims presented earlier, Trump said that universal access to mail-in voting has led to stolen ballots “out of mailboxes”, and had hurled theories of Democrats rigging the upcoming 2020 Presidential elections, laying hold of Republicans’ victory. However, when issued orders from US district judge Nicholas Ranjan, a Trump appointee, to turn in evidence of the exaggerated fraud claims against the lawsuit in Pennsylvania, the Republican Party could not list substantiated cases.
Nearly four months ahead in the US 2020 Presidential elections, Trump’s Republican Party and the democrats with its allied groups have launched a battlefront about the mail-in “massive frauds”. Based on the faulty premise that the US Postal Service didn’t postmark ballots with prepaid postage, Republican National Committee and Trump campaign cast its doubts on “fair” elections and sued 67 counties in Pennsylvania over state’s absentee ballot at drop off site other than election premises.
“Contrary to the direction of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, defendants have sacrificed the sanctity of in-person voting at the altar of unmonitored mail-in voting and have exponentially enhanced the threat that fraudulent or otherwise ineligible ballots will be cast and counted in the upcoming general election,” Trump’s lawsuit filing motion read. President Trump had also sought to block the election officials from counting the mail-in ballots in case voters forgot the secrecy sleeve on ballot return-envelope in the court, according to reports.
Evidence “paltry”
While in the lawsuit, Trump campaign cited a handful of mail-in ballot fraud cases, they failed to produce evidence of pervasive fraud in its response to the documents accessed by the US broadcasters. Among the case study presented was the conviction of Domenick DeMuro, a former Philadelphia election judge who was tried on charges of bribery and ringing votes with cash. Further, it included the conviction of a former congressman named Ozzy Myers who bribed DeMuro. Both parties mentioned were democrats, a report confirmed. The filing also included the 2017 case of election workers intimidating and harassing voters. An attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, John Powers, called the evidence “paltry”, standing against Trump on behalf of civil rights groups. No intentional misconduct in the state’s June primary election or voter fraud issue in Pennsylvania was presented, reports confirmed Powers as saying, adding, Trump campaign did not make immediate comments on the filing.
(Image Credit: AP)
Updated 14:51 IST, August 22nd 2020