VOTER FRAUD: A THREAD
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, keeps a database of voter fraud.

This database runs back at least 20 years. It tracks prosecutions for voter fraud in elections at every level, from Mayoral campaigns all the way up to Presidential,...

1/
...in all forms (in-person, absentee, registration, etc...).

They have identified 1,285 incidents of prosecuted voter fraud over a 20 year period.

In that time frame, there have been well over 1 billion votes cast.

2/
That's an effective (prosecuted) fraud rate of 0.00029% (maximum), according to one of the fiercest proponents of more restrictive voting regulations.

3/
Between 2002 and 2005, 40 individual voters in the U.S. were prosecuted for voting fraud... out of 197 million votes cast. An effective rate of 0.00000013%.

The 2004 election in Ohio had a voter fraud rate of 0.00004%.

4/
A study done by Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School encompassing more than 1 billion votes from 2000 to 2014 found 31 instances of in-person voting fraud. An effective rate of 0.0000031%.

5/
Trump claimed there were more than 3 million illegal votes cast in the 2016 election. (Coincidentally that was the number by which he lost the popular vote.)

6/
That would have represented an effective fraud rate of at least 2.4%. Well over 1,000x higher than the resuts of any study ever done on the matter.

7/
He set up a commission to ferret out voter fraud in 2017 and prove the popular vote was stolen. That commission was disbanded within months, without fiiling a report.

8/
The odds of an individual committing any type of voter fraud are statistically lower than the odds of that same individual being struck by lightning.

9/
The objective of the Trump administration's constant drumbeat about the evils of mail-in ballots and voter fraud is two-fold, and it has almost nothing to do with voter fraud.

10/
The 1st objective is to accuse others of what they are themselves guilty of facilitating. Which is an extremely common Trump admin tactic. So when they themselves are accused, the water is already muddy & they can claim the accusations are either retaliatory, or "no worse...

11/
...thanwhat democrats have done."

The second, and more sinister objective, is to undermine the institution of democracy and voting itself, in order to underpin claims of fraud in the event that they lose the election. "See, we told you this would happen."

12/
Anecdotally, there's another angle to consider. The Federal Election Commission has been without a quorum since August of 2019.

13/
However, Trump nominated a commissioner in 2017. McConnell's Senate refused to hold a vote on that appointment. The nomination was renewed in 2018. Again, no vote.

14/
So, simply put, if the GOP & the Trump administration are so concerned with actually combating and prosecuting voter fraud - why would they actively facilitate the rendering of the agency tasked with policing fraud unable to perform its duties, through intentional inaction?

15/
I think it's because preventing voter fraud would have virtually zero impact on election outcomes, as illustrated by the statistics.

16/
However, convincing people it is a significant problem while refusing to implement any measures to solve it erodes confidence in elections, allows Republicans the opportunity to cheat without repercussion, and preemptively supports the claim that a Republican loss isn't...

17/
...actually a loss at all... whether they can substantiate that claim or not.

*As of 4 days ago, Trey Trainor, the FEC nominee mentioned above was approved by the Senate, enabling a quorum of four. Two seats still remain vacant, without nominations.

18/
Another resignation would result in a lack of quorum. Any votes must now be unanimous, with the commission split between two Republicans, one Democrat, and one left-leaning independent. With a current backlog of 350 cases, many approaching statute of limitations, and...

19/
...the ability for one obstructionist to prevent any action whatsoever, it seems that this was a procedural move to avoid accusations of disabling the commission while actively raising voter fraud issues, since it would not be possible to...

20/
...blame Democrats for obstructing the appointment.

END/

#VoteByMail #VoterFraud #GOPComplicitTraitors #GOPLies #TrumpLies #FactsMatter #VoteBlue2020 #USPS
You can follow @alexdschiller.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: