From Newsgroup: alt.home.repair

In a contest of who's more feeble, Trump wins~!



TrumpAs new aevidenceA that Biden lost in 2020 is
ridiculously wrong (and dusty). We reviewed it.

More than three years after the 2020 election, former
President Donald Trump is claiming, again, to have
definitive proof the election was stolen. But this new
oevidence,o an anonymous 32-page document, is built on many
of the same flimsy claims heAs endorsed since he lost to Joe
Biden.

oIt has often been repeated there is ano evidenceA of fraud
in the 2020 Election,o the document says. oIn actuality,
there is no evidence Joe Biden won. Ongoing investigations
in the Swing States reveal hundreds of thousands of votes
were altered and/or not lawfully cast in the Presidential
Election. Joe Biden needed them.o

The proof from swing states, it says, is enough to change
the outcome.

Trump shared the unsigned document on Truth Social,
declaring it ofully verified.o

Stop us if youAve heard this before: ItAs not.

Trump lawyers cited TrumpAs post in a federal court document
arguing Trump has immunity from prosecution in the federal
election interference case. The report details dozens of
claims about the 2020 election from Arizona, Georgia,
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Some allegations
overlap with falsehoods previously debunked by PolitiFact or
other fact-checkers. The report misleads about how election
officials count ballots and arrive at final results.

oNowhere is there a smoking gun, conclusive evidence that
there was fraud or illegal ballots cast for Joe Biden,o said
Justin Grimmer, a Stanford University political science
professor who researches elections. oInstead, the report
relies upon innuendo, implication and poor data analysis to
reach a conclusion about fraudulent votes being cast when
the evidence supposedly supporting that conclusion simply
cannot justify that conclusion.o

PolitiFact has documented some examples of voter fraud in
2020, such as people casting votes on behalf of dead
relatives. But these instances were not enough to change the
raceAs outcome, and some crimes were committed by
Republicans. Examples cited in the report do not prove that
fraudulent ballots were cast for Biden.

The 2020 electionAs outcome was verified in many ways.
States certified the results. Congress accepted the results.
Trump and his allies lost more than 60 lawsuits. A group of
conservatives, including former federal judges, examined
every fraud and miscount claim by Trump and concluded that
they ofailed to present evidence of fraud or inaccurate
results significant enough to invalidate the results.o

On the same day Trump shared this report, USA Today
published an op-ed by Ken Block headlined: oTrump paid me to
find voter fraud. Then he lied after I found 2020 election
wasnAt stolen.o Block, a former Rhode Island gubernatorial
candidate who founded Simpatico Software Systems, was hired
by the Trump campaign to try to back up TrumpAs allegations
after the election. His work is now in the hands of
prosecutors who have charged Trump with crimes for actions
leading to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

oWhat these claims donAt take into account is that voter
fraud is detectable, quantifiable and verifiable,o Block
wrote in USA Today. oI have yet to see anyone offer up
aevidenceA of voter fraud from the 2020 election that
provides these three things.o

We fact-checked a sample of the allegations in the report
Trump shared. Trump campaign spokespeople and his lawyers
didnAt answer our emails asking to identify the reportAs
author.
Maricopa audit 5-6-21

This May 6, 2021, photo shows contractors for Florida-based
Cyber Ninjas examining and recounting Maricopa County,
ArizonaAs 2020 general election ballots at Veterans Memorial
Coliseum in Phoenix. (AP)
Arizona

The allegations about Arizona largely focus on Maricopa
County, the jurisdiction with more than half of the stateAs
voters. State Senate Republicans ordered a review of the
ballots and found that Biden beat Trump by about 45,000
votes u virtually the same as the countyAs official canvass.

The report Trump shared repeats some debunked claims. For
example, it said that Maricopa County accepted 18,000 mail
ballots the day after the 2020 election from the U.S. Postal
Service. The Associated Press concluded that the claim was
wrong. The number referred to a form showing when early
ballots received before the deadline were handed to a
private vendor for scanning, a Maricopa County Elections
Department spokesperson told the AP.

oIn our legal system, there comes a time when questions are
finally settled,o Paul Bender, an Arizona State University
law professor, told PolitiFact oThat time has come with
regard to the validity of BidenAs election.o
Ballot drop box Athens Georgia 10-19-20

In this Oct. 19, 2020 file photo, a voter submits a ballot
in an official drop box during early voting in Athens, Ga.
(AP)
??Georgia

The report said ocountless irregularities emergedo and cited
owater main breakso in reference to Georgia.

State Farm Arena in Atlanta reported that one room being
used for ballot counting had a 6 a.m. water leak. There was
a brief delay in tabulating absentee ballots during the two
hours required to repair the leak, which resulted from an
overflowing urinal. No ballots were damaged, the arena said.

In June 2023, the State Election Board dismissed a case
about alleged malfeasance at the arena concluding othere was
no evidence of any type of fraud as alleged.o

The Trump document cites questionable sources, including
True the Vote about ballot drop boxes u the focus of the
o2,000 Muleso documentary by Dinesh DASouza. The 2022 film
alleged massive voter fraud involving ballot drop boxes and
cellphone location data, based on several hundred phones
passing by drop boxes.

oThese assertions are part of a dancing fountain of lies
that have been disproven by the count, the recount, and the
audit of the 2020 vote in Georgia, and for which not one
single shred of evidence has been offered,o said Mike
Hassinger, a Georgia Secretary of State spokesperson.
oSixteen individual lawsuits were brought to challenge the
validity of GeorgiaAs 2020 election results, of which 12
were dismissed by the courts, and four withdrawn by former
President TrumpAs own lawyers.o
Detroit voters in line 2020 election, 11-2-2020

Voters wait in line Nov. 2, 2020, to fill out a ballot on
the last day of early absentee voting before tomorrowAs
general election at the Northwest Activities Center in
Detroit. (AP)
Michigan

One of the reportAs allegations about Michigan centered
around suspected voter irregularities in Muskegon, a city of
about 38,000 people. The report claimed police documented oa
fraudulent voter registration scheme,o but this was kept
ohiddeno for almost three years.

The reportAs source is The Gateway Pundit, and in August we
rated the underlying claim False.

HereAs what happened: The Muskegon city clerk alerted police
after noticing irregularities on some of the 8,000 to 10,000
voter registration forms dropped off by a canvasser. Local
and state police referred the case to the FBI, because the
canvasserAs employer, GBI Strategies, was operating in
multiple states.

Danny Wimmer, press secretary for MichiganAs attorney
general, told PolitiFact that officials hadnAt ruled out the
possibility that a crime may have been committed, but none
of the agencies involved in the investigation found any
evidence of successful fraudulent voter registrations.
Philadelphia workers scan ballots Nov 3 2020

Philadelphia election workers scan ballots for the general
election Nov. 3, 2020, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center
in Philadelphia. (AP)
Pennsylvania

The report repeated a false claim Trump and his supporters
pushed about ballot counting in Philadelphia in the days
following the election. It alleged that in PennsylvaniaAs
largest city, ohundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were
unlawfully counted in secret,o and Republican poll watchers
were barred from observing the vote count.

Election observers representing the Trump campaign and the
Republican Party were allowed to observe the ballot-counting
process, alongside Democrats. In Philadelphia, a judge
allowed observers from both parties to view the process from
6 feet away.

oNothing was done in secret or against a court order,o said
Nick Custodio, a Philadelphia City Commissioners office
spokesperson.
Wisconsin ballot drop box

A ballot drop box sits outside City Hall in Milwaukee ahead
of the 2020 election. (Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel)
Wisconsin

After losing Wisconsin to Biden, Trump allies filed lawsuits
seeking to invalidate votes cast by drop box. The report
cites the Wisconsin Supreme CourtAs 2022 ruling in one of
the lawsuits, which prohibited the use of drop boxes, except
inside election offices.

This ruling was announced one month before the stateAs
primary election for the 2022 midterms and applies to future
elections; it does not retroactively apply to the 2020
election.

An AP analysis found that the stateAs expanded use of drop
boxes in the 2020 election did not trigger widespread fraud.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission saw no instances in which
ballot drop boxes were damaged or used to submit fraudulent
ballots.
Our ruling

If there was definitive evidence that BidenAs 2020 victory
was secured on fraud, we would have it by now. The document
shared by Trump is a lot of smoke u so much that we rate its
central claim Pants on Fire!

RELATED: Fact-check: TrumpAs bogus claim on Fox News that
ballots in 2020 were afakeA

RELATED: In attack on Bill Barr, Trump repeats falsehood
about 2020 election
Our Sources

Donald Trump, Truth Social, Jan. 2, 2024

Anonymous, Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020
Presidential Election in the Swing States, Jan. 2, 2024

Ken Block op-ed in USA Today, Trump paid me to find voter
fraud. Then he lied after I found 2020 election wasn't
stolen., Jan. 2, 2024

The Washington Post, Trump lawyersA doozy of a filing on
voter fraud, Jan. 3, 2024

Georgia Secretary of State, State Election Board Clears
Fulton County "Ballot Suitcase" Investigation; Report Finds
No Evidence of Conspiracy, No Fraud, June 20, 2023

Senator John Danforth, Benjamin Ginsberg, The Honorable
Thomas B. Griffith, David Hoppe, The Honorable J. Michael
Luttig, The Honorable Michael W. McConnell, The Honorable
Theodore B. Olson, Senator Gordon H. Smith, Lost, Not
Stolen, July 2022

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Key election security showdown
expected in meeting at Capitol, July 27, 2023

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Investigation blames human
error for issues in Fulton election audit, March 16, 2022

Texas Tribune, Leaders of Texas-based activist group True
the Vote accused of using donations for personal gain, June
5, 2023

Email interview, Mike Hassinger, Georgia Secretary of State
spokesperson, Jan. 4, 2024

Telephone interview, Justin Grimmer, political science
professor at Stanford University, Jan. 4, 2024

Email interview, Ken Block, owner of Simpatico Software
Systems and author of "Disproven: My Unbiased Search for
Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data That Shows Why
He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections," Jan. 4, 2024

Email interview, Nick Custodio, deputy commissioner for
chairperson Lisa Deeley and spokesperson for the
Philadelphia City Commissioners office, Jan. 5, 2024

Email interview, Paul Bender, Arizona State University law
professor, Jan. 4, 2024

PolitiFact, "Ted Cruz falsely claims Philadelphia is
counting votes in ashroud of darknessA," Nov. 6, 2020

PolitiFact, "Claim that Wisconsin official Meagan Wolfe
allowed absentee drop boxes, ballot harvesting is false,"
Nov. 8, 2023

PolitiFact, "TrumpAs wrong claim that election observers
were barred in Pennsylvania, Michigan," Nov. 12, 2020

PolitiFact, "No, suspected voter registration irregularities
in Michigan did not result in 2020 election fraud," Aug. 14,
2023

The Associated Press, "No major problems with ballot drop
boxes in 2020, AP finds," July 17, 2022

The Associated Press, "Wisconsin Supreme Court disallows
absentee ballot drop boxes," July 8, 2022

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Order on canvassing
observation, Nov. 5, 2020

Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, July 8, 2022
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