To the editor:
According to the latest polling, up to 60 percent of Republicans falsely believe the election was stolen, because of alleged voter fraud. Unsubstantiated claims of a vanishing semi-trailer full of election ballots which had been moved from NY, Pennsylvania. Affidavits from witnesses who allege voter fraud. Voting machines that allegedly manipulated votes. The list goes on and on.
In response to Trump’s claims of voter fraud on Nov. 9, 2020, Attorney General William Barr, appointed by President Trump, ordered the federal Justice Department to investigate voting irregularities.
Shortly thereafter, the U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency and Homeland Security issued the following statement: “When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Disputing the persistent and baseless claims of President Trump, his attorney general issued the following statement: “U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
The alleged semi trailer full of lost ballots was part of the FBI investigation. Furthermore, the semi-trailer driver who made the report had a long history of drug abuse and mental illness. His mother told a judge, “He needs behavioral, cognitive, therapeutic attention and he needs mental health attention.” Judge Stephen P. Linebaugh remarked, “He constantly lied.” Pennsylvania investigated his claims and found them not credible and virtually impossible for those ballots to be introduced into the Pennsylvania system without detection.
Of course, many state agencies investigate voter fraud. Arizona and Georgia secretaries of state investigated and found no voter fraud in their states. Georgia recounted the votes three times, once by hand, and still no fraud. In Michigan, a judge dismissed sworn affidavits of voter fraud as “speculative, inadmissible and insufficient.”
On Dec. 21, 2020, Fox News and Newsmax both walked back previous allegations that voting machines had manipulated votes.
Virtually all of the credible alleged voter fraud claims have been investigated by federal and/or state officials. There is no substantiation for these continuing attacks on our democracy.
Democracy is a fragile institution. When the population loses faith in the government’s ability to conduct fair and accurate elections, democracy is at risk. Some will continue to attack our democracy with these unsubstantiated complaints. Do not be duped into believing them. Stand up for our country and the integrity of the election.
Denny Kubal, Brown County
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