All of Team Trump’s screaming about voter fraud recently got a couple of excellent punchlines with Republicans getting caught attempting to commit voter fraud. First, Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was forced to pay out $25,000 to a poll worker in Pennsylvania who caught a Republican man attempting to vote twice—the second time in the name of his Democratic son. Then, a Nevada man was charged with voting in the name of his dead wife after having made a big public fuss about how some evil person had fraudulently voted in the name of his dead wife.
There are more. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake runs down the results of investigations into 11 names claimed by Republicans as cases where the identities of dead people were allegedly used to vote.
In addition to the Nevada case involving Donald Kirk Hartle voting in the name of his late wife, Rosemarie Hartle, Pennsylvania had a case of a Republican man, Francis Fiore Presto, voting in the name of his dead wife, Judy Presto. Also in Pennsylvania, Bruce Bartman registered and voted for Trump in the name of his dead mother, Elizabeth Bartman. In a final Pennsylvania case, a ballot was cast in the name of Judy Ondick just days after her death, with her family saying that, though a registered Democrat, she had intended to vote for Trump.
Multiple other cases where Republicans claimed dead people had voted turned out to be cases where Republicans failed to consider the possibility that more than one person can have the same name. In another case, the late James Blalock did not vote, but his widow, Mrs. James Blalock, did, in that name. The great boxer Joe Frazier simply did not cast a vote years after his death, as Rudy Giuliani claimed he did in willful disregard of facts. Three other cases touted by Republicans as proof of wrongdoing remain unresolved. Still, even if they all turn out to be cases where Democrats voted for President Biden in the names of their deceased family members, the score is at best tied. And none of it was ever anything approaching evidence of large-scale fraud of the type required to steal an election.
Republicans also tried to find that proof, with, for instance, their problematic audit of votes in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which increased Biden’s margin in the county while failing to uncover any wrongdoing. And their barrage of lawsuits that got thrown out of court after court. And their defamation of Dominion Voting Systems and one of its executives. They threw everything at the wall, and nothing stuck.
None of this will stop Republicans from repeating a politically useful lie about a stolen election, especially with Donald Trump out there trying to soothe his ego after his big loss. But the real outcomes of the supposed fraud cases touted by Republicans are a corrective to anyone tempted to think that average Republican voters upset about voter fraud are just innocently bought into Trump’s Big Lie. Some of them are, for sure. But we know that some of them are out there trying to build the case for the lie through their own acts of fraud.
There are more. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake runs down the results of investigations into 11 names claimed by Republicans as cases where the identities of dead people were allegedly used to vote.
In addition to the Nevada case involving Donald Kirk Hartle voting in the name of his late wife, Rosemarie Hartle, Pennsylvania had a case of a Republican man, Francis Fiore Presto, voting in the name of his dead wife, Judy Presto. Also in Pennsylvania, Bruce Bartman registered and voted for Trump in the name of his dead mother, Elizabeth Bartman. In a final Pennsylvania case, a ballot was cast in the name of Judy Ondick just days after her death, with her family saying that, though a registered Democrat, she had intended to vote for Trump.
Multiple other cases where Republicans claimed dead people had voted turned out to be cases where Republicans failed to consider the possibility that more than one person can have the same name. In another case, the late James Blalock did not vote, but his widow, Mrs. James Blalock, did, in that name. The great boxer Joe Frazier simply did not cast a vote years after his death, as Rudy Giuliani claimed he did in willful disregard of facts. Three other cases touted by Republicans as proof of wrongdoing remain unresolved. Still, even if they all turn out to be cases where Democrats voted for President Biden in the names of their deceased family members, the score is at best tied. And none of it was ever anything approaching evidence of large-scale fraud of the type required to steal an election.
Republicans also tried to find that proof, with, for instance, their problematic audit of votes in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which increased Biden’s margin in the county while failing to uncover any wrongdoing. And their barrage of lawsuits that got thrown out of court after court. And their defamation of Dominion Voting Systems and one of its executives. They threw everything at the wall, and nothing stuck.
None of this will stop Republicans from repeating a politically useful lie about a stolen election, especially with Donald Trump out there trying to soothe his ego after his big loss. But the real outcomes of the supposed fraud cases touted by Republicans are a corrective to anyone tempted to think that average Republican voters upset about voter fraud are just innocently bought into Trump’s Big Lie. Some of them are, for sure. But we know that some of them are out there trying to build the case for the lie through their own acts of fraud.