Was the election rigged? Let’s take a look. — Sen. Jeff Jackson
Last week I sent an email that bluntly stated:
“The election was not rigged. The elected officials saying otherwise are being intentionally dishonest.”
And I got a lot of replies from people saying, “Are you SURE it wasn’t rigged? How do you know? Where’s the proof? I heard that it was, so maybe we should look into that.”
Ok, so let me double back for a minute.
If you honestly aren’t sure whether or not the election was rigged, the best way I know to address that is to provide a wide variety of sources on the subject.
So here are 44 sources — a number of them supporters of the president — for you to consider.
In my view, if you genuinely believe that the election may have been stolen, you owe it to yourself to at least check your beliefs against what you see below.
(And if, upon review, you determine that the evidence does not support a conclusion that the election was rigged, the next step would be to cast a skeptical eye toward the sources that repeatedly tried to convince you otherwise.)
“But Jeff, why should I believe anything you say?”
Don’t. Check the sources.
“But Jeff, these sources are all corrupt and lying and should be ignored!”
Ok — but just know that when people accuse you of believing a conspiracy theory, this is why.
It’s because — in the face of an immense number of fact checks, Republican judges, and Republican elected officials — you’re not willing to consider the possibility that you may have been misled.
That’s conspiracy theory territory, and you should just know that going in.
For everyone else, please share this and let’s see if we can reach a few people. It might not work, but we should at least try.
- Sen. Jeff Jackson
1. “Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud” — AP
https://apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d
2. “Trump’s claims of vote rigging are all wrong” — AP
3. “First Statewide Audit of paper ballots in Georgia upholds results of Presidential race” — Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger (R)
4. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” — Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees
5.“The minimal number of criminal investigations that have so far come out of the November vote further reinforce the absence of sweeping vote fraud schemes.” — Washington Post
6. “In a remarkable show of near-unanimity across the nation’s judiciary, at least 86 judges — ranging from jurists serving at the lowest levels of state court systems to members of the United States Supreme Court — rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters.” — Washington Post
7. “It’s Official: The Election Was Secure” — Brennan Center for Justice
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/its-official-election-was-secure
8. “As former Republican Members of Congress who swore an oath to the Constitution, we believe the statements by President Trump alleging fraud in the election are efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the election and are unacceptable” — Letter from ***31 Former Republican Members of Congress***
9. “To win, Mr. Trump must prove systemic fraud, with illegal votes in the tens of thousands. There is no evidence of that so far.” — Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-election-result-wont-be-overturned-11605134335
10. “U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann — a Republican and Federalist Society member in central Pennsylvania — compared the campaign’s legal arguments to ‘Frankenstein’s Monster,’ concluding that Trump’s team offered only ‘speculative accusations,’ not proof of rampant corruption.” — AP News
And you can read the case for yourself here: https://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/sites/pamd/files/20-2078_202.pdf
11. “A sitting president undermining our political process & questioning the legality of the voices of countless Americans without evidence is not only dangerous & wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon. Every American should have his or her vote counted.” — Will Hurd (R), Representative of Texas’s 23rd District
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/524738-republicans-rebuke-trump-over-claims-of-voter-fraud
12. “STOP spreading debunked misinformation…This is getting insane” — Adam Kinzinger (R), Republican Representative of Illinois’s 16th District
https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1324503564891414528?s=20
13. “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.” — Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R)
14. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) Shoots Down Trump Legal Team’s ‘Rigged Election’ Claims: “Absolutely Outrageous” — Fox News
15. “[The president] is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt or stolen — doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destruction and dangerous passions.” — Sen. Mitt Romney (R), Utah
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1324763757105602561?s=20
16. “President Trump’s legal team has not presented evidence of the massive fraud which would have had to be present to overturn the election. I voted for President Trump but Joe Biden won.” — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), Louisiana
https://twitter.com/SenBillCassidy/status/1331013512605405184?s=20
17. “Republican Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump’s campaign to overturn Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
18. “Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer (R) says widespread voter fraud not proven in 2020 election” — KETV
19. “Former GOP election law attorney says widespread voter fraud doesn’t exist” — Fox Denver
20. “There is not and has not been any credible evidence of significant fraud in the 2020 election” — Washington Post
21. “Georgia election: Trump voter fraud claims and others fact-checked” — BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/55561877
22. “Trump’s made-up claims of fake Georgia votes” — AP News
23. “Fact-checking Trump’s false claims about Pennsylvania’s election before his supporters attacked the Capitol” — The Philadelphia Inquirer
24. “Trump tweet wrongly suggests there were defects with Michigan voting machines” — Detroit Free Press
25. “The Times Called Officials In Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud” — New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html
26. “A Georgia Election official debunked Trump’s claims of voter fraud point by point” — New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/us/politics/trump-georgia-election-fraud.html
27. “Pennsylvania pours cold water on Trump’s voter fraud claims” — The Guardian
28. “Here’s the reality behind Trump’s claims about mail voting” — AP
29. “2020 election ‘most secure in American history,’ federal election security officials say” — Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2020-election-secure-history-federal-security
30. “Presidential Election ‘Most Secure’ In History, Top Security Experts At DHS Say” — HuffPost
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/2020-election-most-secure-dhs_n_5fadd55cc5b6370e7e3158ca
31. “Fired director of U.S. cyber agency Chris Krebs explains why President Trump’s claims of election interference are false” — 60 Minutes, CBS
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/election-results-security-chris-krebs-60-minutes-2020-11-29/
32. “Trump’s own officials say 2020 was America’s most secure election in history” — Vox
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-krebs
33. “Governor Wolf, officials say Pennsylvania had a fair and secure election” — MSN
34. “No, Dominion voting machines did not delete Trump votes.” — New York Times
35. “Georgia officials rebutted Trump’s claim that Dominion voting machines failed in ‘Republican strongholds.’” — NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/us/politics/dominion-georgia.html
36. “Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt (R) went on CNN and said the presidential election wasn’t ‘rigged’” — Springfield News Leader
37. “Sen. Cornyn (R) says he’s seen no evidence of voter fraud” — The Daily Sentinel
https://www.dailysentinel.com/news/local/article_c1250852-0687-5d3b-8b9b-d0e441b7ed20.html
38. “No evidence shows Biden benefitted from voter fraud, South Dakota Senator John Thune (R) says” — Argus Leader
39. Georgia official Raffensperger: “We had safe, secure, honest elections” — 60 Minutes, CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/georgia-official-raffensperger-we-had-safe-secure-honest-elections/
40. “Fact-Checking the Congressional Debate on Ratifying the Election Results” — NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/fact-check-electoral-certification
41. Arizona Supreme Court upholds election challenge dismissal: “In all, eight lawsuits challenging Biden’s Arizona win have failed.”
42. Fact check: After hand count audits of the vast majority of the ballots in the state, no evidence for claims Arizona’s results were marred by fraud — NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/electoral-college-certification-updates-n1252864/ncrd1253058#blogHeader
And you can see the hand count results for yourself here: https://azsos.gov/election/2020-general-election-hand-count-results
43. “Arizona’s GOP AG rejects voter fraud claims” — Axios
44. From a presidential commission to Trump-nominated judges, here’s who has rebuked Trump’s voter fraud claims — Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/03/voter-fraud/
