

Supply: Miami Herald / Getty
Three central Florida residents are the newest examples of Republicans ‘do as I say and never as I do’ concerning alleged voter fraud. All three have been arrested for allegedly casting ballots out of state whereas additionally voting in Florida through the 2020 election.
An investigation by Orlando’s Information 6 discovered that Jay Ketcik, Joan Halstead and John Rider all resided at The Villages and have been registered Republicans in Florida. In response to the outlet, Ketchik and Halstead had posts supportive of former President Donald Trump on their social media.
Republicans are fast to make use of the alleged existence of voter fraud to justify limiting voting rights. Nonetheless, in lots of cases, alleged instances of voter fraud contain members of their very own occasion.
By all accounts, alleged voter fraud is extraordinarily uncommon. It isn’t practically prevalent sufficient to justify the fixation that Republicans throughout the nation place on the difficulty. And on the uncommon event it does occur, built-in safeguards catch the alleged fraud, not often impacting the end result of an election.
Fraud actually didn’t have an effect on the 2020 presidential election. An Related Press investigation checked out six battleground states the place Trump and allies alleged fraud, discovering an insignificant variety of questionable ballots. Out of greater than 25 million ballots forged, roughly 475 questionable ballots have been uncovered. (Learn the total Related Press investigation right here).
In some instances, the alleged fraud was really due to administrative error. For instance, in Georgia practically half of the 64 votes flagged by county election officers have been due to administrative errors.
“Each credible examination has proven there was no widespread fraud” within the 2020 presidential election, Ben Hovland, a member of the U.S. Election Help Fee, informed the Related Press. “Again and again when we’ve got heard these claims and heard these allegations, and while you do an actual investigation, you see that it’s the exception and never the rule.”
Whereas Republicans declare the flurry of laws launched post-2020 to “restore voter confidence,” the insecurity Within the course of was attributable to lies and manipulations of reality, not the precise course of itself. Elevated scrutiny is unwarranted and sometimes leveraged to disenfranchise voters having a extra important impression on the method than nearly non-existent voter fraud.
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