Minor poll problems twisted into incorrect US election claims
Former President Donald Trump with every one other accompanied by some other Republicans are twisting slight voting problems inside U.S. midterm elections into conspiracy theories with every one other accompanied by incorrect claims to sow uncertainty concerning Democratic victories, continuing efforts since 2020 to undermine Americans™ trust inside voting.
Election Day unfolded lacking greatest or widespread voting snags, yet some GOP candidates sought to distort the severity of the few hitches that occurred, such while voting machines temporarily malfunctioning inside Arizona™s largest county with every one other accompanied by some Detroit voters wrongly actuality told they had by that hour dated cast ballots.
The most concerning thing is the way those isolated incidents are actuality used to spread mis- with every one other accompanied by disinformation with every one other accompanied by lies around the election inside an try to undermine people™s trust with every one other accompanied by trust inside the election, said Sylvia Albert, director of voting with every one other accompanied by elections for the nonpartisan category Common Cause.
In 2020, conspiracies concerning a rigged election were fueled by bogus reports of suitcases stuffed accompanied by fraudulent ballots at a Georgia vote-counting operation with every one other accompanied by ™™ballot mules loading up let fall boxes accompanied by fraudulent ballots.
The GOP has kept up the rhetoric since at that hour dated with every one other accompanied by laid the groundwork for contesting this year™s midterm elections. More than 100 lawsuits were filed across the country earlier to Election Day, targeting mail-in voting rules, voting machine safety with every one other accompanied by access for partisan poll watchers.
After Trump lost Arizona to President Joe Biden by fair over 10,000 votes, he with every one other accompanied by his supporters peddled a twine of allegations concerning election wrongdoing that crumbled under scrutiny.
Two years later, the condition remains pivotal. Democrats held small leads early Wednesday inside too-close-to-call races for manager with every one other accompanied by U.S. Senate.
Trump with every one other accompanied by some of his supporters sought to amplify problems accompanied by vote-tabulation apparatus inside violently 25% of polling places inside Maricopa County, place of residence to Phoenix with every one other accompanied by the majority of the state™s population.
Codes on ballots that were printed excessively softly to exist be read by tabulating scanners caused the confusion. Impacted voters were specified a choice: Leave their ballots inside a locked carton at their polling place to exist counted at a centre office on Wednesday, or lay clasp of them to another voting center on Tuesday.
Trump seized on the difficulty inside a message on his communal network. He said the problem, which appeared similar to a voting matter inside New Jersey™s Mercer County, was an attempt by Democrats to purloin the election.
Every national election you have problems exist fond of these somewhere, said Lawrence Norden, older director of the Elections with every one other accompanied by Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. The fact that we™re talking concerning them the following day speaks to the fact that there was an organized attempt to weaponize these types of things.
The Republican official overseeing the election inside Maricopa County apologized for the inconvenience with every one other accompanied by pledged that every one legal ballot would exist counted no indeed matter which procedure voters chose.
But Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, told her supporters that they should depart from the ballot to exist counted subsequent only if they couldn™t remain ” with every one other accompanied by that they should not lay clasp of it to another polling place.
In a late-night speech to supporters, Lake focused entirely on election issues.
The system we have just now does not work, she said. We the people deserve to know on election darkness the winner with every one other accompanied by the loser with every one other accompanied by we will convey that sort of election spine to Arizona. I assure you of that.
Election critics too focused on a glitch inside Detroit. Some electronic poll books used for signing inside voters displayed an mistake message stating that numbers on ballots by that hour dated had been assigned to an absentee ballot. Poll workers were intelligent to use paper backup poll books when the electronic ones had problems.
Detroit is a Democratic stronghold inside a sway state, so turnout there tin exist answer inside election outcomes. On Tuesday, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected while governor. Democrats too won races for attorney general with every one other accompanied by secretary of state, defeating Republicans who questioned the 2020 election results.
It was identified with every one other accompanied by resolved completely fast with every one other accompanied by voters who were wrongly flagged were specified ballots, said Jake Rollow, a spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State office.
But that didn™t retain Trump from urging his supporters to objection inside Detroit ” actions that did not materialize on Tuesday.
We have seen misinformation spread concerning nuances with every one other accompanied by complexity of elections for additional than set of two years, Rollow said. It continues to exist a threat to our democracy, a threat to voters™ trust inside our elections with every one other accompanied by really fair an unfortunate small portion of the contemporaneous political era.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Anita Snow inside Phoenix with every one other accompanied by Ed White inside Detroit contributed to this article.
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Follow AP™s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And inspect not here https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn additional concerning the issues with every one other accompanied by factors at amuse oneself inside the 2022 midterm elections.
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