WOLF WOLF WOLF
Politics
Analysis
A review of Trump’s many unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud
After crying wolf for four years, no wolves.

By
Philip Bump
May 26, 2020 at 11:44 a.m. EDT
As President Trump was loudly insisting that mail-in voting was rife with fraud in recent days, there was a quiet development in Florida that reinforced the reality of what Trump was up to.
You may recall that, in the days following the 2018 midterm elections, there was some uncertainty in the results in Florida's gubernatorial and Senate races. While Democrats nationally won clear victories in a number of closely contested House races, Florida looked different, with then-Gov. Rick Scott (R) appearing to win a close Senate race and then-Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) narrowly winning the race to replace Scott. As more votes came in, though, both Scott's and DeSantis's leads narrowed.
In short order, Scott
alleged that voter fraud had taken place and that the votes coming in from heavily Democratic Broward County were tainted. There was no evidence for this, but it was politically useful for Scott to suggest that he was the victim of an effort to steal the election and not simply the guy whose win was uncertain.
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Trump joined Scott’s evidence-free allegations, eager both for a Republican win the contest and to disparage Democrats as committing fraud. At one point Trump suggested that the results at the end of election night should stand — effectively disenfranchising thousands of absentee voters — and, at another point, he
claimed that law enforcement was “looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud.”
That investigation is complete.
No evidence of fraud was uncovered. Scott won, but more narrowly than it seemed he would on election night.
It is critically important to recognize this outcome, particularly given Trump’s current efforts to disparage mail-in balloting as risky. Trump was at it again on Tuesday morning,
claiming that “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed” if states increase mail-in voting. It’s a variation of a refrain we’ve heard over and over from Trump over the past four years — a refrain that literally has never been substantiated, as it wasn’t in Florida.