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Claim: Election will see 'fraud like we’ve never seen.' Fact check: False

Donald Trump on election integrity: 'This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen'

During the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, President Trump made multiple claims about fraudulent activity associated with the 2020 election. He claimed that there were "unsolicited ballots" being sent to voters. "You're soliciting, you're asking, they send it back, you send it back. I did that. They're sending millions of ballots all over the country. There's fraud," Trump said. In some states like Oregon and Colorado, if you're registered to vote, state election officials will automatically send your ballot through the mail to be returned via mail or in-person drop-off. In other states, voters have to request an absentee ballot be sent to them.

Trump claimed ballots were being discarded in rivers and creeks. "They found them in creeks. They found some with the name 'Trump,' just happened to have the name 'Trump,' just the other day, in a wastepaper basket," Trump said. There is no evidence of ballots being thrown into any body of water. Trump is referencing nine military ballots that were improperly thrown out in Pennsylvania by a temporary election worker who was later fired. Seven of the nine ballots were for Trump.


The president also accused mail carriers of selling ballots. "Take a look at West Virginia. Mailmen are selling the ballots. They're being sold," Trump said. One mail carrier in West Virginia pleaded guilty to one count of election fraud and one count of injury to the mail for tampering with eight primary ballot request forms. He changed the party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. There is no evidence any postal workers sold any ballots.

Trump also made it seem as though in some states ballots can be sent in after Election Day. "Can you imagine where they say you have to have your ballot in by November 10th? November 10th. That means, that is seven days after the election, in theory should have been announced," Trump said. But that is now what states have planned. Some states allow ballots to arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3. Others permit election officials to keep counting ballots after Election Day, given the anticipate record number of voters using the mail this year. In Pennsylvania, for example, Nov. 10 is the last day for county boards of elections to receive military and overseas absentee ballots (submitted for delivery no later than 11:59 P.M. on November 2).

Trump claimed that voters in a "Democrat area" got two ballots. Although there can be mishaps with mail-in voting, there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

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MAGA says no to Trump & Kennedy’s junk science

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions after making an announcement on“ significant medical and scientific findings for America’ s children” in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Federal health officials suggested a link between the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy as a risk for autism, although many health...

(Getty Images)

MAGA says no to Trump & Kennedy’s junk science

President Trump stood at the White House podium, addressing a room full of reporters.

“First, effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of…ah-said-a…well…let’s see how we say that.”

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On Live Facial Recognition in the City: We Are Not Guinea Pigs, and We Are Not Disposable

New Orleans fights a facial recognition ordinance as residents warn of privacy risks, mass surveillance, and threats to immigrant communities.

Getty Images, PhanuwatNandee

On Live Facial Recognition in the City: We Are Not Guinea Pigs, and We Are Not Disposable

Every day, I ride my bike down my block in Milan, a tight-knit residential neighborhood in central New Orleans. And every day, a surveillance camera follows me down the block.

Despite the rosy rhetoric of pro-surveillance politicians and facial recognition vendors, that camera doesn’t make me safer. In fact, it puts everyone in New Orleans at risk.

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An illustration of two people holding legal documents.
llustration by Olivia Abeyta for palabra

Proof of Citizenship, No Proof of Safety

Claudia, an immigrant from Chile who lives in suburban Maryland right outside Washington, D.C., watched closely as the Trump administration ramped up its mass deportation campaign during the spring (Claudia, not her real name, asked to be identified by a pseudonym because she is afraid of federal immigration agents).

She went online and watched countless videos of masked, heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents breaking the car windows of immigrants to wrestle them out of their cars, and detaining people at their workplaces, like restaurants, car washes, and agricultural fields. Many of her friends told her about ICE sweeps in heavily Latino apartment complexes near her home.

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Protest sign, We the people.
Protests have been sparked across the country over the last few weeks.
Gene Gallin on Unsplash

Why Constitution Day Should Spark a Movement for a New Convention in 2037

Sept. 17 marked Constitution Day, grounded in a federal law commemorating the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. As explained by the courts of Maryland, “By law, all educational institutions receiving federal funding must observe Constitution Day. It is an opportunity to celebrate and discuss our Constitution and system of government.”

This week also marked the release of an important new book by the historian Jill Lepore: “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” (as reviewed in the New York Times in a public link). Here’s an overview of her conclusions from the publisher:

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