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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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Connecticut: Democracy, Innovation, and Economic Resilience

The 50: Connecticut

Credit: Hugo Balta

Connecticut: Democracy, Innovation, and Economic Resilience

The 50 is a four-year multimedia project in which the Fulcrum visits different communities across all 50 states to learn what motivated them to vote in the 2024 presidential election and see how the Donald Trump administration is meeting those concerns and hopes.

Hartford, Connecticut, stands as a living testament to American democracy, ingenuity, and resilience. As the state’s capital, it’s home to cultural landmarks like the Mark Twain House & Museum, where Twain penned The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, embodying the spirit of self-governance and creative daring that defines the region.

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Hand blocking someone speaking

The Third Way has recently released a memo stating that the “stampede away from the Democratic Party” is partly a result of the language and rhetoric it uses.

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To Protect Democracy, Democrats Should Pay Attention to the Third Way’s List of ‘Offensive’ Words

More than fifty years ago, comedian George Carlin delivered a monologue entitled Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” It was a tribute to the legendary Lenny Bruce, whose “nine dirty words” performance led to his arrest and his banning from many places.

His seven words were “p—, f—, c—, c———, m———–, and t—.”

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Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage
Why Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is good news for all media outlets
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Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage

Last week, the ultraconservative news outlet, NewsMax, reached a $73 million settlement with the voting machine company, Dominion, in essence, admitting that they lied in their reporting about the use of their voting machines to “rig” or distort the 2020 presidential election. Not exactly shocking news, since five years later, there is no credible evidence to suggest any malfeasance regarding the 2020 election. To viewers of conservative media, such as Fox News, this might have shaken a fully embraced conspiracy theory. Except it didn’t, because those viewers haven’t seen it.

Many people have a hard time understanding why Trump enjoys so much support, given his outrageous statements and damaging public policy pursuits. Part of the answer is due to Fox News’ apparent censoring of stories that might be deemed negative to Trump. During the past five years, I’ve tracked dozens of examples of news stories that cast Donald Trump in a negative light, including statements by Trump himself, which would make a rational person cringe. Yet, Fox News has methodically censored these stories, only conveying rosy news that draws its top ratings.

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U.S. Flag / artificial intelligence / technology / congress / ai

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity.

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Liberty and the General Welfare in the Age of AI

If the means justify the ends, we’d still be operating under the Articles of Confederation. The Founders understood that the means—the governmental structure itself—must always serve the ends of liberty and prosperity. When the means no longer served those ends, they experimented with yet another design for their government—they did expect it to be the last.

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity. Both of those goals were top of mind for early Americans. They demanded the Bill of Rights to protect the former, and they identified the latter—namely, the general welfare—as the animating purpose for the government. Both of those goals are being challenged by constitutional doctrines that do not align with AI development or even undermine it. A full review of those doctrines could fill a book (and perhaps one day it will). For now, however, I’m just going to raise two.

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