Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Trump's allies push tiny suspicions of vote fraud in two swing states

Absentee ballot return envelope
Steven White/Getty Images

The number of votes being investigated for fraud has surged this week — by 47 ballots.

Inquiries were revealed Thursday by the Justice Department, which said it was probing the fate of nine discarded mailed-in ballots in Pennsylvania, and the Republican attorney general in Texas, who unveiled indictments in a case of 38 people pretending to be disabled so they could vote absentee.

The probes show just how assiduously allies of President Trump are working to find and publicize cheating with mailed votes, a scheme the president maintains is so massive that it's about to rob him of an otherwise assured second term.


Trump on Thursday declined for a second straight day to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he's defeated, repeating his claims that easy mail voting is such a "whole big scam" that it will invalidate the election if he does not win. It is the most sustained assault on the bedrock of American democracy ever mounted by a president.

But the scattershot instances of suspected vote-stealing in recent years do not come remotely close to justifying such claims, which were further undercut Thursday when FBI Director Chrstoipher Wray told Congress flatly that the bureau has not detected any "coordinated national voter fraud effort."

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The Pennsylvania and Texas examples don't amount to so much as a rounding error, even in close contests in either of those significant presidential battlegrounds.

It's also highly unusual to announce a partial set of facts at the early stages of a criminal inquiry, only to have to correct them later, as the top federal prosecutor in central Pennsylvania did Thursday — giving the impression a Trump political appointee was leveraging his law enforcement powers to help promote the president's case.

U.S. Attorney David Freed originally said officials in Wilkes-Barre appeared to have "discarded" nine mailed ballots, all for Trump and cast by military members, that had been "improperly opened" by Luzerne County clerks. (He later said seven votes were for the president and the other ballots were put back in their sleeves, contents unknown.)

State law says such envelopes can't be opened, or the signatures on them verified, before Election Day. But applications for absentee ballots get returned in envelopes very similar to those used to send in the votes themselves.

In his news releases, Freed said he was justified in releasing the information because of "the limited amount of time before the general election and the vital public importance of these issues."

The Justice Department's own guidelines call for something different. Criminal investigations of elections "must be conducted in a way that minimizes the likelihood that the investigation itself may become a factor in the election."

Although he got the details of both cases wrong, Trump mentioned the Pennsylvania instance in his remarks Thursday and also reports that three trays of first class mail, including some ballot envelopes, had been found this week in a ditch in rural northern Wisconsin.

He did not mention the felony indictment GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton had filed against Shannon Brown, a Democratic county commissioner in rural East Texas. Brown was charged with orchestrating a scheme two years ago to get 38 allies to falsely claim on their absentee ballot applications that they were disabled — one of the few available excuses to vote by mail in the state. (Brown ended up winning by five votes.)

Paxton has been leading the GOP effort, which has so far been sustained in a series of high-profile court cases, to keep the rules for mail voting as restrictive as ever — and Texas now stands as one of just five states that will require an excuse for a November absentee more explicit than fear of the coronavirus.

The charges, he said, are further evidence that "mail ballots are vulnerable to diversion, coercion and influence by organized vote harvesting schemes."

Read More

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
hundred dollar bills.
Getty Images, boonchai wedmakawand

Congress Bill Spotlight: Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act

The Fulcrum introduces Congress Bill Spotlight, a weekly report by Jesse Rifkin, focusing on the noteworthy legislation of the thousands introduced in Congress. Rifkin has written about Congress for years, and now he's dissecting the most interesting bills you need to know about but that often don't get the right news coverage.

Trump reportedly tips his Mar-a-Lago groundskeepers with $100 bills. What if his own face appeared on them?

Keep ReadingShow less
Introducing The Expand Democracy 5

Introducing The Expand Democracy 5

In March, Rob Richie and Eveline Dowling launched a new Expand Democracy publication: The Expand Democracy 5. Each week they lift up five stories connected to their core belief: if democracy is not expanding, it is shrinking. They’re on the lookout for informative articles and timely news associated with a pro-democracy proposal that they believe warrants greater public awareness, often with links allowing readers to go deeper and connect with those advancing the idea.

In keeping with The Fulcrum’s mission to share ideas that help to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives, we intend to publish The Expand Democracy 5 in The Fulcrum each Friday, beginning today.

Keep ReadingShow less
Defining the Democracy Movement: Karissa Raskin
- YouTube

Defining the Democracy Movement: Karissa Raskin

The Fulcrum presents The Path Forward: Defining the Democracy Reform Movement. Scott Warren's interview series engages diverse thought leaders to elevate the conversation about building a thriving and healthy democratic republic that fulfills its potential as a national social and political game-changer. This initiative is the start of focused collaborations and dialogue led by The Bridge Alliance and The Fulcrum teams to help the movement find a path forward.

Karissa Raskin is the new CEO of the Listen First Project, a coalition of over 500 nationwide organizations dedicated to bridging differences. The coalition aims to increase social cohesion across American society and serves as a way for bridging organizations to compare notes, share resources, and collaborate broadly. Karissa, who is based in Jacksonville, served as the Director of Coalition Engagement for a number of years before assuming the CEO role this February.

Keep ReadingShow less