— Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada
True.
Shortly after the Nov. 3 election, officers in Maricopa County — residence to a majority of Arizona voters — performed a hand audit of 4 vote facilities. (The county used a brand new system within the 2020 election that permitted residents to vote in particular person at any voting location within the county, moderately than being restricted to their residence precinct.) Auditors representing the Republican Get together, the Democratic Get together and the Libertarian Get together selected the facilities, and volunteers manually counted the ballots solid at these facilities and checked that they matched the machine counts. They did.
— Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania
True.
Mr. Toomey was referring to members of Congress who invoked “the 1877 precedent” in calling for a 15-member fee to audit the election outcomes.
Within the 1876 presidential election, the Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, gained the favored vote, however the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, finally gained the Electoral Faculty in a compromise that ended Reconstruction and that a number of Republicans have cited as a mannequin for the 2020 election.
A vital distinction between the 2 elections, as Mr. Toomey mentioned, is that in 1876, three states — Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida — despatched competing slates of electors to Washington. In such a state of affairs, Congress is explicitly tasked with resolving the dispute and figuring out which slate to depend. This 12 months, there are not any competing slates.
— Consultant Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona
False.
President Trump and his supporters in Congress repeatedly draw from the conspiracy motion QAnon, which has pushed false claims about election fraud. Mr. Gosar repeated one such declare on Wednesday, alleging with out proof that Dominion Voting Methods, an organization that makes software program to assist native governments run their elections, would allow somebody to vary votes.
Dominion Voting Methods has forcefully denied that its software program might be used to “change” or “delete” votes. There isn’t any proof that any voting system utilized in america, together with the machines with Dominion software program, permits an individual to delete or modifications votes, in accordance with the federal company that oversees election safety. However QAnon adherents have continued to push the unfounded conspiracy concept.
QAnon originated in 2017, centering on the baseless notion that the nation is run by a Democrat-led cabal of pedophiles whom President Trump is bringing down. Because the motion has grown, it has promulgated different conspiracy theories.
Mail-in voting has grow to be a standard speaking level amongst President Trump’s supporters falsely claiming it contributed to widespread voter fraud, together with on Wednesday, when Consultant Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, introduced it up. However there may be little proof to assist their statements.
In March, Mr. Trump started making false claims about mail-in voting in tweets that inaccurately said that there have been “massive issues and discrepancies” with mail-in voting, and that individuals may vote a number of occasions by mail.
Within the weeks following the 2020 elections, the president and his supporters expanded their claims to almost a dozen states. The claims falsely said that individuals had voted within the names of others, together with their spouses, lifeless family and pets, or that mail-in votes had been switched or miscounted by election officers.
Audits throughout america haven’t turned up instances of widespread voter fraud, or of vote switching by mail-in voting. In a handful of instances, folks have been found making an attempt to fraudulently vote within the names of others, however have been stopped by election officers. In Pennsylvania, officers found {that a} man had unlawfully voted for Mr. Trump within the identify of his deceased mom. The person is going through costs and will spend as much as 19 years in jail if convicted.
Election officers have repeatedly said that mail-in voting is protected. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Basis discovered 193 convicted instances of voter fraud between 2000 and 2020, throughout which roughly 250 million votes have been solid.
— Consultant Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana
False.
Courts have rejected Mr. Scalise’s interpretation of election regulation. The Structure provides state legislatures the facility to decide on their electors, however doesn’t stipulate how they have to do it. In Arizona, the legislature has delegated the authority to run elections to its secretary of state.
In Wisconsin, Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign argued in court docket that the state had violated his rights by the way it performed its elections. A federal choose in Milwaukee, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case final month.
The Electors Clause of the Structure “directs state legislatures to nominate presidential electors in a fashion of their selecting,” Decide Brett H. Ludwig wrote. “There was no violation of the Structure.”
— Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas
That is deceptive.
It’s true {that a} latest Reuters ballot discovered that 39 p.c of Individuals consider the election was “rigged.” (Twenty-two p.c “strongly” agreed with that assertion and 17 p.c “considerably” agreed with it.) Nevertheless, the argument that Mr. Cruz is making is round and deceptive. For the reason that second Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory turned clear in November, Mr. Trump has repeatedly and forcefully instructed his supporters that the election was illegitimate. Mr. Trump and different Republicans made this argument earlier than polling confirmed that many Republicans believed it, and are actually citing the truth that folks consider them as proof that the false argument is appropriate.
— Mr. Trump
False.
Mr. Trump, talking in Washington earlier than the proceedings started within the Capitol, was suggesting {that a} last-minute batch of fraudulent votes disadvantaged him of victory in key states, when in reality what performed out was a traditional vote-counting course of. Election officers had warned for months that counting ballots may take days and even weeks to finish, given the prevalence of absentee ballots this 12 months. Research and consultants predicted that Mr. Trump could lead on on election night time in key states, however that lead might be slowly eroded as officers proceed to depend mail-in ballots. That’s what occurred in lots of states.
His false assertion was certainly one of many baseless claims he has made in latest days about election fraud.
— President Trump
False.
Vice President Mike Pence doesn’t have the facility to change the result of the election. His job is just to supervise the tallying of the Electoral Votes. Simply earlier than the proceedings started, Mr. Pence issued an announcement saying that the Structure “constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to find out which electoral votes must be counted and which mustn’t.”
