world

Trump announces major voter fraud investigation

59 Comments
By JULIE PACE and JONATHAN LEMIRE

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

59 Comments
Login to comment

If that is the case, then the election 2016 is VOID and we demand a new election.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If Republicans cared about fraud, they would go after mail in voting.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There were 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes cast, and not a single one was for Trump? YEAH, RIGHT. Because Republicans never cheat, but Democrats do. YEAH, RIGHT.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I just saw an interview on tv with an illegal. He felt he is entitled to live in the USA because people millions of people like him contribute billlions of dollars to the US economy. It seems his grandfather bought him a social security number on the black market which he and others do in order to stay and work in the USA. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine they also vote against people who plan to remove them. How can you go on tv and admit you committed Identity Theft and fraud and still be here?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I really think this should happen and if it does it is another smart move by President Trump. Illegals and dead people MUST not be allowed to vote in 2018.

It's about time someone looked into the voting irregularities in states which harbour a large number of illegal immigrants. California has particularly lax voting requirements and the largest population of illegals.

the usa is a democracy. free and fair elections are the basis of democracy. trump is doing his job defending the constitution and democracy.

the crooks are running scared. they are paying people to protest, and paying people to write on forums like this one.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Look for federally mandated voter photo ID in all states before the 2020 general election. . . .

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Yep it was those pesky Russians that did this but how come he won i wonder what his helpers are thinking now. Dump Trump

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yeah so you take your student ID or other ID to the government office, show it and get an ID that lets you vote.

Easy for you to say, not as easy for others to do. Some people don't have the discretionary income to be getting government IDs in order to vote. Voting shouldn't be something people have to pay for.

If voter fraud was a problem, then the moves you suggest may make sense. But voter fraud is not a problem.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Yeah so you take your student ID or other ID to the government office, show it and get an ID that lets you vote. You are hopefully only a student once for presidential elections at least. Same thing as I said if you needed that ID to play Pokémon Go or have a PS4 it wouldn't stop anyone. It only stops voting if you don't care enough to go get it.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

hillary lost the popular vote by at least 5 mil

No Trump lost by 12 million.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Dems realized as a whole the Electoral College demographics are generally in their favor.

What? Please show something anywhere to support this ridiculous idea.

Im not restricting anyones voting rights. Prove who you are, you can vote.

Did you not read this earlier in the thread:

Young people skew democrat. What did they do? They said you could not use your school ID to vote. Probably because all of those students getting fake IDs to vote in person. Instead, you have to get a government issued ID card. What identification do they accept to get the card? A student ID. No, you're not reading that wrong. It's an obvious intentional hurdle to voting.

I restricting peoples driving rights by making them have a drivers license first?

Not the same thing. A drivers license is proof one has learned to drive. One doesn't need to learn to be who they are, they are who they are.

Obama made executive orders and ordered them treated them as laws.

Which is what Trump is doing. But executive orders cannot make new laws, they can only further existing laws.

He also didnt enforce any laws that already existed which didnt match his agenda.

Same as every president.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

hillary lost the popular vote by at least 5 mil

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Yeah there was a lot of complaining in 2000, sure. But Dems realized as a whole the Electoral College demographics are generally in their favor. So they didnt bother to change it over the 16 years after that. All complaining, no action. Trump is proving by far that he is a man of action. The only debate is if these actions will turn out well or not, and you cant know that until you do it.

Im not restricting anyones voting rights. Prove who you are, you can vote. Am I restricting peoples driving rights by making them have a drivers license first? I bet if you had to scan an ID to watch television, everyone would have an ID. Its just priorities in life to take a day out of 4 years and go get an ID.

And uh no, Obama made executive orders and ordered them treated them as laws. Even after Congress said NO to the actual bill that was unsuccessfully submitted to become law. He also didnt enforce any laws that already existed which didnt match his agenda. Totally different.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Ths is going in circles now. First its Trump cant or wont do something. He cant build a wall, he wont build a wall. But then when he does it, he is just executing existing laws, nothing special. But he also gets blamed for enforcing existing law somehow at the same time.

Sounds kind of like the past eight years.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is going in circles now. First its Trump cant or wont do something. He cant build a wall, he wont build a wall. But then when he does it, he is just executing existing laws, nothing special. But he also gets blamed for enforcing existing law somehow at the same time.

So how is he blamed at all, he didnt pass the law back by a vote of 80-19 for the Secure Fence Act of 1996. Who happened to vote Yea to pass that act? Why its Clinton (D-NY), do we know that person?

So let me ask, why are there so many LAWS that the previous administration chose to ignore that it took Trump getting elected to actually follow through on?

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Dems sure were in favor of it when they thought it ensured Trump could never win, even if he won the popular vote somehow.

What, did you miss all the complaining after the Bush 'win' in 2000? Democrats have not been in favor of the electoral college system in this century.

For the purpose of ENSURING that voter fraud cant happen

The problem is that in trying to defeat a problem that is so negligible as to pretty much not exist, you would restrict the voting rights of a significant number of people, disenfranchising people who are just as American as you. AKA cutting off your nose to spite your face.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

From the author of the Pew Report (the report that Trump constantly cites):

"Author of Trump’s Favorite Voter Fraud Study Says Everyone’s Wrong"

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/author-trumps-favorite-voter-fraud-study-says-everyones-wrong/

That’s because his paper, “Do Non-Citizens Vote in US Elections?” which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Electoral Studies, has become a cornerstone of President Trump’s false claim that he would have “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” This week White House Press secretary Sean Spicer once again dragged the study to the forefront, noting that a study of the 2008 election (which he wrongly attributed to Pew Research) showed 14 percent of non-citizens are registered to vote.

That was Richman’s research, all right. The problem, says Richman, who identifies as a political moderate, is that the Trump administration’s interpretation of his report is totally off. “Trump and others have been misreading our research and exaggerating our results to make claims we don’t think our research supports,” Richman says. “I’m not sure why they continue to do it, but there’s not much I can do about that aside from set the record straight.”

In an interview airing tonight on ABC News, President Trump also pointed to an actual Pew Research report about outdated voter rolls, but according to its own author, that report found no instances of voter fraud.

The author says that voting irregularities is a real, if relatively small, problem. He says those on the left are just as wrong to reflexively claim that voter fraud doesn’t exist at all as Trump is to continue insisting voter fraud is a national conspiracy.

But he is unequivocal that even if his findings are correct, Clinton would have still handily won the popular vote in November, despite the new president’s claims.

Basically, it means that voting irregularities do not necessarily mean voting fraud. For instance, Trump cites that there are people who are registered to vote in more than 1 state - yet those people include daughter Tiffany Trump, advisor Steve Bannon, and cabinet nominee Steven Mnuchin who are all registered to vote in 2 states. That voting irregularity can happen when people move homes or reside in multiple homes. That voting irregularity does need to be fixed with an up-to-date system, but that doesn't mean those people are committing voting fraud. In short, just because there are voting irregularities do not all necessarily lead to voting fraud.

Basically, Trump is misreading 2 of the studies he's citing.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

It's interesting people think Trump has done so much. Maybe they don't understand how executive orders work. They can't actually make new laws, they can only clarify or further existing laws. For example, he didn't issue an order to build the wall, he issued an order to look into building one in accordance with existing laws. Neither can they repeal laws, which is why he hasn't repealed Obama care.

So he hasn't really done anything that wasn't already law.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Just have a re-vote if you're concerned voter fraud swayed the results!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So they're going to spend tax payer money to salve Trump's ego. He can't stand he didn't win the popular vote. Sad.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Trump announces major voter fraud investigation

Trump: major fraud

That's better.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

For what purpose? Voter fraud accounts for something like 0.0001% of all votes - the only thing that doesn't work with US election system is the college system. In EVERY other democracy in the world the leader is the person who the majority of citizens want to be leader - in the US that would be Hillary. This baffoon should never have been given this level of power.>

For the purpose of ENSURING that voter fraud cant happen, so that I dont have to ask you where the 0.0001% figure comes from and argue if it is accurate or not. Then we dont have to worry about it or hear about it anymore. Dead people have no reason to still be on the list, easy to remove them. ID is required to do basically anything else but not voting? People have 4 years to get an appropriate ID,I think that is reasonable if you care to vote.

I can agree with the concern about the Electoral College, but I dont agree with the timing of it. Dems sure were in favor of it when they thought it ensured Trump could never win, even if he won the popular vote somehow. Remember the he has no path to 270 and the blue wall media blitz? You discuss the rules BEFORE the game, not complain about them after. Has anyone brought up legislation to try to change it in the 2 months since the election?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The reality is that until there is a voter ID requirement in order to register to vote and to vote on election day, there will be voter fraud.

There will be fraud either way. California now issues drivers licenses to illegal aliens, and any person who lives in California is automatically registered to vote when they get a license. The license may not be used for identification purposes, but the guidelines do not specify that license holders cannot vote. There are 2.4 million illegal aliens in California, more than 800,000 have been issued these licenses.

I wonder the press knows how much Trump is pulling their chain? It is rather obvious that Trump is manipulating them with these statements. The press still seems to think that Trump is stupid, and not realizing that he is playing them like a violin. While they are printing headlines about inauguration crowds, voter fraud investigations, and other nonsense, Trump is working on much bigger things.

In all my life, I have never seen a new president do as much as Trump has done in less than one week. Obama didn't accomplish as much in his first year as Trump has in his first five days. I don't agree with some of the things he is doing, particularly in regard to trade. I had high expectations for how active Trump would be once he got into office, but he has far surpassed them.

The funniest thing is that Trump has not locked himself in the oval office with his pen. He has spent more time with representatives from both parties this week than Obama did in the past couple of months.

For those who are afraid of what Trump says he can or will do, you should be terrified by now. I've never seen anything like him in public office.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Blacklabel

As far as voter fraud, I would like to see some form of voter ID come out of this, an end to being registered to vote in more than one place, and removal of all deceased people from the voting rolls. The excuses for not having ID are lame,the government knows who is dead, and there is too much potential for fraud with no ID voters or people registered in multiple places.

For what purpose? Voter fraud accounts for something like 0.0001% of all votes - the only thing that doesn't work with US election system is the college system. In EVERY other democracy in the world the leader is the person who the majority of citizens want to be leader - in the US that would be Hillary. This baffoon should never have been given this level of power.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Why would he change? so that liberals could talk more about his supposed flip flopping in an effort to not talk about what he is actually doing for America? He is doing exactly what he was elected to do and exactly what he said he would do, change of policy is not desired or required.

As far as voter fraud, I would like to see some form of voter ID come out of this, an end to being registered to vote in more than one place, and removal of all deceased people from the voting rolls. The excuses for not having ID are lame,the government knows who is dead, and there is too much potential for fraud with no ID voters or people registered in multiple places.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Voter suppression is the modern, insidious face of corruption in the voting system. We've come a long way since the vote-peddling days of the Founding Fathers. Kudos to Superlib has posted a superb outline of the problem that MSM avoid like vampires garlic.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The man is insane - anyone who thought he would change after becoming president have had their hopes dashed.

His approval ratings are going to break more records - he will not last the whole year.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Simple.

Implant an RFID chip in all legal citizens.

The mark of the Beast.

Soon it will be a reality...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Um, this is just the start of ongoing hypocrisy and contradiction. There is still an element of satire and disbelief in people's responses to Trump actions and words. Wait for a while more until a threshold is crossed before action accompanies comments. Think Macbeth or Cymbeline.

I like that expression in the article, "cable news consumer-in-chief".

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Trump is right, there was treasonous fraud perpetrated on voters by Repubs and you can bet this crime will not be forgotten

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Poor, poor, insecure child man Trump. "We don't care about the numbers!" they say, until Trump declares a "let's find the WMDs"-like investigation of what's not there to appease his own conscience and distract from the crimes he commits. Just yesterday some of the defenders of Trump on this thread were saying, "Who cares about the numbers".

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Sangetsu03.

Well said. Valid Id is required back home and for most stuff a Driver Licence won't, not that you could get it renewed sans another valid ID

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

The reality is that until there is a voter ID requirement in order to register to vote and to vote on election day, there will be voter fraud.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Millions of people do not have the IDs required by some states to vote

Doesn't this seem absurd to you? In the richest country the world, where most people own and drive cars, eat at restaurants at least once a week, and where nearly every household in the country has a color television. Yet millions cannot be bothered to spend $10 and 30 minutes to get a valid ID card?

In American you need an ID card to open a bank account, to buy a train or an airline ticket, to buy liquor or cigarettes, etc.

Owning a gun is as much of a right in America as voting, yet anyone who buys a gun must show their ID, right?

I doubt that "millions" of people in America do not have valid identification, and if they don't, that is a problem which needs to be addressed. I see nothing wrong with having to show valid ID to vote. If I am not responsible enough to be able to get a valid ID card, I am not responsible enough to vote in the first place.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

We should be clear on a few things in the debate....

Voting by mail has exponentially more danger of voter fraud, but Republicans are ignoring that. I think we all know why.

The issue is framed as people pretending to be others to vote in person, but it's much bigger than that. The laws go down the list of ways Democrats vote, and then laws are passed to curb those activities. Voter registration drives are outlawed, early voting is cancelled, voting on college campuses is eliminated, polling places are closed on Sunday, etc. When North Carolina asked for data about the types of IDs voters use, they had 8. Four of them were used disproportionately by Democrats, four by Republicans. The Republican legislature removed the 4 used more by Democrats.

Young people skew democrat. What did they do? They said you could not use your school ID to vote. Probably because all of those students getting fake IDs to vote in person. Instead, you have to get a government issued ID card. What identification do they accept to get the card? A student ID. No, you're not reading that wrong. It's an obvious intentional hurdle to voting. These nutjobs actually made that a law.

Arizona dropped the number of polling places from 200 to 60. That produced waits of 5+ hours to vote. Why? Pick any of the several reason they've giving that have been debunked. The real reason is that Democrats vote in person more. The end. Why not make it severely unpleasant....and maybe they won't come out next time?

As for the in person fraud, we should be clear on the GOP's position. A person would have to go to a polling place, wait in line, and then give the name of someone he knows 1) votes at that polling place and 2) hasn't voted yet. If either of those don't hold up then he leaves empty handed. That means they would have to get lucky or have information on multiple voters in advance.

After successfully meeting that criteria, he would have to get in his car, go to the next polling place, and repeat the same thing over again. Since lines can be long, there's a limit as to how much this can be done. To get to 5,000,000 illegal votes, you'd have to have at least a million illegal immigrants successfully hitting five polling places in one day. Using 5 different names of 5 different people who hadn't yet voted and whose names were on the registration list for that area.

Seriously. That's what they think is happening. At least some of them do. Let's be real, people who support these kinds of laws never seem to think things through past the first couple of sentences. Most of them probably haven't even thought about the logistics of it.

Voter fraud studies have been done numerous times. They generally say two things: There are cases of voter fraud, but they are so few and far between that it does not impact elections (see above). In the vast majority of the fraud claims, they are innocent mistakes. Two cases of voter fraud were claimed when a husband and wife accidentally signed each others ballot envelope (vote by mail, remember?). Nearly all of the suspect ballots are explained as simple misunderstandings with no malicious intent.

You will sometimes hear right wing nutjobs bring up reports of tens of thousands of voters with the same name voting in two states right next to each other. It's one of those points they throw out in conversation and they make it sound like people are hopping across the border and double voting. In reality it works like this: John Smith voted in Kentucky and John Smith voted in Tennessee. Why? Well obviously because both states have men named John Smith. But omit that part and it sounds like something might be happening. Don't buy it.

The fact is the voter suppression supporters have absolutely zero evidence to their claim that voter fraud is widespread or impacts elections in any way. Zip. Zero. Nada. There is not a single study they can point to, not a single group of arrest records for fraud, etc. You will get the occasional anecdote, or the propaganda like above, but that's it. When Spicer was pressed for evidence he simply said that Trump has evidence he has seen and he believes it. Did Spicer release the evidence? Of course not. It's only the driving force behind his claim, but, ya know, why show it?

Another simple fact: Millions of people do not have the IDs required by some states to vote. Not everyone is like us, going to work, driving home, hopping on the PC for a little back and forth on JT. You have the elderly, the disabled, the working poor (who only takes buses), students whose ID cards are no longer allowed, etc. The GOP's position is, and I'm not joking, that it's OK to slice off a huge chuck of legitimate voters in order to catch a minuscule number of illegal voters that they can't even prove exist (unless you have that secret Trump evidence). You will take more good votes away than bad ones. Guaranteed. 100% guaranteed. And these laws specifically target the most vulnerable.

Anyone who believes these laws are necessary for security simply hasn't learned about it or they benefit from them. Don't let the GOP nutters lie and tell you there is a problem and they have a solution. They haven't proven there is a problem to any extent whatsoever, and on top of that they haven't showed that their solution would even cure the fake problem.

Hold their feet to the fire and demand to see their evidence. Demand to know how their solutions would solve the problem, and how they will account for the good people being removed. Demand that they explain how nearly every single restriction disproportionately harms Democrats, and how we have every right to access that they do. Demand they answer why mail voting is given a free pass when it's far more dangerous. Demand they acknowledge recent court cases throwing out the laws.

Demand that they learn about what they are supporting.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The problem is that during the election, the problems which existed in the system became obvious with actual evidence of States allowing people to vote without verifying their citizenship status. Trumps accusation of being "fixed" obviously applies to the selection process and the funding of candidates by the political parties and subsequent "support" of the elected candidate.

The thing is that it must be addressed constantly in order for the system to work. It is something that will exists as long as people are involved. The second problem is that what is reported and what are not reported influences and makes a difference in our views and opinions. A lot of what we think and feel about an issue such as this often reflects the views of the reporter, editor or the specific media itself.

That is something we can be aware of but cannot argue too much abut. We just have to provide more facts and evidences that support our views and hope that you also recognize the different view.

In fact, the fact that you respond to my comments indicates that you are actually thinking and evaluating what I have said and have seriously considered it enough to respond. That is great. That is dialog.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There is always voter fraud, but read elsewhere that many secretary of state officials (who oversea voting in each of their respective states) have already looked into voter fraud and didn't find anything. It is sorta like asking a prison warden if his prison is violating any rights of prisoners. Still, I believe it was minimal. Dead people vote in every election, for example - especially in Chicago and Detroit - but just because dead people are on the registered voter's list doesn't mean anyone showed up to vote under those names. http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/trumps-bogus-voter-fraud-claims/ People have to show ID in my state in order to vote, though this requirement seems to make lots of democrats less than happy. Being a citizen has certain responsibilities, so does being able to vote. One must actually register (which is really easy) and one must have a state-issued photo ID. In the USA, almost everyone of voting age will have a drivers license, but state IDs are also available for a nominal fee (or free for the poor of my state). Getting to an ID location can be a hassle, mainly due to long lines, but I haven't had to go there in almost 20 yrs, so wasting 4 hrs once every 20 yrs to get an ID updated isn't THAT big of an issue.

Can't hurt to look at the votes again, though nothing outside the standard lack of after-the-fact validation will be uncovered. I'm fairly certain. Suspect someone making new voting machines made a yuuuge donation to Trump's campaign (no facts to back that up). My state's machines are from 2002 and run WinXP. These have no way for me to validate, outside the machine, that my votes were accurately counted and there is no paper trail to provide a recount later. THAT is a yuuuge flaw, IMHO.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The key is still "accountability" at all levels.

I fully agree. It's early days, but with an administration coming up with terms like 'alternative facts' to discount data they disagree with, with a president who claimed that the election was rigged before he was elected, with a president who claimed without having any reliable data that there were X million illegal votes somehow counted for his opponent, with a president whose fortune has been made selling products using marketing techniques ranging from questionable to downright lies, it's a mighty big trust me to believe this time he will be honest and objective.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Get over it, you won. but thats the problem , Trump himself thought the electoral college was broken the though that the majority of the US citizens don't support him is what his overinflated ego just cant stand. Deep down even he and his ego know his win was hollow. Now hes desperately trying to find those 3million+ illegal votes even though Russia hacking of the election has concrete evidence of the fact.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Trump won and he still can't believe he it.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

What a child! Grumbling about not being able to "enjoy" the White House (this is btw your workplace, not your gloating-hall), because news accurately report on current major events. The sheer number of people attending the Women's March show that it is relevant to many people. The news doesn't exist to cater to your interests and ego.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

A valid and important move for the USA and for any nation that uses the voting process and the elections system. For what we call the Democratic system to work and be of value, the vote is the most critical expression of the citizen's rights to choose his/her destiny. When there is "doubt" as to its "integrity" and "reliability", it must be investigated and corrected or otherwise be "assured" of no wrongful accounting of the votes.

Each town, city, State and the Federal government would do very well if it was not just investigated but the entire system reviewed at each election as the current process already allows but not practiced. The key is still "accountability" at all levels.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

And when the results are out the investigators will be silenced just in the same way that scientists in the US have.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Burning bush: like releasing tax returns?

Aww snap!

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Excellent!

Sounds like most people on here believe in fraudulent activity.

-11 ( +0 / -11 )

@Crazy Joe, they are not lies!

They are 'alternative facts'!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

"Get over it, you won."

It's worth remembering that Trump called the electoral college a "disaster for democracy" after mistakenly thinking Romney won the popular vote.

Perhaps Trump thinks he isn't a legitimate president.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Trump announces major voter fraud investigation

the people will like me. the people must love me. i accept nothing less

9 ( +10 / -1 )

As soon as Trump's "crack team of investigators" get back from Hawaii, I'm sure they will get right on that!

11 ( +12 / -1 )

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have finalized their election results with no reports of the kind of widespread fraud that Trump is alleging.

But Trump's now in charge of the federal government so dam (sic) the states.

I wonder which organization will get the contract to do the investigation, whether it'll be a government agency or private. Maybe his family's marketing department? What are the odds that the findings show Trump's right, maybe even that 1 - 3 BILLION illegal aliens voted? It is the era of the big lie, fake news and alternative facts after all.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

They will investigate, look at tens of millions of votes, find a dozen that look like fraud, then will say, "See! We told you votes fraud exists!"

Then they will keep trying to pass votes supression laws because the goal is to remove as many Democrats from the voting process and that hasn't changed.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Will he uncover the data that shows that voter fraud worked in his favour, I wonder ?

19 ( +21 / -2 )

Burning bush: like releasing tax returns?

25 ( +26 / -1 )

Make up a lie and then launch an investigation to make your alternative facts support that lie. And all on the tax payers dime. You know, those of us who pay taxes.

19 ( +20 / -1 )

If 3 millions to 5 millions illegals voted this is going to be easy to find with a simple statistical sample and no time.

Tax money well spent. Get over it, you won.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites