After Catherine Cortez Masto's win in Nevada, the Democrats have taken the Senate with 50 seats. Before the race, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt had planned to "fight election fraud," and at a campaign event, criticized Trump's campaign for investigating voting fraud too late. However, there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Nevada during that presidential election, and the state had thoroughly investigated the Republican Party's claims of fraud. Now that Laxalt has lost, he has thanked his supporters and decided not to claim election fraud had taken place.
In the last few years, election fraud has been a major concern for Republicans, as evidenced by Laxalt's statements long before any voting had even started. After the 2020 election when the Trump campaign filed many lawsuits contesting the results, dragging on political races may become the new norm.
With these claims of fraud being so widespread while having little evidence supporting them, many voters may believe this misinformation, particularly from biased media sources. Given that many journalists adhere to the principle of fairness by providing coverage of all perspectives, it's easy for readers to fall victim to misinformation if they do not think critically about the content they consume. For example, if a Republican voter only watched FOX News for political coverage, they may believe that there is truly election fraud taking place. The issue appeals to American values such as democracy and fairness, and creating anger and fear surrounding the issue encourages voters to participate in politics. While this may garner more support for the Republican Party who has advocated for greater transparency with voting, it is based on false claims.
Regardless of whether claims of election fraud continue to surface, it is in the best interest of readers to assess the outlets they get information from and to not blindly believe claims they see from politicians or journalists.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1120904265/claims-voter-fraud-donald-trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/us/politics/adam-laxalt-election-fraud.html
18 comments:
After being projected to win big this November, it is clear that Republicans need to re-evaluate their approach . Without comprehensible plans for the future of America, Republicans instead persisted with claims of "voter fraud" and "election insecurities". Along with this it is evident that voters prioritized women's reproductive rights over other issues like immigration or the economy. As Joe Biden's approval rating hovers around 40%, along with staggering inflation, this typically would mean a landslide for the Republicans. This was a stark contrast to what happened, as Trump's unpopularity seemed to hinder his endorsements (Dr.Oz, Blake Masters). In the future, if the Republican party wants to have success they are going to need to break away from Trump.
It would be worth looking into whether republicans have tried to promote policy that decreases election fraud, or if they only go as far as complaining about election fraud.
It is particularly interesting that members of the Republican Party have drawn attention to voter fraud increasingly within the past four years whenever it seems would be beneficial for their representatives. However, during the 2016 voting scandal Republicans fell silent since the alleged voter fraud benefited the Republicans in that situation. This highlights the reality of the Republicans plight of voter fraud, the fraud isn't their issue the loss of elections is. From this it can be drawn that selective representation in the media and the issues which are covered, particularly in sources with a strong bias like FOX, are largely unreliable when trying to garner a well-rounded view of the impact of a particular issue.
Instead of claiming "voter fraud," Republicans should analyze the data: there are more Gen Z and women voters in this mid-term election. Gen Z and women both lean towards the Democrats. There should be no doubt that in an election with more Gen Z and women voters, the results would reflect the same. It almost seems like Republicans' claim of voter fraud is simply their way of rejecting defeat (like in the 2020 Elections). I mean, isn't that why some Republican politicians want to raise the voting age?
It's incredibly interesting to see Republicans toy with the term "voter fraud" as the evidence to back it up and the execution of it is almost close to non-existent. In this past election it was seen that a majority of Gen Z voters stepped up to the polls. With a majority of them voting Democrat it should be no shock to Republicans that they lost, and should not be a reason to turn to the blame on "voter fraud" for what seems like the millionth time. Accepting defeat is a tough pill to swallow but placing the blame reflects immaturity.
At this point, the Republican Party seems to be using baseless claims of voter fraud as their way of trying to get the election to be redone, in an attempt to win the election. I strongly agree with Ally's and Grace's interpretations of Republican candidate behavior as nothing more than an attempt to try to get elections to be recounted or outright cancelled and redone. Parties have an important role of representing the desires of the people, and going a little overboard is natural. But to take it as far as to say that losses are due to problems with the system is unacceptable. People need to trust the system in order to continue voting, and the Republican party is only making a fool of themselves by spreading made-up claims.
To build on what Jayden said, I think that people are starting to trust the system instead of believing made-up claims. Evidence of this is that Republican candidates endorsed by Trump that spew false claims of election fraud did much worse in the midterms than predicted. I think it will be interesting to see how much support Trump receives in his new efforts to gain the Republican nomination in over a year, given his well-known record of trying to undermine democracy.
Unfounded claims of "voter fraud" after losing an election is a terrible strategy for winning future elections. Unfounded claims without evidence simply makes a candidate seems like a sore loser who can't win based on their policies. In fact, many election-deniers didn't fare well in the past election, indicating that voters (especially in swing states) clearly dislike candidates who try to undermine the democratic process. If the Republican party wants to make gains in the national elections, unfounded claims of voter fraud will certainly be a hinderance.
I think it's really interesting that Republicans are claiming there is "voter fraud," even though the evidence is lacking in their favor. What we are seeing more of now than in past years is an increase in youth showing up at the polls, which helps the Democratic party a lot since younger voters tend to be Democrats. This paired with POC and women showing up at polls displays the political polarization in America between Americans, with Gen Z, minorities, and women tending towards the left, and white older men leaning to the right.
It is ironic that the party that is concerned about fraudulent elections is the same party that won the presidency with the "help" of a foreign country. Additionally, these claims have mostly stemmed from Trump and his supporters, demonstrating his power in the party and how there are some in the Republican party that are really more in "Trump's party" than the Republican party. Even with no evidence to support the claims, thousands of American's believe the election was faked, simply because Trump baselessly claimed that.
"Voter fraud" and "election insecurities" are just blanket statements for denying valid election results. With a new demographic of Gen-Z, and more women voting, it isn't unfounded that more Americans are leaning left more than ever. Going overboard in an election with America's two-party polarization isn't much of a surprise in this day and age, but outright rejecting results out of pettiness (and mispreading information about the election to the public) is honestly ridiculous.
I agree with Julia; to claim "voter fraud" seems like a desperate attempt to invalidate election results, especially when this technique is repeated. This looks like a petty way for the Republicans to deny an election loss, but it's extreme to spread wrongful information about the election. Organizations with a clear political bias will try to justify actions that undermine valid political processes.
3 Days ago Trump revealed that he wants to terminate the Constitution except the 5th amendment, claiming that he, "hasn't read the Constitution, but from what he has been told, it's a waste of paper". In his original social media post (posted on saturday 12/3) that has thus been deleted as of Monday (12/5), he stated that "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution," asserting that their was fraud in the 2020 election. He then denied that he ever suggested this termination stating, "“The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES". This highlights how Trump is still continuously neglecting all evidence that proves that the election wasn't fraud and how much of a sore loser he is. He believes he can make absurd claims that will convince people that the elections fraud, but then deny making any of the claims once he is caught in the act. The media has been proving Trump wrong, and as 2024 comes closer him attempting to win the election through this strategy will not help him win at all.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-calls-for-termination-of-constitution-except-fifth-amendment
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/05/trump-terminate-constitution-00072230
I definitely agree that the idea of election fraud being a central point when it has been disproven over and over is part of the problem. Platforming the idea that our elections contain any fraud contributes to the conspiracy theories that have continued far beyond the 2020 election. Particularly as the news sources people refer to narrow to social media sites--I would say Twitter but who knows anymore--it's critical to not only stop the spread of blatant lies, but the ideas those lies stem from as well. Continuosly putting it in the headlines, article ledes, and national spotlight when it's practically a non-issue is part of what has made this issue stretch so far, and become a staple of the Republican political agenda.
I feel like it kind of ties to confirmation bias, in the case where Republicans or any other person would agree with news that correlates with their beliefs and disagree with news that they just find insanely hard to believe because it doesn’t correlate with their beliefs. This is really important because it becomes very easy for people to believe things that may or may not be true because they believe it to be true because they are hearing it from someone that has the same beliefs as they do. I believe that readers, whether or not they believe in what they end up reading, should give full thought and understanding to each article they read because they more they read a wide range of articles, the more knowledgeable they will be on certain topics, rather than focusing on one side of the discussion and only gaining more knowledge on whatever they already know, rather than what they don’t do.
In recent years, there has been a large problem with Republicans claiming voter fraud is a pandemic in the government. However, it is to be noted that oftentimes these claims are made following the loss in an election that hold little relevant evidence. It would be useful for Republicans to find other means of approaching elections rather than constantly harping on the issue of voter fraud which they tend to lack evidence for making their arguments invalid. Despite this, many of their supporters stand behind this claim which causes elections to extend beyond the realistic time frame prompting the question of if republican concern of election fraud will always be present in elections.
It is apparent that Republicans are trying to prolong election results by making unfounded accusations of such voter fraud. This prolonging is so similar to a child who is upset about not getting their way. I find it appalling at such a high level of politics, this level of child's play and bitterness is found. I think events such as these are the main reasons that people around the world believe that our democracy isn't a good model.
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