From the time polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020 until he left office, Donald Trump made over 800 false claims of fraud in the presidential election. In the ensuing three and a half years, he has remained fixated on “The Steal.” In his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, Trump declared, “And then we had that horrible, horrible result that will never happen again. The election result. We’re never going to let that happen. They used COVID to cheat.”
Trump has asserted that 82 percent of Americans think the 2020 election was rigged. The actual percentage, which is closer to 30 percent, should be more than sufficient to convince Americans that Trump’s lies are undermining faith in free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, two fundamental pillars of our democracy. And that his lies must be refuted every time he repeats them.
There should be no doubt that Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. After pointing out that every state except Louisiana had paper ballots to facilitate hand recounts of electronic voting machine results, Chris Krebs, the Trump-appointed director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, declared the contest “the most secure in U.S. history.”
Attorney General William Barr told Trump the Justice Department had found no evidence of a rigged election. True to form, Trump practiced “kill the messenger” politics: he fired Krebs, accepted Barr’s resignation, and blasted Vice President Mike Pence for maintaining, correctly, that he did not have the constitutional authority to reject the Electoral College results on Jan. 6, 2021.
In more than 60 court cases, judges appointed by Republicans as well as Democrats found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Writing for a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court, Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, refused to block Biden from being certified as the winner of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes: “Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
After acknowledging that on-air claims (also pushed by Trump) about Dominion Voting Systems switching or deleting votes were “100% false,” Fox News paid the company $788 million in damages in 2023.
Recounts by machine and by hand, audits of voting machines and absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County confirmed that Biden narrowly carried Georgia. Following an investigation of allegations that 10,315 dead people and 66,000 underage individuals voted in 2020, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a conservative Republican, found four of the former and none of the latter.
In Arizona, Cyber Ninjas, a company hired by the Republican-dominated state Senate, whose CEO had endorsed conspiracy theories about election fraud, concluded that the results in Maricopa County “very accurately correlate with the official canvas numbers.” In the Cyber Ninja tally, Biden gained 99 votes and Trump lost 261.
As Trump and his allies doubled down on charges of a rigged election, many officials in battleground states feared for themselves and the safety of their families. Gabriel Sterling, the Republican COO of Raffensperger’s office, warned Trump to “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.” Subjected to relentless online harassment and death threats, Bill Gates, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and a lifelong Republican, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Using fake news claims of rampant fraud as a pretext, more than a dozen states enacted restrictive voting laws in 2023, aimed primarily at suppressing turnout among poor people and ethnic and racial minority groups. Four states added more stringent photo ID requirements, drawn from short lists, including a driver’s license, which many inner-city residents do not possess.
Three states prohibited election officials from sending applications for mail ballots unless someone requested one. Two states banned the use of drop boxes. One state imposed criminal penalties on anyone (except an election official, family member or caregiver) who helps a voter fill out or return a mail ballot.
Aware, no doubt, that 110,000 mail ballots arrived during the three days following Election Day in 2020, North Carolina’s Republican legislators overrode a veto by the Democratic governor and changed the deadline to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, leaving late-deciding voters more dependent on an unreliable United States Postal Service.
Texas permitted some counties to reduce the number of polling places, even though it will result in additional travel and longer wait times. Texas also authorized the secretary of State, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, to exercise oversight and election administration over predominantly Democratic Harris County, which contains the greatest number of non-white voters in the state.
Enacted in 2021, a Georgia law making it a crime to provide food or drink to anyone waiting to vote, is still on the books. Despite support from 65 percent of Floridians for a referendum in 2018 to restore voting rights to most ex-felons (except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses) after they complete their sentences, including parole or probation, the legislature and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis have made it extremely difficult for them to cast ballots.
Election deniers who have no credible evidence of fraud, seek to overturn duly certified election results and/or suppress the votes of citizens who are likely to oppose them, are unfit to hold any public office. If they run, they should be confronted with the truth, named, shamed and shunned.
Glenn C. Altschuler is The Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.
