Former US President Donald Trump and other Republican Party figures are turning minor issues that occurred in the midterm elections into conspiracy theories and false accusations to sow distrust of Democratic victories.
This is an effort that has lasted since 2020, when the Republican mogul lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden, but never admitted defeat and claimed the existence of voter fraud, without ever having proven it.
Tuesday’s midterm elections passed without major or widespread voting problems, but some GOP candidates have tried to distort the seriousness of these failures, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
In Arizona’s largest county there were temporary problems with the polls, while in Detroit voters were wrongly told they had already voted.
“What is most worrying is the way these isolated incidents are being used to spread misinformation and lies about the election, in an attempt to undermine people’s trust and faith in the process,” said Sylvia Albert, polling director. and organization elections. Common Cause, which advocates for issues of democracy.
In 2020, conspiracies about a rigged election were fueled by unsubstantiated reports of suitcases full of fake ballots in a vote-counting operation in Georgia.
The GOP has upheld this rhetoric ever since and laid the groundwork to contest this year’s midterm elections, with more than 100 lawsuits filed across the country ahead of the election, targeting rules for voting by mail, ballot box security or observer access. to party polls.
Trump’s defeat to Biden in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes led the Republican and supporters to promote a series of allegations of electoral irregularities that were never proven.
Two years later, this state remains critical and Democrats today held a short lead in the fight for a Senate seat, between Democrat Mark Kelly (51.4%) and Republican Blake Masters (46.4%), with 66%. of the votes counted.
In the fight for the governorship, Democrat Katie Hobbs led with 50.3% against Republican Kari Laque (49.7%).
Trump and his allies tried to put greater emphasis on counting equipment failures at about 25% of polling stations in Maricopa County, where the majority of the state’s population is concentrated.
The codes on the ballots were misprinted and made it difficult for scanners to read, creating confusion.
Affected voters had to choose to cast their vote in a ballot box at that polling station or move to another polling station.
Critics of this election also focused on a bug in Detroit, where some electronic poll books displayed an error message that the ballot code had already been assigned for a mail-in vote.
In this case, election officials used paper poll books.
In Michigan’s gubernatorial race, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer was re-elected, and Democrats also won the races for attorney general and secretary of state, defeating Republicans who challenged the 2020 election.
Republicans have 48 Senate seats, the same as Democrats, with four upper house seats up for grabs, one of which, in Alaska, stands no chance for Democrats.
With 77% of the vote counted in Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads the way with a 2.7-point lead over Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto.
Democrats also lead in Arizona (66% of votes counted), with Mark Kelly five points ahead of Republican Blake Masters.
The State of Georgia will go to elections again in December to nominate a senator for Congress, after none of the candidates has reached the 50% mark, the US press reported today, in a place that could be decisive in determining majority in the upper house of Congress.
To retain control of the Senate, Democrats will have to win at least two of these three contests, taking 50 of 100 seats, the same as they had before this election.
For the House of Representatives, according to projections by various US media, the Republicans currently have an advantage of 200 seats compared to 174 for the Democrats.
To reach a majority, Republicans must win another 18 seats of the 61 still up for grabs.
Source: TSF
