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Elections Facts and Fictions
“They’re not requested; they’re just sending 80 million ballots all over the country. Eighty million ballots, non-requested. I call them ‘unsolicited ballots.’ This is a statement made by US President Donald Trump during Labour Day celebrations.
On August 24th, in his speech during the Republican National Convention, Trump made similar comments where he described the mailing out of these “unsolicited” ballots as a fraud. The number of voters who will receive ballots without requesting them by mail has not yet been determined as the voter registration is open until elections scheduled for November 3rd occur. However, research has found out that Trump exaggerated these numbers and has overlooked that voters in some states have been receiving ballots without fraud cases for many years.
In the upcoming elections, more voters are expected to vote through the mail than in prior years. Some states such as Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington have been conducting virtually all mail-in elections before 2020. The coronavirus pandemic has caused the addition of other states which will be conducting elections the same way. Keeping this in mind, Trump was asked how he arrived at the eighty million figure, and if this included states that have mostly held all vote-by-mail elections for years, but he did not respond.
According to Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida and the New York Times, ballots will be mailed directly to about 44 million voters in nine states conducting all-mail elections. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the increase in voting by mail will lead to fraud. Statistically, fraud is rare, including states that have conducted elections by mail in previous years. A Washington Post analysis established that in 2016 and 2018 general elections, officials identified just 372 potential cases of double voting or voting on behalf of deceased people out of about 14.6 million votes cast by mail.
Since an accurate figure cannot be determined until voter registration is closed, the 80 million figure seems too exaggerated. Also, the fact that Trump could not give clear statements on how he arrived at the 80 million figure, this claim has been ruled out to be erroneous.