Claims that the 2020 election was stolen are still false

The Gateway Pundit, a conservative blog that has promoted false claims about President Donald Trump winning the 2020 election is again saying that Trump won in key states. 

Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and allegations of a rigged election have been refuted by audits, judges, and officials in Trump’s administration. 

A headline in the Gateway Pundit on April 24 said: "A STOLEN ELECTION: State Totals Minus Illegal Ballot Trafficking Numbers Give President Trump Decisive Victories in AZ, GA, MI, PA, and WI." 

The post claims: "President Trump won in a blowout. Now we have the proof." 

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The article is written by editor Jim Hoft, who uses testimony from True the Vote, a national conservative poll-watching organization founded in 2010 that has spread misinformation in the past, to make his case. 

According to Hoft, the group testified to members of the Wisconsin Assembly that 7% of ballots left in ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin were "likely fraudulent." However, True the Vote told Wisconsin lawmakers that they aren’t alleging that the ballots were illegal, but that the process was abused. 

Hoft takes True the Vote’s disputed claims of an abused process and goes further, saying that 7% of the ballots shouldn’t be counted. 

Hoft subtracts 7% of each state’s total number of mail-in and early returned ballots from Biden’s total votes to come to the conclusion that Trump won. 

In two hours of testimony in front of the Wisconsin Assembly’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections on March 24, True the Vote explained why they think that 7% of mail-in ballots were "trafficked" in Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, or collected by paid operatives and placed in drop boxes. They also allege that there were inaccurate voter rolls and other problems. 

The group came to this conclusion by looking at location data from cell phone users who made repeat visits to drop boxes and to the headquarters of nongovernmental organizations that were engaged in get-out-the-vote efforts, as well as video surveillance. When asked by lawmakers, the group refused to identify the nongovernmental organizations. 

But the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that cell phone data showing that people are repeatedly near a ballot drop box, alone, is not evidence of a crime. 

Kenneth Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Hoft’s conclusions are "fundamentally dishonest." Mayer said that "ballot harvesting" is a pejorative term and implies fraudulent activity where none has been found. 

"From beginning to end, it’s a dishonest foundation," Mayer said. "There’s no truth to any of it." 

Ballot collection or "ballot harvesting," involves the gathering of absentee ballots from voters, sometimes by paid operatives, and delivering them to drop boxes or voting locations. The practice was permitted in Wisconsin in the 2020 election, though whether it can continue is the subject of a court case expected to be decided in June. 

Featured Fact-check

Eric Hovde

stated on November 12, 2024 in X, formerly Twitter

Says the election results are suspicious because opponent U.S. Sen. Baldwin won “nearly 90%” of absentee ballots in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin’s vote totals have been affirmed in multiple investigations. 

The Associated Press investigated every potential case of voter fraud in six battleground states, including Wisconsin, and found that the disputed ballots represented just .15% of Biden’s margin of victory in those states. The article published in December found that the disputed ballots did not indicate any intent to rig the election, and that in "virtually every" case, individuals were acting alone to cast additional ballots. 

Hoft did not respond to a message sent through his website. 

A Gateway Pundit headline claims "A STOLEN ELECTION: State totals minus illegal ballot trafficking numbers give President Trump decisive victories in AZ, GA, MI, PA, and WI." 

The blog post’s assertions rest on the testimony of True the Vote, a conservative poll-watching organization. The group told Wisconsin Assembly members that they weren’t alleging that the votes were illegal, but that the process was abused. 

Gateway Pundit assumed that all of the mail-in ballots True the Vote cast doubt on are illegal and should be thrown out, and that all of them were for Biden. 

This claim is not accurate. We rate this False. 

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