Election misinformation continues to spread a week after Americans cast their ballots. This includes some false claims about California’s election.
CapRadio’s PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols sets the record straight in this week’s Can You Handle The Truth segment.
Interview Highlights
On President Donald Trump sharing a misleading Twitter video on Wednesday that called into question ballot collection in Los Angeles
This video shows LA County election workers legally collecting ballots from an authorized dropbox the day after Election Day.
A woman approaches them and is ‘suspicious’ of what they’re doing, saying to them, “I thought they collected them [the ballots] all. I just want to document.”
A poll worker responds, “No, we’re still collecting [ballots].”
The woman filming asks them, “Wait, how come they already called the state?”
And finally, the poll worker responds, “Because these are mail-in ballots.”
The registrar’s office confirmed to PolitiFact last week when this video started circulating originally on TikTok that all drop boxes were closed and locked at 8 p.m. on Election Night. The registrar also confirmed that ballots were legally picked up the next day for processing.
On President Donald Trump’s statement about the video
The president added that quote, “You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?”
This shows election workers LEGALLY collecting ballots from a drop box in LA the day after Election Day.
— PolitiFactCalifornia (@CAPolitiFact) November 11, 2020
The LA County Registrar, @LACountyRRCC, confirmed that all boxes were closed & locked at 8PM on Election Night & ballots were collected the next day. https://t.co/X1lfzr3v0g https://t.co/2vB0Ns6KsA
The answer is: He’s right; these are ballots. They are legal ballots being collected by authorized election officials.
When the video first circulated last week, it had a headline about “Cheating in California,” and PolitiFact rated that False; there’s nothing illegal happening.
With Trump sharing it yesterday, PolitiFact California rated that False again.
And Twitter also added a warning label at the bottom of the president’s tweet.
On misleading claims about voter fraud in Nevada’s presidential election
Last week, President Trump’s campaign and Nevada Republicans claimed that thousands of people who moved out of Nevada still voted there in the election.
The problem is that when they published a list of these people who supposedly cast fraudulent votes, they included members of the military deployed overseas, plus students from Nevada going to college in another state, and also some people who had moved out of the state within 30 days.
All three of these groups were allowed to vote in Nevada’s election. This was no evidence of any widespread fraud. PolitiFact rated it False.
On a conservative election watchdog group’s allegation of Californians fraudulently voting in Nevada’s election
The Election Integrity Project claimed about 1,400 Californians may have unlawfully voted in Nevada’s election. PolitiFact California examined that claim in a recent article.
The group said they submitted their findings to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, but it did not make those findings public.
They also said that these are Californians who had moved out of Nevada several months before the election and were not within this 30 day period that’s allowed.
The Nevada Secretary of State Office would not address this specific claim, but it pledged to investigate all credible accusations of voter fraud thoroughly.
It’s important to note that not election officials in Nevada or any other state have cited any large-scale cases of wrongdoing or fraud in the election. The Nevada office added that many complaints about voter fraud lack evidence and are really complaints about process or policy.
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