A federal judge in Pennsylvania told the Republican Party and the Trump campaign to provide evidence of their claim that there was vote-by-mail fraud in the state. The judge gave the party and the Trump campaign until August 21.
Vote-by-mail fraud
The judge's order essentially forces the Trump campaign and the Republican party to try to back up the false claims of President Donald Trump about massive voter fraud in postal voting. The case is labeled as high-profile, as reported by Forbes.
District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan wrote on August 13 that the court finds that instances of voter fraud are relevant to the claims and defenses in the case. The district judge told Republicans that they need to provide evidence of fraud to the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, which are part of the ongoing lawsuit.
The Democrats that had asked for information and documents that would show steps the Republicans took to study the possibility of fraud, especially linked to the use of drop boxes, ballot collection, and mailed-in ballots in the primary elections.
Republicans and the Trump campaign refused to provide documents. However, due to the court order, they must now answer questions from the Democratic groups and turn over records of communications or say that they have none, which will then nullify their claim that there was fraud in the first place. The judge gave the Trump campaign and the Republicans until August 21.
Lawyers representing the Democrats stated that the Trump campaign should not be permitted to raise such massive fraud-related claims, especially in the climate in the country.
The Democrats have called the Trump lawsuit an attempt to stoke fear to the public about unproven fraud related to mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, which is dubbed as the battleground state.
Legal scholars from both Democrats and Republicans and nonpartisan experts acknowledge that there is no widespread fraud in US elections.
The case is one of the biggest and boldest attempts by the Trump campaign in court in their attempt to curtail mail-in voting in the 2020 election.
The Trump campaign had then claimed mail-in voting could prompt some questions about the accuracy of election results and it could create chaos this coming election.
The judge overseeing the suit, District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, was appointed by President Trump. A hearing about the evidence of mail-in fraud is set for September.
Fact-checking teams weigh in
President Trump posted an article on his Twitter account highlighting Attorney General William Barr's recent comment that expanding mail-in voting could open the opportunity to fraud.
Trump added his own commentary saying that the upcoming election will be the "disaster of our time" as mail-in ballots will lead to "a rigged election."
David Becker, the founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and research, posted on his Twitter account that the "info is false" in response to Trump's posts. He added that there is no evidence to support Trump's claims and states have a lot of protections in place to prevent the rigging of mail ballots.
Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida who runs the United States Elections Project said that it would be a "waste of paper" for foreign countries to print fraudulent ballots. He added that the legally valid ballots printed by election officials have a lot of safeguards to protect against fraudulent voting.
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