Tweetstorm: Pre-Fact Checking the Debate’s “Rigged” Claims

October 20, 2016, 2:21 am

The third and final debate is tonight — in fact it just started as I’m writing this. Given GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s rhetoric in recent days about the election being “rigged” against him, we can only imagine that subject will come up a few times tonight. We posted this tweet storm earlier this evening to clear a few things up. Here are those tweets in one place.

There’s probably going to be talk of the election being “rigged” tonight. It’s not rigged. Here are some facts. #1
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Elections are run by state, not the federal government. The decentralization makes national “rigging” basically impossible. #2
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Decentralization (and lots of other things) also makes mass hacking impossible. DFW election officials explain: https://t.co/zzqooR0I12 #3
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

It’s true that hacking *does* happen, and it has. But it is impossible to do on a large scale. https://t.co/IUb0sMr6os #4
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

In-person voter fraud is *rare.* One study found only 31 cases out of 1 billion votes. https://t.co/3ul7nwhcze #5
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

But don’t trust 1 study. The Government Accountability Office looked at lots of studies and found the same thing. https://t.co/IdMgfpD4sQ #6
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Iowa’s 2-year investigation found 117 possible cases of voter fraud. Of those, only 6 led to criminal convictions https://t.co/g19r1a77kc #7
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Fraud does exist – just not the type that will be solved by poll watchers or voter ID. Like absentee fraud: https://t.co/Kl1uzQgbF1 #8
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Antiquated voter systems, management errors and intimidation are far bigger problems than traditional fraud: https://t.co/r5K1cOAhpl #9
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Here, some experts (including @aztammyp – an Electionland advisor!) discuss why the election isn’t “rigged”: https://t.co/nbXm0zEiqD #10
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

So, there you go. We’ve pre fact checked “rigging” claims, but we’ll be here during the debate too, just in case. Over and out. #11/11
— Electionland (@electionland) October 20, 2016

Oh, also: