Elections in Pennsylvania in 2020
were secure.
Was there fraud in the 2020 election?
More than 60 court cases and numerous investigations by PA Republicans have found no evidence of fraud that would affect the outcome of the 2020 election. Donald Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, and Trump’s Department of Justice investigated and found no evidence of widespread fraud. Ivanka Trump testified that she believed there was no widespread election fraud. No claims of substantial election fraud have survived legal scrutiny, and many were dismissed as meritless by Trump-appointed judges.
Are voting machines connected to the internet?
No. Pennsylvania’s voting equipment, including the systems that tally Pennsylvanians’ votes, are never connected to the internet. Voting machines are stored in a secure location, and it is a crime to tamper with them. After the 2020 election, federal and state officials found “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
How do election officials prevent counting ballots of dead people?
PA counties are required by law to continuously remove people who have died from the voter rolls. In 2020, almost 11,000 deceased voters were removed from PA voter rolls prior to the election. Votes cast by people who vote early but then die before election day are not counted. Senior Republican officials, including AG Bill Barr and Commissioner Al Schmidt, have refuted claims that large numbers of dead people voted in PA in 2020.
Are ballot drop boxes secure for voting?
For over 100 years, PA law has allowed voters to deliver ballots before Election Day, and today that includes at drop boxes. Guidance from the Secretary of the Commonwealth states that drop boxes should have: locks and tamper-evident seals; safeguards to prevent damage or unauthorized removal; signs displaying the laws prohibiting tampering or third party return of ballots; video surveillance where feasible; and a secure chain-of-custody procedure to ensure ballots are collected and returned by authorized personnel. Trump’s AG Bill Barr said there was no evidence of fraud in PA in 2020 or tampering with drop boxes. Claims that cell phone locations demonstrate people returning multiple ballots are not supported by the actual and accurate cell phone data, as a number of Trump Administration officials have testified.
Has Anyone Addressed Concerns Raised About the Administration of the 2020 Election?
Fox News, Salem Media, Newsmax, and 2000 Mules creator Dinesh D’Souza all retracted or acknowledged their false claims around fraud in the 2020 election in the face of legal consequences. Lawsuits against other public figures, including Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, exposed that their claims about purported fraud in the 2020 election were also false.
In Dominion Voting System’s defamation case over Fox News, Fox News acknowledged their repeated claims that Dominion rigged the 2020 presidential election were false and without any evidence. Fox News executives and hosts knew these claims were false and repeated them. Tucker Carlson, then Fox News anchor, texted his producer that the claims were “absurd” and “shockingly reckless.”. Fox host Maria Bartiromo called an email from Trump attorney Sidney Powell “kooky.” Host Sean Hannity said that Rudy Giuliani, former Trump attorney and now disbarred lawyer due to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, was “acting like an insane person.” Fox News reportedly paid $787.5 million to settle the suit.
In Smartmatic’s defamation suit against Newsmax for allegations of “rigging” the 2020 presidential election, Newsmax released a statement saying there is “no evidence” of this allegation and that election results were not altered or manipulated. Newsmax settled the case for an undisclosed amount.
In response to the defamation case against the Salem Media Group, Dinesh D’Souza, and True the Vote for false claims about ballot “mules” in the movie 2000 Mules, the Salem Media Group released a statement apologizing to the man portrayed as a ballot mule and removed the film from their platforms. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared the man of any illegal voting activity in the 2020 presidential election in May of 2022. Dinesh D’Souza, the film’s creator, apologized to the man and admitted that the film used false data.