The electoral results of the 2020 presidential election remain controversial. The victory of the Democratic Nominee (now president-elect), Joe Biden, has led to many concerns from President Trump of the Republican party. 

The main topic brought up by these election results is “Election Fraud.” What is Election Fraud? Election Fraud essentially consists of a political party “breaking the law” by  taking advantage of the legal machinery of the electoral process to steal an election they believe they cannot win fairly.”

Trump’s Election and Voter fraud claims encouraged a mob of rioters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6th. While many Republican senators like Ted Cruz condemn the violence that took place at the Capitol, senator Josh Hawley remains defending the president, standing for his decision to object to the election results’ certification and promote voter fraud investigation. 

Despite the dozens of lawsuits that Trump and his allies filed, which attempted to limit voting by mail during the election, courts rejected the lawsuits based on the lack of evidence that Trump’s campaign presented. This, however, is not the only attempt Trump’s campaign had at filing lawsuits. Joe Biden’s victory Resulted in a staggering 57 lawsuits filed from Trump’s campaign, contesting the election results. 50 out of the 57 lawsuits have already been withdrawn as they show once again no widespread evidence of attempted fraud, says U.S. attorney general William Barr. 

Trump’s claims about election fraud have been debunked and fact-checked. Here are some of Trump’s most controversial claims about the results of the presidential election and the Georgia Election that took place this past Wednesday. 

Claim #1: More votes than registered voters

After evidently realizing the victory of democratic candidate elect Joe Biden, Trump began a series of allegations against the integrity of votes in “battleground” states. The allegations made by Trump’s campaign state that there was a significant increase in voter turnout in certain parts of Michigan, with some areas reporting a staggering voter turnout of over 100%. The list depicting the voter turnout of precincts, in fact, shows that the list does not reflect the voter turnout of the state of Michigan but indeed reflects the voter turnout of the state of Minnesota. Indeed, it is evident that more people went out and voted for the 2020 presidential elections and the allegations provided by Trump’s campaign are completely inaccurate.

Claim #2: The Democrats own the voting machines

Trump has also stated in another claim that “The Radical Left owned Dominion Voting Systems.” Dominion voting systems is a non-partisan United States company that provides its software to vote and count machines for United States elections. Dominion is believed to be the cause of a “stolen” election, according to Trump’s lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The Trump administration has accused Dominion of “deleting votes” for the Republican nominee. He also added that Dominion is a system that is “horrible, inaccurate, and anything but secure.” However, Dominion reportedly shows no relationships or partnerships with top democratic politicians and has also even donated to republican senators like Mitch McConnell. In return, Dominion has sued Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell for more than 1.3 billion dollars due to the misinformation being spread about the company. The company has declared that Powell has affected Dominion’s reputation due to his false conspiracy theories about Dominion. 

Claim #3: “shredded Ballots” were found

Trump has also made allegations even after his lawsuits were rejected. During the rerun of two senate races in the state of Georgia On January 6th. As the Democrats were approaching victory, Trump tweeted out, stating, “our team is in Georgia. They took a little walk. They found shredded Ballots in Dell boxes.” While The precise location of where the picture was taken is unknown, it is more likely that it was taken at the ballot processing center in Fulton County. According to the BBC, Fulton county elections director Richard Barron mentioned that the shredded papers in the pictures were “definitely not ballots” but waste from a letter opening machine. 

While Trump has utilized the Bully Pulpit to his advantage, election fraud claims do not meet the standards and requirements of a proper case due to the lack of evidence. Most of the Trump administration’s lawsuits have been rejected. The events that occurred on January 6th resulted in Trump being banned on various social media accounts, including Twitter, due to spreading misinformation and the risk of “further inciting violence.” Days before his suspension, Trump has stated he will not be attending the inauguration on January 20th. However, due to recent events, the house will also vote on Trump’s second impeachment on Wednesday, January 13th.