In 2016, then Presidential candidate Donald Trump insisted that the election for the Presidency would be rigged. It was one of the numerous statements made by Trump that were brushed aside, as he was down in the polls and had no political power. Now as President, Trump has lost the 2020 Presidential election, yet he is using what remains of his leverage to attempt to stay in office. 

While the idea of President Trump being not willing to leave the job even if he loses has been speculated upon for years, the controversy began picking up steam during the rise of registration for mail-in voting. CNN reported that the President tweeted, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” His concern mainly lay with the security and verification of mail-in ballots. The concern is not warranted, however, because mail-in voting and absentee voting both consist of a person’s mark on a paper ballot, and a difference in a person’s signature would still be considered fraud. Furthermore, according to The New York Times, forty-four states have protocols for verifying mail in ballots. Trump’s strategy to attack mail-in voting was done in order to sow dissent amongst the American people over the accuracy of the election. 

When asked about President Trump’s remarks that the 2020 Presidential Election will be rigged if he loses, Megan Shi ’21, said, “I guess I can say that it’s unlikely that the election was rigged, due to the number of elections we’ve had that have been free of cheating. Even if President Trump did somehow get the ‘rigged excuse’ to pass, they’d probably just do a recount, and I doubt there will be much difference with the final result.”

The Trump campaign has responded to the results by filing numerous lawsuits, with little evidence, in key swing states. They allege the mishandling of ballots, in order to give President Elect Joe Biden an unfair advantage. 

One of these lawsuits alleged that potentially thousands of votes in Maricopa County, Arizona were intentionally discounted on Election Day because voters were given sharpies to write on their ballots, which caused errors in the processing machines. This came right after a conservative group of voters dropped their lawsuit accusing similar crimes in the same court system. The claims were rejected by state election officials. Furthermore, the lawyer representing Maricopa county said that only the issue only pertained to 180 votes. To put this into perspective, Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump in Arizona by approximately 11,000 votes.

In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the Trump Campaign sued to stop the process of counting mail-in ballots, due to irregularities in 592 ballots in the envelopes’ exteriors. During the court case on November 10th, 2020 the judge asked the prosecutor, Jonathan Goldstein, if he claimed that the ballots were fraudulent. Under oath, Goldstein replied, “To my knowledge at present, no.”

The most troubling lawsuit from the Trump Administration is intended to prevent the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results. It also alleges that poll workers in Philadelphia and Allegheny county counted hundreds of thousands of ballots without being reviewed by Trump’s poll watchers, a claim that Philadelphia city officials say has no merit. In fact, journalists at AP News said, “The 85-page lawsuit itself contained no evidence of voter fraud, other than a smattering of allegations.”

The sign of defeat for President Donald Trump’s bid for reelection causes him to unjustifiably claim that it is because of cheating by the other side.

Trump’s strategy to attack mail-in voting was done in order to sow dissent amongst the American people over the accuracy of the election.