It is the third time that the former American president has participated in a presidential election and the third time that he has raised the specter of fraud. Kamala Harris’ campaign says it is prepared to respond if he does.
Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) has not gone so far as to say he will be declared the winner before vote counting ends, as he did in 2020, although in recent days he has further strengthened its accusations of election fraud and the campaign Kamala Harris claims to be ready to respond if you do.
It is the third time that Trump participates in a presidential election and the thirdly, it raises the specter of fraud. In 2016 he won and did not have to make good on his warnings; but since 2020 he has attributed his defeat to manipulation of the results, which is true fake.
In this final week of the campaign, Trump has intensified his rhetoric, attempting to discredit the legitimacy of the election and falsely ensure that millions of undocumented immigrants will vote for Harris.
Similarly, several state election authorities have warned that it may take several days before the final results are known due to the tension of the race. For example, in Maricopa County, where most of Arizona’s electorate lives, local officials estimate that eThe count can take 10 to 13 days.
In 2020, the US had to wait four days after school closures before Biden was declared the winner. The process was slower than normal for two reasons: the pandemic caused an increase in early voting, which requires more processing time, and participation was particularly high with 158 million voters, almost 22 million more than in 2016.
In the United States there is no central electoral authority. For this reason, the major US media outlets that have teams to analyze each state’s data are the ones declaring the winners.
The “red mirage”
There is a key pattern in the vote counting that Trump could exploit to claim fraud, the so-called “red mirage.” This phenomenon, which has already been observed in previous elections, initially seems to give an advantage to the Republicans (associated with the color red), while as the night progresses the Democrats close the gap.
This is happening because in many states, in-person voting — where Republicans tend to have higher participation — is counted before early or mail-in voting. Tonight’s early results could give the impression that Trump is winningeven if that isn’t the case.
As in 2020, Trump could take advantage of that initial advantage declaring himself the winner and claiming that subsequent votes in favor of Harris are indicative of fraud. However, the Harris campaign has assured in recent days that it is ready to respond. And a senior Democratic official said in a call with reporters on Friday that they “fully expect” Trump to declare himself the winner on Tuesday evening before the count is completed.
In this sense, Trump has not committed to accepting the election results, as in 2016 and 2020, stating that he will only do so if he believes they are “just now”.
A victory ‘too big to handle’
Trump has assured his followers that the only way to prevent fraud is to achieve a victory “too big to manipulate”, that is, by a margin so large that it demonstrates his landslide victory and prevent Democrats from manipulating the results.
This rhetoric has led some citizens to convince themselves that their victory is certain. Conservative media have been insisting for some time that Trump will win by a wide margin and win all the key states.
If the media doesn’t announce his victory, Trump has made it clear that he is willing to take the recount to courtas he did in 2020. Unlike those elections, this time he has an army of volunteers from the movement ‘Stop the stealing’ (Stop the Robbery, in Spanish), organized to collect alleged evidence of fraud in the voting centers themselves.
The election authorities of several states have done so reinforced security at several voting centers due to the risk of an explosion of violence, as happened in 2020, when armed men stood at the entrance of voting centers in Arizona and Michigan, some supporters knocked on the windows of counting precincts.
Furthermore, that story could be amplified on social networks like Elon Muskwho supports Trump, has promoted conspiracy theories about fraud.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
