WASHINGTON — Throughout Saturday’s pro-Trump demonstrations in D.C., there were chants in support of President Donald Trump and claims that the election was rigged against him
“We the people are not going to allow our legal votes that are cast be disenfranchised by an illegal ballot,” Kylie Jane Kremer said.
“We simply want every legal vote to be counted,” Chris Barron told WUSA9.
Claims of voter fraud and illegal ballots were the most common claims heard among the thousands of President Trump supporters gathered on Saturday.
For this story, WUSA9 spoke with Barron who is the organizer of March for Trump, Kremer with Women for America First. Our station also spoke with Gary Nordlinger who is a professor at George Washington University and Dr. Michael Fauntroy who is an associate professor at Howard University.
The answer to the first claim is straightforward because there are no reports or evidence to suggest widespread voter or election fraud.
The second claim WUSA9 fact-checked came from Kremer.
“They are finding boxes of hundreds of thousands of votes across the country that 100% are all for Joe Biden,” Kremer claimed. “I’m not sure about the different specifics ... but you know when they're 100% for one candidate, it’s just statistically ... that is very almost improbable to happen.”
Nordlinger responded, “No, no, no. Hundreds of thousands of votes don’t sit in boxes that you can sit in little corners.”
He added, “it is very unlikely that you’d ever have a precinct where there is not one single vote for a presidential candidate.”
Nordlinger told WUSA9 election officials are still, in fact, counting absentee and provisional ballots which is legal.
Political experts WUSA9 spoke with have not heard of thousands of votes coming in boxes for one candidate.
The final claim WUSA9 reviews from Trump rally organizers came from Barron.
“There’s a process. Al Gore didn’t concede until December 13th.”
This was from the presidential election 20 years ago in 2000 and requires some context.
Dr. Fauntroy explained Former Vice President Gore did concede on election night, but as the night wore on, there were some questions over the vote count in Florida.
Gore rescinded his concession and eventually conceded again on December 13th that year.
“The real big difference between then and now is that in 2000 we’re talking about one state,” Dr. Fauntroy said. “Here we’re potentially talking about multiple states — none of which were as closely contested in 2020 as Florida was contested in 2000.”
Still, President Trump’s supporters are standing their ground this year.
Organizers WUSA9 spoke with said they would be OK with accepting a loss once all legal votes are counted and legal matters are resolved.