MUTH: The 'Widespread' Misinformation Campaign on Voting Fraud

For years now, whenever someone on the right raises the issue of voting fraud, the “fraud deniers” respond by using one word to disingenuously negate the claims…

“Widespread.”

They can’t say there isn’t ANY voting fraud because there have been too many proven cases of it.

So they try to mislead the public by constantly inserting the word “widespread.” Here’s a recent example from just this past Thursday.

A coalition of 126 left-leaning groups penned a letter to Congress in opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act which has been proposed to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

In it, they wrote that “there is simply no evidence of widespread non-citizen voting in elections.”

Of course, there is evidence that non-citizens are voting in our elections. So they have to insert the word “widespread” to cover their butts and mislead the public.

Some other examples…

“There is no widespread fraud in US elections.” – CNN Politics
“Study Finds No Evidence of Widespread Voter Fraud.” - NBC News
“The top U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election.” - Reuters
“Widespread election fraud claims by Republicans don’t match the evidence.” – Brookings Institute
GOP lawmakers heading into the legislative session take aim at voter fraud, despite no evidence of widespread problem.” – Texas Tribune
“(F)ormer President Trump and his allies insist, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud led to a stolen election.” – Judy Woodruff, PBS
“There is no report from any electoral organization confirming widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.” – USA Today
“Arizona AG: No evidence of widespread voter fraud found in 2020 election.” – FOX 10 Phoenix
“Election officials and major news channels reported there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.” – Mary Yang, NPR
“Numerous independent studies and government reviews of the 2020 election found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.” – Missouri Independent
“The founder told ABC News that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.” – ABC News
“The partial release of a Georgia grand jury report…determined that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 contest…” – The Hill

Three things in case you ever run across this deceptive wordplay and want to respond.

First, as Hans von Spakovsky of the Institute for Constitutional Government points out…

“We don’t have ‘widespread’ bank robberies, but we have enough of them that we take very detailed security precautions to prevent them. Election fraud is exactly the same.”

Secondly, as former U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams (an Obama appointee) wrote on Twitter on June 6, 2022…

“If even one vote has been illegally cast or if the integrity of just one election official is compromised, it diminishes faith in the process.”

Thirdly, as the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) notes on its website, there have been at least 617 elections over the last twenty-some years that have ended in a tie and another 146 that were decided by one vote.

Just ONE illegally cast ballot could have changed the results in those elections and diminished faith in the process.

So don’t fall for the left’s widespread use of the word “widespread” when talking about election integrity.

It’s a widespread, disingenuous tactic designed to trivialize the very real concern about securing our elections.

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach Foundation, an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1992. The Pigpen Project is a project of Citizen Outreach Foundation established to assist election officials in cleaning up the voter rolls. For more information, please visit pigpenproject.com.