November 9, 2016

A Texas Voter Just Tried to Test Trump’s Voter Fraud Theory

It did not go well.

Nicki Kohl/Telegraph Herald/AP

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In the run-up to Election Day, Donald Trump’s campaign stoked fears of widespread pro-Hillary voter fraud, often calling the election “rigged” and even claiming there is a major problem with undocumented immigrants voting. (Non-US citizens cannot vote.) On his website, Trump encouraged his supporters to sign up to be “Trump election observers,” and on Tuesday some of them appeared to take him up on his offer.

We’ve seen reports of Trump supporters potentially intimidating voters by blocking polls in Coral Gables, Florida, and the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in heavily Latino Clark County, Nevada, alleging that the polls were improperly kept open two hours late during early voting—even though it’s typical for polls to stay open late to accommodate those who got in line before the official poll closing time.

But one Texas man took Trump’s efforts to combat voter fraud to a whole other level. He decided to test the system by attempting to vote twice, which actually would be engaging in voter fraud. According to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office:

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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