Donald Trump Will Lose Because Of Donald Trump – Not Nonexistent Voter Fraud

As I wrote earlier this week, Donald Trump is already teeing up excuses as to why he might lose the election to Hillary Clinton in November.

In a softball interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday night, Trump said he is “very concerned” about voter fraud costing him the race.

Video:

Trump said:

Well, I’m looking at all of these decisions coming down from the standpoint of identification/voter ID. And I’m saying, what do you mean? You don’t have to have voter ID to now go in and vote and it’s a little bit scary and I’ve heard a lot of bad things. Four years ago, I was hearing a lot of bad things having to do with the Romney campaign where when the vote came out there were some districts that were shockingly different from what they were anticipated to be. I’ve been seeing it and I’ve been hearing it a lot. The whole thing with voter ID identification I think is really – I mean people are going to walk in, they are going to vote 10 times maybe. Who knows? They are going to vote 10 times. I am very concerned and I hope the Republicans are going to be very watchful and I hope the authorities are going to be very watchful. Because I want to tell you – I believe it’s going to, just like Bernie Sanders ‘I said it was rigged,’ well it’s rigged here too believe me. So I just hope the Republicans are going to be very watchful.

The “decisions” the Republican nominee is referring to are those being made by federal courts to strike down right-wing voter ID laws in several states. While advocates of those laws claim to be fighting fraud at the polls – a problem that doesn’t exist – they’re actually just making it harder for certain groups of people to vote. Those groups happen to vote in large numbers for Democratic candidates.

What is irking Trump is that the courts are seeing right through this effort, which means more people will be able to legally cast their ballot against him in November.

When the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out North Carolina’s voter ID law last week, they said, “The new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

In North Dakota, a federal judge rejecting that state’s voter ID law said, “The undisputed evidence before the Court reveals that voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.”

Not only is voter fraud nonexistent in North Dakota – it’s virtually non-existent across the country.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice:

The Brennan Center’s ongoing examination of voter fraud claims reveal that voter fraud is very rare, voter impersonation is nearly non-existent, and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators. Our report “The Truth About Voter Fraud” reveals most allegations of fraud turn out to be baseless — and that of the few allegations remaining, most reveal election irregularities and other forms of election misconduct.

To underscore that point, Vox put together a handy chart using information from Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School and US Elections Project. Their data shows that, between 2000 and 2014, there were over 800 million votes cast in general elections in the United States. Of those ballots, there were only 35 credible cases of voter fraud.

In other words, people are more likely to be killed by vending machines or spot a UFO than they are to commit voter fraud.

Donald Trump’s recent comments suggesting that foul play in ballot boxes across this country will cost him the election are baseless.

Trump will lose because of Trump – not because of some disproven conspiracy theory.