The Big Lie

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Political Science

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Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Sesay 1 Simity Sesay Professor Gnuse Government 2306- 18 September 2022 The Big Lie What are the origins of the term "Big Lie?" Adolf Hitler used the term the big lie in his manifesto Mein Kampf claiming Jewish people led "a global consipracy and were responsible for Germany's and the world's woes" (Block). This lie fueled anti-Semitism and, eventually, the Holocaust. Block, Melissa. "Can the Forces Unleashed by Trump's Big Election Lie Be Undone?" NPR, NPR, 16 Jan. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/01/16/957291939/can-the-forces-unleashed-by- trumps-big-election-lie-be-undone. Explain how a "Big Lie" works, i.e., how is it spread and why?' Big Lies in authoritarian states follow a similar pattern: "purging staff seen as disloyal, demonizing the checks and balances of civil society, attacking the media" (Block). It puts a union's democracy into question and pits groups against one another to distract from the deterioration of civil liberties. These lies manipulate and draw the public's attention rather than the work a politician, for instance, may put into changing the political landscape into their image. Block, Melissa. "Can the Forces Unleashed by Trump's Big Election Lie Be Undone?" NPR, NPR, 16 Jan. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/01/16/957291939/can-the-forces-unleashed-by- trumps-big-election-lie-be-undone. Former President Trump warned against massive voter fraud when he began running for office in 2015. After he won the Electoral College vote in 2016 but lost the popular vote, he claimed he lost the popular vote because of voter fraud. He then established a commission to find proof of his allegations. What did it find?

Sesay 2 Journalist Marina Villeneuve's article covering the voting integrity commission, with former Vice President Mike Pence as chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as vice chair, found no evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election. The commission dissolved on August 3, 2018, after only meeting twice and issuing no formal report. The only conclusive evidence was a report "claiming over 1,000 convictions for various forms of voter misconduct since 1948," nowhere near the 3 to 5 million illegal votes former President Trump stated (Villeneuve). Villeneuve, Marina. "Report: Trump Commission Did Not Find Widespread Voter Fraud." AP NEWS, Associated Press, 3 Aug. 2018, https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump- us-news-ap-top-news-elections-f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d. Research the facts regarding voter fraud in both voting by mail and in-person voting during this century. Be specific with statistics and studies regarding each type of voter fraud. For example, a Loyola University study found only 31 actual cases of voter fraud out of one billion votes cast in the U.S. between 2000-2014. Explain your findings and cite your competing and/or nonprofit, nonpartisan sources. According to an article by journalist Elise Viebeck, the Washington Post analyzed data from three mail-in ballot states and found 372 probable cases of voter fraud from double voting out of 14.6 million votes in the 2016 and 2018 presidential elections. The Brennan Center found in studies done by Arizona State University there were 10 cases of voter fraud through impersonation from 2000-2012. Viebeck, Elise. “Minuscule Number of Potentially Fraudulent Ballots in States with Universal Mail Voting Undercuts Trump Claims about Election Risks.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/minuscule-number-of- potentially-fraudulent-ballots-in-states-with-universal-mail-voting-undercuts-trump-claims- about-election-risks/2020/06/08/1e78aa26-a5c5-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html . Center, Brennan. “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth - Brennan Center for Justice.” Brennan Center for Justice, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Briefing_Memo_Debunking_Voter_Fr aud_Myth.pdf.

Sesay 3 What was the basis for dismissing most of Trump's cases by Republican and Democratic judges? State and federal judges threw out more than 60 lawsuits because Trump and his constituents failed to provide proof of their claims or the courts committed filing and procedural errors (Sherman and Valverde). Sherman, Amy, and Miriam Valverde. "Politifact - Joe Biden Is Right That More than 60 of Trump's Election Lawsuits Lacked Merit." Politifact, 8 Jan. 2021, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/08/joe-biden/joe-biden-right-more-60-trumps- election-lawsuits-l/. What have state and federal government officials repeatedly said about the 2020 election results? State and federal officials stated that the election results were not false or tampered. No voter fraud claims brought forward by the Trump administration were substantiated (Giles). Giles, Ben. "Arizona Recount of 2020 Election Ballots Found No Proof of Corruption." NPR, NPR, 25 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/09/25/1040672550/az-audit. What have been the findings of numerous recounts and audits of local and state votes in that election? The audits and recounts found few discrepancies between the initial count and the recounts (Giles). Giles, Ben. "Arizona Recount of 2020 Election Ballots Found No Proof of Corruption." NPR, NPR, 25 Sept. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/09/25/1040672550/az-audit. Also, what is the January 6 House committee? It's a special investigative committee formed to explore "what led to the attack, how the building was breached so easily and how any similar event could be prevented from happening again" (Alemany and Hamburger). Why wasn't a 9/11-type, non-partisan commission created instead of the House Committee?

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