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Trump Alleges Massive Illegal Voting; Fact-checkers Disagree


FILE - Voters cast their ballots in the Illinois primary in Hinsdale, March 18, 2014.
FILE - Voters cast their ballots in the Illinois primary in Hinsdale, March 18, 2014.

Officials in the northern state of Michigan have certified Republican Donald Trump as the winner of that state's presidential vote over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a slim 10,704 votes out of nearly 4 million ballots cast.

The announcement Monday officially awards the president-elect Michigan's 16 electoral votes.

But Michigan and two other states where the election was especially close — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — face possible recounts.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein has filed petitions in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and says she will do the same in Michigan.

FILE - Jill Stein, the Green Party's presidential nominee, speaks to supporters at a post-convention party. (G. Flakus/VOA)
FILE - Jill Stein, the Green Party's presidential nominee, speaks to supporters at a post-convention party. (G. Flakus/VOA)

Stein says she is not trying to get the national results overturned, but wants to double check the integrity of the election in states where the results were tight.

"After a presidential election tarnished by the use of outdated and unreliable machines and accusations of irregularities and hacks, people of all political persuasions are asking if our election results are reliable," she said.

Stein has raised millions of dollars to help pay for the recounts. However, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud or that voting machines were hacked, despite allegations of Russian involvement in manipulating the outcome.

If the results in all three states were to be overturned, the 46 electoral votes Trump would lose would be given to Clinton, and would make her president-elect. But the chances of that happening are very slim.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Monday that a recount is a waste of time, calling it a fundraising "scam by Jill Stein in an election already conceded."

FILE - Rockefeller Center and Rockefeller Plaza is lit up in red and blue to mark the electoral progress of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and a map of the United States was superimposed on the skating rink, Nov. 7, 2016.
FILE - Rockefeller Center and Rockefeller Plaza is lit up in red and blue to mark the electoral progress of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and a map of the United States was superimposed on the skating rink, Nov. 7, 2016.

While Clinton lost the Electoral College, she leads in the popular vote by more than 2.2 million. This does not set well with Trump, who clams "millions of people" voted illegally.

"Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California — so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias — big problem!" Trump said on Twitter.

He has not offered any evidence of fraud, and major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, say Trump's claims are baseless.

The Post's fact-checker says Trump's allegations appear to have been based on unsubstantiated reports by right-wing conspiracists claiming that 3 million undocumented immigrants cast ballots.

Another fact-checker, Politifact, said that without documentation to support the claim, "We rate it false."

Alex Padilla, a Democrat and California's top election official, said "His [Trump's] unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd. His reckless tweets are inappropriate and unbecoming of a president-elect."

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