The following email was sent to the distribution list of North Carolina State Senator Jeff Jackson, a Democrat. I have found Jackson to be a very reasonable voice in today’s times. This email is an exemplar of his approach.
“Last week I sent an email that bluntly stated:
‘The election was not rigged. The elected officials saying otherwise are being intentionally dishonest.’
And I got a lot of replies from people saying, “Are you SURE it wasn’t rigged? How do you know? Where’s the proof? I heard that it was, so maybe we should look into that.”
Ok, so let me double back for a minute.
If you honestly aren’t sure whether or not the election was rigged, the best way I know to address that is to provide a wide variety of sources on the subject.
So here are 44 sources – a number of them supporters of the president – for you to consider.
In my view, if you genuinely believe that the election may have been stolen, you owe it to yourself to at least check your beliefs against what you see below.
(And if, upon review, you determine that the evidence does not support a conclusion that the election was rigged, the next step would be to cast a skeptical eye toward the sources that repeatedly tried to convince you otherwise.)
‘But Jeff, why should I believe anything you say?’
Don’t. Check the sources.
‘But Jeff, these sources are all corrupt and lying and should be ignored!’
Ok – but just know that when people accuse you of believing a conspiracy theory, this is why.
It’s because – in the face of an immense number of fact checks, Republican judges, and Republican elected officials – you’re not willing to consider the possibility that you may have been misled.
That’s conspiracy theory territory, and you should just know that going in.
For everyone else, feel free to share this and let’s see if we can reach a few people. (If you’d prefer to share in article form, you can do that here.)
It might not work, but we should at least try.
– Sen. Jeff Jackson
*************************************
44 Sources
1. “Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud” – AP
https://apnews.com/…/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1…
2. “Trump’s claims of vote rigging are all wrong” – AP
https://apnews.com/…/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-…
3. “First Statewide Audit of paper ballots in Georgia upholds results of Presidential race” – Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger (R)
https://sos.ga.gov/…/historic_first_statewide_audit_of_pape…
4. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” – Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees
https://www.cisa.gov/…/joint-statement-elections-infrastruc…
5.“The minimal number of criminal investigations that have so far come out of the November vote further reinforce the absence of sweeping vote fraud schemes.” – Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/bdbe541c-42de-11eb-b0e4-0f…
6. “In a remarkable show of near-unanimity across the nation’s judiciary, at least 86 judges — ranging from jurists serving at the lowest levels of state court systems to members of the United States Supreme Court — rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters.” – Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/e3a57224-3a72-11eb-98c4-25…
7. “It’s Official: The Election Was Secure” – Brennan Center for Justice
https://www.brennancenter.org/…/its-official-election-was-s…
8. “As former Republican Members of Congress who swore an oath to the Constitution, we believe the statements by President Trump alleging fraud in the election are efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the election and are unacceptable” – Letter from ***31 Former Republican Members of Congress***
https://thehill.com/…/525161-former-gop-lawmakers-call-on-t…
9. “To win, Mr. Trump must prove systemic fraud, with illegal votes in the tens of thousands. There is no evidence of that so far.” – Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/…/this-election-result-wont-be-overturn…
10. “U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann — a Republican and Federalist Society member in central Pennsylvania — compared the campaign’s legal arguments to ‘Frankenstein’s Monster,’ concluding that Trump’s team offered only ‘speculative accusations,’ not proof of rampant corruption.” – AP News
https://apnews.com/…/election-2020-donald-trump-pennsylvani…
And you can read the case for yourself here: https://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/si…/pamd/files/20-2078_202.pdf
11. “A sitting president undermining our political process & questioning the legality of the voices of countless Americans without evidence is not only dangerous & wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon. Every American should have his or her vote counted.” – Will Hurd (R), Representative of Texas’s 23rd District
https://thehill.com/…/524738-republicans-rebuke-trump-over-…
12. “STOP spreading debunked misinformation…This is getting insane” – Adam Kinzinger (R), Republican Representative of Illinois’s 16th District
https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1324503564891414528…
13. “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.” – Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/…/ct-republican-senators-ele…
14. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) Shoots Down Trump Legal Team’s ‘Rigged Election’ Claims: “Absolutely Outrageous” – Fox News
https://radio.foxnews.com/…/sen-joni-ernst-r-ia-shoots-dow…/
15. “[The president] is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt or stolen — doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destruction and dangerous passions.” – Sen. Mitt Romney (R), Utah
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1324763757105602561…
16. “President Trump’s legal team has not presented evidence of the massive fraud which would have had to be present to overturn the election. I voted for President Trump but Joe Biden won.” – Sen. Bill Cassidy (R), Louisiana
https://twitter.com/SenBillCass…/status/1331013512605405184…
17. “Republican Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump’s campaign to overturn Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
https://fusion.inquirer.com/…/pat-toomey-pennsylvania-elect…
18. “Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer (R) says widespread voter fraud not proven in 2020 election” – KETV
https://www.ketv.com/…/i-will-uphold-my-oath-nebra…/35132772#
19. “Former GOP election law attorney says widespread voter fraud doesn’t exist” – Fox Denver
https://kdvr.com/…/former-gop-election-law-attorney-says-w…/
20. “There is not and has not been any credible evidence of significant fraud in the 2020 election” – Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/there-is-not-has-not-been…/
21. “Georgia election: Trump voter fraud claims and others fact-checked” – BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/55561877
22. “Trump’s made-up claims of fake Georgia votes” – AP News
https://apnews.com/…/ap-fact-check-donald-trump-georgia-ele…
23. “Fact-checking Trump’s false claims about Pennsylvania’s election before his supporters attacked the Capitol” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
https://fusion.inquirer.com/…/trump-washington-rally-pennsy…
24. “Trump tweet wrongly suggests there were defects with Michigan voting machines” – Detroit Free Press
https://www.freep.com/…/trump-fact-check-defect…/3902951001/
25. “The Times Called Officials In Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud” – New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/…/…/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html
26. “A Georgia Election official debunked Trump’s claims of voter fraud point by point” – New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/…/politics/trump-georgia-election-f…
27. “Pennsylvania pours cold water on Trump’s voter fraud claims” – The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/…/first-thing-pennsylvania-pour…
28. “Here’s the reality behind Trump’s claims about mail voting” – AP
https://apnews.com/…/virus-outbreak-joe-biden-election-2020…
29. “2020 election ‘most secure in American history,’ federal election security officials say” – Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/…/2020-election-secure-history-fede…
30. “Presidential Election ‘Most Secure’ In History, Top Security Experts At DHS Say” – HuffPost
https://www.huffpost.com/…/2020-election-most-secure-dhs_n_…
31. “Fired director of U.S. cyber agency Chris Krebs explains why President Trump’s claims of election interference are false” – 60 Minutes, CBS
https://www.cbsnews.com/…/election-results-security-chris-…/
32. “Trump’s own officials say 2020 was America’s most secure election in history” – Vox
https://www.vox.com/…/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-k…
33. “Governor Wolf, officials say Pennsylvania had a fair and secure election” – MSN
https://www.msn.com/…/governor-wolf-officials-s…/ar-BB1cwXYG
34. “No, Dominion voting machines did not delete Trump votes.” – New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/…/no-dominion-voting-machines-did-n…
35. “Georgia officials rebutted Trump’s claim that Dominion voting machines failed in ‘Republican strongholds.’” – NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/…/05/us/polit…/dominion-georgia.html
36. “Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt (R) went on CNN and said the presidential election wasn’t ‘rigged’” – Springfield News Leader
https://www.news-leader.com/…/missouri-senator-…/3910497001/
37. “Sen. Cornyn (R) says he’s seen no evidence of voter fraud” – The Daily Sentinel
https://www.dailysentinel.com/…/article_c1250852-0687-5d3b-…
38. “No evidence shows Biden benefitted from voter fraud, South Dakota Senator John Thune (R) says” – Argus Leader
https://www.argusleader.com/…/thune-no-evidence…/6190130002/
39. Georgia official Raffensperger: “We had safe, secure, honest elections” – 60 Minutes, CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/…/georgia-official-raffensperger-w…/
40. “Fact-Checking the Congressional Debate on Ratifying the Election Results” – NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/…/fact-check-electoral-certification
41. Arizona Supreme Court upholds election challenge dismissal: “In all, eight lawsuits challenging Biden’s Arizona win have failed.”
https://apnews.com/…/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-a…
42. Fact check: After hand count audits of the vast majority of the ballots in the state, no evidence for claims Arizona’s results were marred by fraud – NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/…/electoral-college-ce…/ncrd1253058…
And you can see the hand count results for yourself here: https://azsos.gov/…/2020-general-election-hand-count-results
43. “Arizona’s GOP AG rejects voter fraud claims” – Axios
https://www.axios.com/arizona-republican-ag-rejects-voter-f…
44. From a presidential commission to Trump-nominated judges, here’s who has rebuked Trump’s voter fraud claims – Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/…/01/03/voter-fraud/“
musingsofanoldfart 
Keith, I have a neighbor who I wish would read this. Sadly, the true Trump believers who have drunk the Kool Aid will follow him to the grave.
Kim, it won’t reach all or many, but if it reaches a few or a handful, there is an echo effect. His tone and research may get through. Keith
This is very well done, Keith! Thank you.
Thanks Soundeagle. I like his tone and research.
Senator Jackson is the voice of reason and he has certainly done his homework in providing this extensive and credible list! Let’s hope that at least a few people listen to reason! Thanks for this one, Keith!
Agreed. Thanks for the reference in your post. Keith
Why do some people find it so easy to follow the call of a fool instead of the voice of reason. Maybe this will sway a few who didn’t drink so deeply of the Trump Aid.
Hugs Keith
Thanks David. I won’t repeat my response to Rawgod, but ask you to share your thoughts to it. Keith
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Thanks for the reblog of my reblog. I love how he says don’t take my word for it, look it up. Keith
44 sources, with surely others, versus 1, the babbling mouth of Donald J. TRUMPELSTILTORANGESKIN. We know who 74 plus million of Americans will believe, without question. The most obliviously ignorant person in the world, the iDJiT without compare, Diaper Don, the laughingstock of the intelligent world.
May he spend the rest of his life in jail, preferably in solitary confinement!
Rawgod, it shows how powerful a force cognitive dissonance is. When confronted by facts that cause disharmony in one’s belief system, the tendency is to ignore the source. You would think if they learned they had been lied to, they would be upset. I loved Bill Cosby, but when it became apparent he had lied to us, it broke my heart. Keith
For me it wasn’t the lies, it was the acts themselves. When did he decide he was so above everyone else he could treat others like dirt. Didn’t he grow up in the slums? I guess even black men don’t always treat women as their equals.
One of my favourite John Lennon/Plastic Ono band recordings is Woman is the Nigger 9f the World. He wrote that, then he went out on sex binges while married to Yoko, even though they were split at the time. Seems a lot of famous people sometimes lose their way…
Neil Diamond was such a germaphobe he would let no one touch him, despite writing Touching You, Touching Me. (Not the same, I know, but still similar.)
Rawgod. true. The acts are far worse. Lennon was not perfect like all of us. I am familiar with the song. My wife and I love Neil Diamond and had no idea of his germaphobia. It is like Howie Mandel. Thanks, Keith
Excellent and thorough research Keith.
Sadly this resembles a more virulent version of the UK Left Wing of the Labour Party:
It was not Corbyn’s ineptitude which lost the election:
1. It was the BBC.
2. It was the corporations.
3. It was prominent rabbis.
4. It was the Liberal Democrats splitting the vote. (tragic when you read the figures)
5. It was voter fraud.
6. It was disloyal rightist factions within the party.
A year later…. 1,2 4, 5 & 6 are still being voiced (and 3 mumbled in coded language)
So they do not want to know.
And your ‘They’ do not want to know. ‘They’ want to remain in their positions of privilege with their pet marionette.
Roger, talk about perfuming a pig. The party needs some new blood. Keith
A positive washing out of The Augean Stables
Indeed. They need Heracles to give them a good washing.
I do not believe that is the reason there is so much doubt. Let us not forget the Russian Collusion Hoax, the outright acts of the mutiny of the Joint Chiefs Staff, the lies of the nation’s security agencies, and the censorship of true stores such as Bidens damming laptop.
Heavy on many voter minds is that In-person voting is challenging to keep cheating at bay. Mail-in voting is much more complex and way more expensive. There is too much suspicion of the validity of a process ripe for cheating put in place in less than a year. The legitimacy of the process is the issue.
With what he went through with the Witch Hunt, media bias, mutiny, and acts of sedition, and acts of perjury, who can blame him or those aware of all the wrongdoings and outright attacks of his supporters. But, you are correct that Trump and his followers are just pissing in the wind. The fix is in, and nothing can change the outcome any more than those trying to challenge Venezuela’s Maduro election results can.
Arnold, thanks for your comment. Your thoughts are interesting.. As an independent and former Republican voter, I could not disagree with you more. The former president planned and staged this voter fraud claim several months before the election hiring 1,000 attorneys. I wrote a posts two months before saying take it to the bank Donald Trump will sue to win the election. His niece said the same thing when she said “her uncle will burn it all down to claim he did not lose.”
The Mueller Report noted there was a great deal of inappropriate contact with the Russian officials and that the president lied about several things and obstructed justice. Also about thirty-three arrests were made. William Barr came in and whitewashed the report as if nothing happened. And, it primarily went away. To say it was a hoax is not accurate.
Back to the election, the same AG Barr told Trump in a group meeting that his claims of election fraud were BS using the actual word. Barr was asked to leave. Chris Krebs, head of cybersecurity for the election said it was the most secure election in our history. He was asked to leave. And, now Trump and his sycophants have lost well over 60 court cases winning only one small one in PA, about his election fraud claims and his requests for audit again and again have confirmed the results of the election. Even yesterday, a Republican led review of Arizona results confirmed Biden won – of course, Trump said at a rally in GA the review said just the opposite.
The former president has tended to claim fake news or witch hunts that he feels are out to get him. “They just don’t like me,” he would say, which is a child’s claim. But, from where I sit, even before his seditious actions inviting and inciting an insurrection on a branch of government, I found the former president to be the most deceitful and corrupt president in my lifetime.
I will give you the media focused on every little thing that he did, which diluted the bigger lies in his presidency. The volume of media reports normalized his behavior. Yet, we cannot have a president who is this untruthful and corrupt.
That is what this independent and former Republican voter believes. I have shared my concerns with GOP Congressmen and Senators that we need the GOP to get back to better footing. Both parties are imperfect, but the GOP is a adrift untethered to the truth. When a party vilifies its truthtellers and egrandizes its liars, that is an indictment in and of itself.
Thanks for your comment, Keith
Have you forgotten Gore’s endless challenges in Florida? Frankly, the integrity of elections has been degrading for decades. The switch to wholesale mail-in voting is just the coup de grâce remove of outcomes now. The GOP and Dems are two sides of the same coin. Lack of term limits guarantees a self-serving corrupt cadre of politicians oblivious to the needs of the citizenry. Mail-in voting has killed any hope of meaningful change.
I read nothing in the Mullard report that does not apply to Obama, the Clintons, and Biden. The Bidens are deep in questionable behavior too. The contents found in Hunter Biden’s laptop are accurate too. The Bidens lied, Federal agents under oath lied, but the person destroyed is General Flynn? No bias there – right? The truth is Trump was held to a standard no other politician has been. Political dirt that should have been exposed about the Bidens during the election campaigns was covered up by federal agents and censored by the media.
In contrast, everything possible was exposed about Trump and his family. Friends in Europe and Asia tell me the election was rugged and America is corrupt. No one anywhere trusts Washington DC.
Perhaps, that is a good outcome. People now understand American is as corrupt as most countries in Asia and South America. There is an old saying, be careful what you wish for. Democrats have gotten their wish. America is not great and the world now believes this. It has been successfully gutted. This means American institutions, ideals, values, universities, and consultants are Not Great too. No one cares what a two-bit country does or thinks.
Arnold, Gore eventually conceded after SCOTUS ruled. The latest former president keeps losing in court and with audits and this latest review and keeps telling people he won like he did yesterday. In fact, his attorneys have to pay
court costs and some have been referred for disbarment procedings for frivolous lawsuits.
Per Krebs, the 2020 election was more secure than previous ones because they had a better audit trail. I disagree with Dems often, but my former Republican party truly is adrift by supporting the machinations of the former president. They need to call him on the carpet for his Big Lie about the election and his seditious actions. We need the GOP to regain better footing.
That is what I believe. People like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, etc. are courageous for telling the truth and yet they get death threats and knew that going in. That is shameful in my view.
Thanks again for your comment. Keith
Keith: thank you for showing people who disagree HOW to share information, instead of just screaming names at each other. I read your posts and comments JUST BECAUSE you are such a gentleman…well, also because you write interesting posts and comments (lol)
Suze, thank you so much for your kind remarks and support. I agree we need to find productive ways to discuss our disagreements. Keith