ELECTION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/VOTER FRAUD: “Like most unsubstantiated claims leveled by President Donald Trump, his allegations of fraud in the high-stakes recount in Florida’s Senate and gubernatorial elections started with a tweet. Shortly after polls closed on last week’s midterm election, the president warned of a ‘big corruption scandal’ in Florida as officials struggled to tally votes in Broward County. Days later, he referenced ‘massively infected’ ballots and accused Democrats of trying to ‘falsify’ his 2016 win in the Sunshine State, without citing evidence. Trump went further Wednesday, suggesting that voters were using disguises to cast multiple ballots…He also suggested there was rampant voter fraud because of what he described as a lax approach to verifying identification. ‘If you buy a box of cereal – you have a voter ID,’ Trump said. The assertions were only the latest conspiracy theory embraced by Trump over the Florida gubernatorial and Senate elections as election officials raced to tally votes…Experts who study the use of conspiracy theories in politics say the ongoing recounts in Florida have all the preconditions needed to fuel Trump’s decades-old penchant for embracing claims of subterfuge. The outcome is uncertain, the drama is high and the complexity of the issue makes it hard for voters to separate fact from fiction.”
–John Fritze, “Trump claims Florida voters wore disguises, latest in pattern of conspiracy theories,” USA Today, ovember 15, 2018 6:29 pm