Trump campaign encouraging surrogates to double down on ballot fraud

Donald Trump’s campaign is encouraging its Republican Party surrogates to double down on the narrative that the presidential election is likely to be stolen by voter fraud. 

While Trump now says he will accept “a clear election result,” his campaign is urging allies who defend Trump on television to sow doubts about vote counting in swing states. 

{mosads}In campaign talking points sent out Wednesday and obtained by The Hill, the Trump team told Republican surrogates to cite examples of voter fraud in North Carolina, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

Under a headline ‘Must make points on rigged system,’ the Trump campaign encourages surrogates to say, “We have also seen very significant recent voting irregularities across the country from Pennsylvania to Colorado and an increase in unlawful voting by illegal immigrants.” 

Another Trump talking point reads: “Non-citizen votes may have been responsible for Barack Obama’s narrow margin of victory in North Carolina in 2008.” 

And another states: “CBS Denver affiliate found dead Coloradans were still voting. A dead World War II veteran voted in a 2006 primary election, and a woman who died in 2009 cast ballots in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.  Dead people were registered to vote in Virginia.” 

The Trump campaign is also encouraging surrogates to invoke the threat of undocumented immigrants manipulating election results. 

“More than 14 percent of non-citizens surveyed in 2008 and 2010,” one bullet point states, “said they were registered to vote.” 

Multiple studies have found that cases of voter fraud are rare and unlikely to cause significant problems in national elections. 

Several Republican lawmakers criticized Trump’s answer during the final debate Wednesday, when he told moderator Chris Wallace that he’d keep Americans in “suspense” about whether he’d accept the result on Election Day.  

Trump has since clarified that he wants to reserve the right to contest close results; but he continues to sow broader mistrust among his supporters about the election process.

When pressed, several of Trump’s top allies, including his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, declined to endorse the theory that the election is likely to be stolen by fraud at the ballot box. 

They’ve tried to shift the conversation to one exclusively concerning the “rigged” media. And, indeed, Trump’s campaign talking points also include the accusation that the “liberal media and the Clinton campaign have coordinated their personal attacks on Mr. Trump in order to rig the election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.” 

A Republican source who received the Trump talking points was “puzzled” by the campaign’s decision to double down on the idea of rigged elections

“It’s unprecedented,” the source said. “Usually at this time of the year, we talk about getting our vote[ers] out and volunteers and getting lead on the target, not trying to convince people that this thing’s fixed.” 

Asked about the talking points, Trump spokesman Jason Miller told The Hill: “These talking points articulate our position perfectly.

“Mr. Trump is committed to breaking up the rigged system in Washington and ensuring that the people — this grassroots movement fueling Mr. Trump’s campaign — have a voice in how we govern going forward.”