Donald Trump (already) accuses Democrats of cheating

The accusation leaves a feeling of déjà vu. While the vote to choose the next president of the United States will be held in 48 hours, Republican candidate Donald J. Trump is already accusing his Democratic opponent of cheating. Four years ago, he refused to admit having lost the vote to Joe Biden, creating a strong protest which pushed his activists to storm the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021, interrupting the certification vote of election to Congress. In 2024, again: Donald Trump this time accuses Kamala Harris of fraud. “A bunch of cheaters”he said on November 2, reports the New York Times . “The only thing that can stop us is cheating,” he had already declared on October 31 in Arizona, according to the Los Angeles Times .

The Republican candidate refers to attempted fraud detected in Pennsylvania, one of the “swing states” whose election results could tilt the national vote. “They have already started cheating in Lancaster” (a county in the state, Editor’s note)he said during a rally on October 29. Before adding, a few days later: “Pennsylvania is cheating at a level rarely seen before”. County authorities have indeed noticed a suspicious increase in the number of applications for voter registration. But all potentially fraudulent forms were discarded, and none of them were ballots, authorities said. The vote was therefore not disrupted, contrary to what Donald Trump suggested.

A strategy that has flourished since 2020

According to the New York TimesIn recent weeks, Trump activists have also complained that some states, such as Pennsylvania and Arizona, would probably not finish counting the ballots before the first results were announced. During the previous presidential election, this grievance was already one of the first to arise in the days following Trump’s defeat. While election officials admit that counting mail-in ballots may take longer, they assure that this will not have an impact on the initial estimates, which are then consolidated by the final results.

This year, voting control was strengthened to avoid further disputes. Thus, 10,000 local jurisdictions were trained to certify the votes before sending them to their state capitals. Subsequently, certifications are this time carried out at state level, before the lists are sent to Washington, summarize our American colleagues. But if this process is mandatory for all states, some are opposed to it: at least 35 electoral officials have decided to block the certification.

The eight states affected are Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The majority of them are “swing states”, known as “key states”. Blessed bread for the Trump team. “The only thing that matters is the votes that can be certified by American citizens, and that’s what we’re focused on”said Steve Bannon, former advisor to Donald Trump. Moreover, to galvanize his voters, the Republican candidate did not fail to affirm on November 3 that he was “leading in the seven key states” . However, according to the poll aggregator Figaro (NYTimes, Cook Political Report, FiveThirtyEight), Donald Trump would only have a slight lead over his rival in four of these states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. At the national level, the two candidates remain neck and neck, with Kamala Harris recording a very slight lead (49% against 48%).

A speech repeated by Trumpist activists

For supporters, Trump’s message came across well. They relay numerous posts on social networks against “cheating democrats». “Kamala should change her slogan to “We win, we cheat, we win!”, “LOL no, actually I don’t think Kamala has a chance if [les démocrates] can’t cheat”, “The only way Kamala will win is to cheat…again”, “Kamala is finished. They’re going to cheat, but I’m not sure they can cheat enough to make her win…”wrote this November 3 evening (November 4 morning in France) Trumpists on X (formerly Twitter), now led by Elon Musk, a fervent supporter of the former Republican president.

However, this strategy employed by Donald Trump does not seem to frighten his Democratic opponent, according to a press release from Dana Remus, lawyer for the campaign of Vice-President Kamala Harris, consulted by the New York Times. “It’s no surprise that he’s already questioning the results of an election that’s still ongoing. He failed when he tried this in 2020, and he will fail again.she writes.