Claims of Election Day Voter Fraud Prove to be Unfounded

President Trump’s rhetoric on the topic of voter fraud is nothing new. In fact, his attempts to cast doubt on the 2020 electoral process extend back to Sept. 24, when he referenced the discovery of Trump-marked ballots in a trash can in a Pennsylvania county.

Since then, Trump has only doubled down on these claims, and has raised suspicions about everything from mail-in ballots and early voting to conduct at the polling places themselves.

Despite these efforts by President Trump and leading Republican officials to cast doubt on the vote tallying procedures heading into the Nov. 3 election, claims of voter fraud and other forms of tampering have thus far proven to be unfounded.

Yet even in a news cycle where accusations of voter fraud have largely failed to generate a front page headline, rumors have still abounded. Two conspiracies that surfaced on Wednesday revolve around ballots filled out with felt-tip pens in Arizona failing to be read by voting machines and the “magical” appearance of 128,000 votes in Michigan.

Though both theories have been roundly debunked by state officials and election analytics sites, Trump continued his pre-election strategy of casting uncertainty on the proceedings by tweeting about the situation in Michigan. However, the issue was later found to be a simple data error, not evidence for mass voter fraud dedicated to undermining Trump’s bid for the presidency.

Not to be dissuaded, President Trump continued to launch a flurry of tweets throughout the day on Wednesday, each a largely baseless claim that Democrats are somehow “finding” ballots in important battleground states to make up Biden’s early deficit. While this isn’t strictly false since mail-in votes counted later in the day did swing many of the tightest races toward Biden, it still badly mischaracterizes an electoral process that has been mostly hang-up free.

Such false rumors have had far-reaching effects. According to Politco.com, in the wake of Mr. Trump’s comments, far-right influencers have used the hashtags “#VoterFraud and #StealTheVote to garner more than 300,000 interactions,” further spreading the narrative that mass voter fraud is responsible for the results of the election.

As the Trump campaign continues to assess legal options and potential recounts in states like Wisconsin, the opportunity for voter fraud to take center stage is still very much a reality. Whether it will do so through a scandal contrived by President Trump–as his activity on Twitter seems to indicate–or a legitimate accusation as the election process reaches its close remains a developing story.

Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ruler-internet-writing-technology-5205504/

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.