Trump tweets misinformation questioning Los Angeles County ballots

Thursday, November 12, 2020
Trump tweets misinformation questioning LA ballots
President Trump tweeted out video of Los Angeles County workers collecting ballots after the election, falsely implying it was evidence to back his claims of widespread voter fraud.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- President Donald Trump is already facing sharp criticism after filing several lawsuits after the election.

Now he's coming under fire again, this time over a tweet concerning Los Angeles County ballots that contains misinformation.

The tweet shows video of county workers collecting ballots the day after the election.

Trump wrote: "You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?"

This appears to be part of Trump's tactics to get people to doubt the validity of the election.

But ABC7 had already debunked the claim, checking the video after it was first posted.

The Los Angeles County Registrar's Office confirmed last week - and explained again to the public today - that ballot drop boxes are closed and locked at 8 p.m. on election night and then collected the following day. Those are valid ballots processed and counted during the post-election canvass.

But like other misinformation, the president's tweet spread like wildfire - getting viewed more than 5 million times and retweeted more than 75,000 times in a few hours.

Trump is continuing to blame voter fraud for his projected loss of the election without any evidence.

The New York Times reports they contacted officials in dozens of states representing both political parties and they all said that there was no evidence of fraud or other irregularities in the election.