[Music]
[Applause]
though voter fraud is almost
non-existent in US elections many
Americans believe otherwise that's the
subject of a new article reason magazine
reporter Eric Bame penned inspired by an
explosive claim of voter fraud in Erie
Pennsylvania as Bame recounts in his
piece the allegations of rig ballots
stem from a now viral post on X from
Republican canvas Cliff Maloney who
alleged that more than 50 voters votes
registered from a single address there
Maloney claimed in his post that no one
lived at that address adding quote we
will not let the Dems count on illegal
votes but Maloney was incorrect the
votes were in fact legitimate before I
give away any more let's hear from the
source Eric bamee who wrote this piece
for reason which highlighted how rumors
of voter fraud spread like wildfire here
he is thanks so much for joining us
Eric hey thanks for having me guys glad
to be here so who actually lived at this
address let's start there yeah sure so
this was Cliff Maloney's post on X a
couple of weeks ago was about a uh a
monastery outside of Erie Pennsylvania
um and it turns out that yeah actually
hundreds of people do live there I mean
I think at most addresses if you saw
hundreds of names registered you would
you would be maybe naturally suspicious
uh but these are nuns it's a group of
about 70 nuns the bened Benedictine
sisters of Erie who have uh been there
working in that Community for you know
nearly 200 years it's like the mid 1800s
um well established there and uh the uh
the monastery the the sisters have put
out you know at this point now had to
respond to the story with a series of
statements basically saying that no you
know yes we do live here uh we vote here
it's it's all legit and uh in fact if
you had done even just sort of if Cliff
had done even just like the most basic
factchecking here he could have gone to
the Benedictine sisters of eries website
and seen that many of the names that are
listed there uh as members of that
Community are the same names that he had
uh registered uh to that address so uh
this is pretty cut and dry not a case of
voter fraud those votes uh if and when
they are cast by those sisters will be
legit well it just shows you know a lot
of this stuff is weaponized it it it
doesn't take a lot of work to go through
these voter records and the roles and um
I saw some interviews with these nuns
and they were quite passionate too which
was uh amazing to see how vocal and
active they've been in the community so
it's not like they're hiding in secret
they're out there and about uh
political with that being said there are
there are there's backing from groups to
uh in in I guess you could say uh
Inspire citizens to go out there and do
their own work can you tell us a little
bit about that kind of effort that's
happening across the country right
now yeah I mean obviously this is all
driven by I mean what Cliff Maloney was
doing is what thousands if not tens of
thousands of volunteers were doing all
across the country in the last couple of
weeks I had people knock on my door here
in Central Virginia uh to talk to me
about the the Trump and Harris both over
the past few days there's people going
out doing this canvasing work it's
called Uh to try to get people to the
polls it's part of a you know get out
the vote efforts particularly in swing
States particularly in a state like
Pennsylvania where the margins are
expected to be really thin um and and
obviously there is I think there is some
incentive to create the perception of of
of voter fraud or of election
Shenanigans maybe uh particularly on the
political right this has been a talking
point you know honestly going back
decades right fear of voter fraud uh I
think it's only ramped up and become
kind of more explosive and more
politically powerful uh in the Trump
years uh certainly given you know
everything that happened after the 2020
election so I think it's important for
the rest of us for you know people who
cover this obviously in the media like
you and I uh but then also just the
general populace to to be aware that
there's you know an incentive to kind of
create these claims an incentive to try
to make uh the system look as though
it's failed some way even before we get
to election day uh and that we should be
skeptical of these things I mean we
should be I think willing to uh you know
we shouldn't be willing to dismiss
necessarily out of hand all claims of
voter fraud but until there is some like
substantial actual proof uh we shouldn't
go ahead believing everything that you
read on social media right because there
I mean obviously it it does occur that
people vote illicitly or in some way
that is does not correspond to the law
what has not demonstrated is is that it
is so massive and just one-sided right
you you have people who are voting
Republican doing that and people who are
voting Democrat like I'm sure it happens
I got mailed uh I live in an apartment
in DC and I got mailed the ballot for
the previous person uh who lived there I
still get all his mail and uh I put that
ballot in the trash I did not cast a
second vote for the libertarian party
even though I could have uh but maybe I
couldn't have because then later there's
some screening thing that finds out you
know that he's not registered there or
he was registered somewhere else so I'm
sure it happens it's just the vast
conspirac about it is not is not
correct yeah I think that's exactly
right and look there are processes in
place and that's something else that
that I don't think gets talked about
enough is that uh even the results that
we see reported on Election night and in
the days after will be unofficial
results there's actually a a weeks long
process that goes on uh first at the
precinct level then at the county level
and finally at the state level uh again
somewhat confusingly this is also
referred to as canvasing even though
it's actually a very different process
than the you know political get out the
vote efforts that go on before the
election uh but this is to to verify and
check exactly what you were saying to
verify and check all the ballots that
are cast to make sure that the numbers
are correct and yes there are instances
of voter fraud no election is perfect um
I think uh when I when I went back was
writing this piece I went back and found
an Associated Press article from a
couple of years ago that said they they
had looked through all of the records of
six different swing States and found 475
instances where votes may have been cast
either you know maybe fraudulently maybe
just incorrect ly maybe counted
incorrectly something like that uh 475
cases in a country where you know what
150 million votes are going to be cast
probably not enough to make uh any sort
of swing in the election uh I think you
know Ohio prosecuted a few dozen people
after the last election for voting twice
uh these are typically mistakes uh
either mistakes on the part of the voter
mistakes on the part of the pole worker
who should tell somebody no you're
voting in the wrong Precinct you have to
go vote over there not over here some
sort of mistake maybe in tabulating what
we don't have any evidence of what I and
what we certainly would have seen
evidence of given the amount of scrutiny
that was applied after the 2020 election
but we didn't see any evidence of a
widespread broad conspiratorial election
fraud that was meant to swing the
outcome from one candidate to another uh
in which case you're talking about tens
of thousands if not more votes that
would have to be cast uh look there were
something like 60 different Court
challenges in the aftermath of the 2020
election there were electoral audits by
state lawmakers in Arizona and
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin uh and a few
other places too I think and none of
that turned up any of this evidence that
you know that Rudy Giuliani and and
other uh particularly of of trump
supporters were talking about after that
election so uh if we didn't find it in
2020 I think it's probably safe to
conclude that it didn't exist and I
think look you can believe in things
like the loch nest monster or Bigfoot
right but until you see evidence of them
I don't think you should be giving them
electoral votes and so that's kind of
where we are with the voter fraud thing
too is that that the evidence is simply
uh the evidence simply doesn't show that
there is broad-based U sort of you know
this kind of chaotic election fraud that
uh some people mostly on the right I
think uh have an interest in in creating
the perception of which which leads to
this point that Donald Trump in the last
couple of days in particular in
Pennsylvania which is kind of ripe
ground for this too just because the
Electoral laws are uh you know they
don't have early voting and you know he
was complaining about the long lines for
on demand uh mail balloting and JD Vance
was uh saying that there was voter fraud
so much so that the Republican Secretary
of the Commonwealth called him out and
said that's not true uh you know Donald
Trump said we caught him with 2600 votes
in in Lancaster uh but how much of this
is really about something they truly
believe and how much of it is maybe to
set up set the stage for another 2020
where they challenge the
election yeah I think a lot of it is
that a lot of it is about creating that
perception um also this is all you know
none of the votes have been counted yet
and particularly in Pennsylvania this is
going to be an issue and it's something
people should be aware of going forward
uh that's one of uh Wisconsin being the
other one of two big swing states where
uh they're not allowed to begin counting
the mailin votes until election day
itself which obviously means there will
be delays in getting that number of
votes counted the number of mailin votes
that come in uh Pennsylvania has
something like more than 2 million uh
mailin ballots requested so that's a
huge chunk of the votes in the State uh
that we likely will not know uh the
outcome of on Election night and uh and
then that that I think then feeds this
Narrative of uh well we don't know the
results or the results might change as
days go on and rather than indicating
fraud I think that indicates that the
process is working as it should because
it it does take time to verify and to
process particularly those male and
ballots all of which have to be opened
by hand and read by hand and processed
and verified by hand uh so that does
take some time
uh but to your point about you know the
the perception out there I think this
this does matter and I think really
important to point out that there was a
a UMass Amherst poll last week that
showed just 39% of uh people in that
poll said they were very confident that
their votes would be counted correctly
in this election like there there is
this fear in the electorate and it's not
something that exists only on the
political right I think it does exist uh
in the kind of general millu of election
anxiety across the entire uh political
Spectrum here uh there is concern about
this and that will only I think help
anybody who wants to then benefit from
this Narrative of election fraud in the
days and weeks after the election the
most important thing really is for
people just to remain patient and let
the process play out because as we
talked about there are numerous checks
in this process to make sure that we get
the count right uh and uh as those
numbers shift maybe a little bit one way
or the other after election day that's
mostly proof that the process is working
as intended not evidence of some sort of
fraud or malfeasance Eric Bame thank you
so much for joining us we appreciate it
thanks a lot Robbie
[Music]