Bogus claims pushed by President Trump’s reelection campaign about dead voters purportedly casting ballots in the recent White House race were debunked Friday by local media in Atlanta, Georgia.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson subsequently apologized on-air later that night for having promoted one of the fake claims, while the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump and his campaign have been touting unfounded claims of fraud since multiple news outlets projected he lost the White House race to Democratic rival Joseph R. Biden as polls had predicted.
Among those claims are that several voters registered in the state of Georgia participated in the presidential election despite being dead. Atlanta’s 11Alive has since confirmed that’s not the case.
In one instance, for example, Mr. Trump’s campaign posted Wednesday on Twitter that a deceased World War II veteran, “Mr. James Blalock of Covington, Georgia,” had voted in the recent election.
Agnes Blalock told 11Alive that her deceased husband did not vote in the election, but that she had voted using her married name, “Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr.,” likely causing the confusion.
The Newton County Board of Election confirmed the voter’s full married name is on file and that she signed it as such when she voted in the general election this month, the NBC affiliate reported.
In another instance, Mr. Trump’s campaign similarly posted on Twitter this week that Linda Kesler of Nicholson, Georgia, recently voted in the election despite being dead. That was a mistake too.
“Linda Kesler of Nicholson was marked deceased in 2003 and did not vote,” the Jackson County Board of Elections told 11Alive. A woman with the same name but different address and age did, however.
Mr. Carlson, the host of the Fox News opinion program “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” had reported the Trump’s campaign claim about Blalock as fact before learning it was fake and since walked it back.
“So apologies for that, and of course we’re always going to correct when we’re wrong. And we were,” Mr. Carlson said on the show Friday.
Each of the Trump campaign’s erroneous Twitter posts remained available on the social media service without a disclaimer Saturday.
Multiple news outlets called the presidential race for Mr. Biden last Saturday, but Mr. Trump has not conceded and instead maintains the race was “rigged.” Election officials assert otherwise.
Sign up for Daily Newsletters
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.
Click
here for reprint permission.