FEC commissioner has no role in election integrity
Written by Luck on November 19, 2020
The declare: Federal Election Fee Chair Trey Trainor confirms the election ‘illegitimate,’ and stated voter fraud is happening.
Previously week, feedback that Federal Election Fee Chair Trey Trainor made have unfold on-line as purported proof of voter fraud and illegitimacies within the latest election.
RecentlyHeard.com, a information web site, wrote that “The Chief Electoral Officer of the Federal Election Fee made a Bombshell assertion, saying that, from what he noticed in Pennsylvania, and information that he had come from elsewhere on this planet, this election was unconstitutional.”
“It’s not simply anybody’s making the announcement. Trey Trainor isn’t only a state election officer, he’s a federal officer. And on prime of that, he’s the chairman of the entire fee,” its story continued.
Customers on Fb, like Joseph Sherbert and Duane Engdahl, additionally posted about Trainor and his remarks.
“It truly is explosive information. The highest boss of all of the election officers, Trey Trainor, has confirmed that in his skilled opinion, ‘there has not been transparency within the election’ and ‘this in election is illegitimate,’” Sherbert wrote.
Engdahl shared an picture that learn, “When the Chief of the Federal Elections Comission says, ‘Election fraud has taken place’ then you definately higher imagine that election fraud has taken place.”
RecentlyHeard.com, Sherbert and Engdahl haven’t responded to requests from USA TODAY for remark.
Who’s Trey Trainor, and what’s the FEC?
Trainor is the chair of the Federal Election Fee. He’s not its “Chief Electoral Officer,” as RecentlyHeard.com wrote — that position would not exist.
The Federal Election Fee is tasked with imposing federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. Its duties embody monitoring restrictions and limits on marketing campaign contributions, and overseeing public funding for presidential campaigns, per USA.Gov.
The FEC solely oversees funds and is one in every of a number of federal our bodies that offers with elections — so it isn’t correct to name Trainor the “prime boss of all of the election officers,” or to counsel he supersedes state officers.
In actuality, elections in the USA are “extremely decentralized,” and are primarily administered by 1000’s of state and native techniques reasonably than a single nationwide system, in accordance with a report by the Congressional Analysis Service.
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“States usually have main accountability for making selections in regards to the guidelines of elections (policymaking),” the report explains. “Localities usually have main accountability for conducting elections in accordance with these guidelines (implementation).”
In truth, in his look on Newsmax, Trainor himself acknowledged that election integrity points don’t fall to the FEC, and he had not been briefed on the matter.
“We actually have not been briefed on any of it provided that we do not — you realize, the states management the elections and the FEC actually would not have any jurisdiction over how these are being dealt with on the state degree,” he stated. “For the federal degree, they might talk via the Election Help Fee.”
(U.S. Election Help Commissioner Ben Hovland known as false claims in regards to the election “baffling,” “laughable” and “insulting,” per CNN.)
Trainor himself is a Republican lawyer who suggested President Donald Trump in 2016.
He was nominated by Trump in 2017, although he was not confirmed by the Senate till Might 2020, in accordance with the Washington Publish.
In September, Trainor known as the upcoming contest between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden a “non secular conflict.”
“It’s hanging on the underlying foundations of our constitutional republic,” he stated, per the Washington Publish. “It’s eliminating the Christian ethical ideas which might be the idea of the inspiration of the nation.”
What did Trainor say in regards to the election?
In his almost six-minute interview on Nov. 6, Trainor made quite a few claims in regards to the validity of the election, together with the feedback referenced by RecentlyHeard.com, Sherbert and Engdahl.
First, he claimed that “observers haven’t been allowed into the polling places in a significant means,” and known as the election “illegitimate” because of this.
“State regulation permits these observers to be in there, and if they don’t seem to be, the regulation will not be being adopted, making this an illegitimate election,” Trainor stated.
Second, he stated he believes voter fraud occurred.
“I do imagine that there’s voter fraud happening in these locations,” Trainor stated. “In any other case they might enable the observers to go in.”
He added that the “political system relies upon transparency,” and that “there has not transparency on this election.”
Third, he claimed that Democrats managed all of the states thought of too near name.
“In each occasion we now have right here the place the states are too near name, they’re managed by the Democrat Social gathering, notably within the city areas the place they’re being counted,” he stated.
It is price nothing that Trainor by no means stated the election was “unconstitutional,” as reported by RecentlyHeard.com.
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All Three claims have inaccuracies
There are inaccuracies in all three of his claims, most of which echoed the baseless claims that different Republicans, together with Trump, have acknowledged since Nov. 3.
A number of fact-checks, together with by the New York Instances and PolitiFact, discovered no proof to assist claims that observers have been blocked from poll counting rooms, together with in Pennsylvania, which Trainor highlighted in his remarks.
Some authorized filings from the Trump marketing campaign itself acknowledged that its observers have been current within the rooms the place ballots have been counted.
There’s additionally no proof that there was any systemic fraud within the election.
Final week, a nationwide coalition of election safety officers additionally described the election as “probably the most safe in American historical past,” per USA TODAY. There is no such thing as a proof that any voting system deleted or misplaced votes, modified votes, or was in any means compromised,” the coalition concluded.
Two weeks after the election, the Washington Publish additionally concluded that on prime of there being no widespread fraud, “there may be barely proof of even minor fraudulent incidents.”
The New York Instances additionally contacted the workplaces of the highest election officers in each state to ask if they suspected or had proof of voter fraud; none reported any main points.
The declare that “each occasion” of states that have been too near name on Nov. 6 have been states run by Democrats can also be unfaithful.
On Nov. 6, six states — Arizona, Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — have been nonetheless too near name, per CNN.
Secretaries of state are tasked with election administration in lots of states. Each Georgia and Nevada have Republican secretaries of state. Alaska has no secretary of state, so its election duties fall to the lieutenant governor, who can also be a Republican.
What have the opposite commissioners stated in regards to the election?
There are imagined to be six commissioners of the FEC at any given time, and the physique requires at the very least 4 commissioners for a quorum. However as a result of a spate of resignations and a dearth of appointments, there are at present solely three commissioners, together with Trainor, the chair.
After being impotent since September 2019, it had quorum for under 28 days after Trainor took up his submit in June earlier than one other commissioner resigned and left it powerless as soon as extra, per the New York Instances.
The remaining commissioners are Steven T. Walther, an unbiased, and Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democrat.
Walther, who’s the vice chair, has been on the FEC since 2006. He has not spoken in regards to the election because it occurred. Weintraub has finished three yearlong stints as its chair since she joined the FEC in 2002.
She has defended the integrity of the election and stated the alternative of Trainor.
“State and native officers and ballot employees all through the nation actually stepped up. And there have been only a few complaints about how this election was run. Only a few substantiated complaints, let me put it that means,” Weintraub instructed CNN.
“There is no such thing as a proof of any form of voter fraud,” she added. “There is no such thing as a proof of unlawful votes being solid.”
Weintraub additionally retweeted a take-down of Trainor by Rick Hasan, a professor of regulation and political science on the College of California-Irvine.
“The FEC offers with marketing campaign finance, not vote counting. And Trey Trainor doesn’t communicate for the FEC,” Hasan wrote on Twitter.
Alongside along with her retweet, Weintraub added, “I can verify: FEC does *not* say widespread fraud.”
Our ruling: Partly false
Based mostly on our analysis, the declare that election is “illegitimate” based mostly on remarks from FEC Chair Trey Trainor is PARTLY FALSE. The quotes from Trainor are actual, and got here from an interview with Newsmax. However he is not the “prime boss of all of the election officers,” and the FEC is not associated to vote counting or election safety — simply marketing campaign funds. Trainor himself admitted he wasn’t briefed on the problem, and all of his feedback contained factual inaccuracies.
Our fact-check sources:
- Washington Publish, Might 19, Senate confirms Trump appointee to Federal Election Fee, restoring panel’s voting quorum for first time since August
- Washington Publish, Sept. 18, FEC chairman, in interviews, says this yr’s election quantities to a ‘non secular conflict’
- USA.Gov, Federal Election Fee
- Congressional Analysis Service, March 4, 2019, The State and Native Function in Election Administration: Duties and Construction
- Newsmax, Nov. 6, Trey Trainor to Newsmax TV: Voter Fraud Is Taking Place
- CNN, Nov. 13, Federal election official blasts Trump’s false election claims as ‘laughable,’ ‘baffling’ and ‘insulting’
- New York Instances, Nov. 7, There’s no proof to assist claims that election observers have been blocked from counting rooms.
- Politifact, Nov. 12, Trump’s incorrect declare that election observers have been barred in Pennsylvania, Michigan
- USA TODAY, Nov. 12, Election safety officers: ‘No proof voting techniques compromised’
- Washington Publish, Nov. 17, Two weeks on, no proof of any important fraud
- New York Instances, Nov. 17, The Instances Known as Officers in Each State: No Proof of Voter Fraud
- CNN, Nov. 5, With 6 states nonetheless in play, this is a take a look at how CNN makes projections
- CNN, Nov. 7, Federal Election Fee official: “There actually has been no proof of fraud”
- New York Instances, June 26, After Functioning for 28 Days, U.S. Election Regulator Will Be Powerless Once more
- Ellen L Weintraub, Nov. 13, Tweet
- Rick Hasen, Nov. 12, Tweet
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