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Well, it happened again last night: Donald Trump once again attacked NY-12 and our primary race, this time from his rally in North Carolina. Yet again, he’s spewing lies to the American people — and his lies are dangerous attempts to undermine our democracy.
And if you think I’m exaggerating, here’s the seven-minute campaign ad we released just weeks ago — a montage of Trump's lies (which I've outlined below) and his NY-12 obsession.
But his effort to undermine NY-12’s election isn’t just an attempt to get me to stop my oversight of his corrupt administration — it’s setting the stage for trying to undermine confidence in our November elections.
So, Donald, it’s time to set the record straight:
TRUMP LIE: NY-12 was a vote-by-mail election.
THE TRUTH: New York State’s mail-in ballot program was an expansion of our absentee ballot program thanks to a Gubernatorial Executive Order that allowed concern over COVID-19 as a legitimate reason for voting absentee. This is different from a universal vote-by-mail system, where voters receive ballots without needing to request them. States with universal vote-by-mail actually had FEWER complications, and the president himself has voted absentee in the past.
TRUMP LIE: “There are thousands of missing ballots.”
THE TRUTH: There are no missing ballots. Ballots that are initially disqualified are set aside and preserved by the Board of Elections in case there are questions later on down the line. In NY-12, between 12,000-12,500 ballots were initially disqualified, for a variety of reasons. These can include ballots disqualified for a lack of signature, unsealed envelopes, duplicate ballots (those who overrode their absentee ballot by also voting in person, or ballots where a voter requested a 2nd replacement ballot because of an issue with the ballot they were originally sent).
In fact, the only ballots I would call “missing” are those that voters never received in the first place — as happened to many of you. But if that’s Donald Trump’s concern, then he should be fighting with the Democrats to increase funding for the Postal Service, and roll back PMG DeJoy’s harmful changes —only some of which have been rolled back since my hearing last Monday.
TRUMP LIE: “Nobody knows what’s happening with the ballots.”
THE TRUTH: Yes, we do. The primary results were certified on August 4th. Here they are. And once again, Donald: there is no evidence of lost or fraudulent ballots.
TRUMP LIE: “It took six weeks to get the results!”
THE TRUTH: First, NYS Election Law doesn’t allow the opening of absentee ballots until — at the earliest — July 1, after the “machine canvass” is complete. This year, the volume of absentee ballots meant it took even longer to start the count, because the board had to sort the ballots, both so they can be counted by assembly and election district and to ensure that ballots received a preliminary ruling as to whether they were valid or invalid (more on that later). As I said throughout the process, sacrificing accuracy for speed would have been unacceptable, and both my team and I were impressed by the diligence and hard work of the BOE workers who helped count every vote.
TRUMP LIE: “And as soon as I said, 'Well, I think you should have a new election', they all of a sudden announced a winner.”
THE TRUTH: The date of board certification was known long before Donald decided he was interested in this race, and that was the date the race was certified. His complaints had no effect on when the NY-12 race was certified.
TRUMP LIE: “In New York, they have thousands of ballots, they don’t know what happened to them. Is there fraud, it’s a disaster!”
THE TRUTH: First of all, the board was very clear at the Federal hearing: ballots are NEVER destroyed or thrown out. Even ballots that are ruled invalid are set aside by the board, so that if the invalidation is challenged (as happened in our race) they can be referred back to.
Of the approx. 12,500 ballots that were preliminarily disqualified, about 1200 of those were due to a missing postmark. I joined all the other candidates in NY-12 calling for these ballots to be counted. After a federal court hearing, the judge reinstated some of those votes, which arrived without a postmark on 6/24 and 6/25, as they could reasonably be expected to have been mailed by Election Day. Counting these votes may have changed the margin, but it did not affect the ultimate winner of the election. And regarding fraud, there has been no evidence of it whatsoever.
TRUMP LIE: “Nobody knows what’s going on with that race and yet they declared her a winner!”
THE TRUTH: The Board certified this election on August 4th, and due to a lead that far surpassed the reinstated ballots, declared our campaign was victorious. Since those votes wouldn’t change the election results, they were counted afterwards, so as not to hold up the certification of dozens if not hundreds of other races. While counting those votes changed the margin slightly, it did not affect the final outcome of the election.
Lastly, as many of you have heard by now, Donald Trump urged his supporters to “vote twice” — once in person and once by mail. Let me be very clear: In states that allow in-person voting to override an absentee ballot, this is a strategy that will yield thousands, if not millions, of disqualified votes. This will allow Donald Trump to cast doubt on the results of our Presidential Election. In states that don't, he's just encouraged his supporters to commit a felony.
We cannot let him get away with continuing to spread these lies.
We must fight his disinformation with the truth about our election in NY-12, and we must make sure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win by overwhelming margins on Election Day.
That’s why I’m asking you to commit to casting your ballot in November. SIGN NOW: PLEDGE TO VOTE — then forward this email to 5 friends to fight back against Donald Trump's disinformation campaign and voter suppression >>
PLEDGE TO VOTE!
Thanks for standing with me and fighting back with your ballot!
Carolyn
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