In Pennsylvania’s Republican Primary Election for the US Senate, businessman David McCormick held a slight lead over television personality Mehmet Oz through most of the evening. Then, as votes were tabulated in and around Philadelphia, Oz gained votes and took a slight lead over McCormick.
If this sounds familiar, it should. In 2020, Donald Trump led during the evening, but Joe Biden pulled ahead when votes in the Philly suburbs were reported.
Trump held a press conference in the middle of the night angrily claiming that he had won the elections, that Biden’s late surge this was statistically impossible and the result of “massive voter fraud,” claims that were litigated unsuccessfully in over sixty court battles and formed the basis of “the Big Lie” that inspired the insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Given that historical perspective, I’m wondering how Mr. Trump’s supporters feel about the late-night gains by Oz, who received Trump’s endorsement. Is this an example of “extreme voter fraud”? Did thousands of illegal immigrants flood into Pennsylvania to throw their support behind Oz? Were the voting machines hacked? Were suitcases of fake ballots smuggled into Philadelphia election offices?
Or is this just the way that election results are tabulated as different counties release their results, and where the results from more populous counties take longer to tabulate?
This shines a glaring spotlight on Mr. Trump’s dubious claims of fraud in his electoral defeat in 2020. If it’s not fraud when your candidate wins, it’s not fraud when you lose.
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