November 6, 2020

Wendy Bell - A Necessary Facebook Fact-check. ANOTHER ONE

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Case in point. Today on her Facebook page, paranoid Wendy posted:

A midnight ballot dump in Michigan. 200,000 votes... all for Joe Biden.
 
Postal workers in Erie, PA, ordered to postmark all late ballots for November 3 and give them to “supervisors.” 
 
A poll watcher kicked out of the hall where votes were being counted after finding evidence (and capturing photo evidence) of dead people voting.
 
(**AND BEFORE FACEBOOK CENSORS THIS POST... there is PROOF OF THESE ALLEGATIONS! Fact check THAT!)
 
Should President Trump demand a recount in all battleground states?

Yes, I am sure there's "proof" of all these allegations, Wendy. I am sure.

I also noticed you didn't post any. 

Huh.

Ok. Let's go see, shall we?

Point one - the "midnight ballot dump" - fact-checked already:

A data input error that briefly showed an unusually large uptick in votes for Joe Biden in Michigan prompted suspicions online and an unfounded claim of voter fraud. The error came down to a typo by a county’s reporting that was quickly corrected.

The story you probably read was from the right-wing conspiracy-theory "news" source The Gateway Pundit. 

This would be the same Gateway Pundit that the conservative Washington Times reported that:

The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website that touted President Trump during his 2016 campaign, ran an unsubstantiated report alleging voter fraud during the race fueled by Russian agitprop referenced in a federal indictment unsealed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office Friday.

Back to this dump of yours. Did you know that the GOP consultant that (the once impeached, now disgraced) Trump retweeted on this story has since corrected himself?

A typo, Wendy. A typo.

Point two - the postmarked ballots in Erie - sourced to Project Veritas.

Wendy, given James O'Keefe's horrendous track record regarding "veritas" do you really think anything on that website can be considered "proof"? I mean hasn't O'Keefe himself been accused of trying to elicit voter fraud? (Spoilers: Yes, he has).

Point three - the ejected poll watcher - this is another Gateway Pundit story.

This "dead people voting in Michigan" story's been replayed numerous times (had you researched this, you'd know). Like here:

The videos purport to show voters who are over 100 years old casting a ballot in Michigan, but they are misleading.

Logically, a company monitoring misinformation, reported that the people shown in the videos “most likely are relatives of the people born in the early 1900s and inherited relatives' names.” Logically also matched the names of the people who are over 100 years old — featured in the videos — to their likely living descendants.

And there's a statement from the Michigan Secretary of State at Buzzfeed as well: 

Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day. On rare occasions, a ballot received for a living voter may be recorded in a way that makes it appear as if the voter is dead. This can be because of voters with similar names, where the ballot is accidentally recorded as voted by John Smith Sr when it was actually voted by John Smith Jr; or because of inaccurately recorded birth dates in the qualified voter file; for example, someone born in 1990 accidentally recorded as born in 1890. In such scenarios, no one ineligible has actually voted, and there is no impact on the outcome of the election. Local clerks can correct the issue when it is brought to their attention.

Wendy, so your "proof" is one already debunked Gateway Pundit story, a story from the seriously discredited Project Veritas and...another questionable Gateway Pundit story that lacks context?

I'll ask it again, Wendy. You were once a respected journalist. In reality, would these three sources ever merit serious consideration for any story? Ever?

And yes, I'd expect Facebook to fact-check you in this page as well.

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