Dhe fairy tale of voter fraud constantly told by Donald Trump also caused a stir in the midterm elections. When some counting machines in the most populous voting district of Maricopa County in the crucial state of Arizona temporarily failed – voters spoke of problems in around 60 of the 223 polling stations – a storm of indignation about potential voter fraud promptly erupted in the conservative media.
America’s most-watched political talker Tucker Carlson claimed on his Fox News show that the machines wouldn’t let the people vote, Donald Trump posted on his network Truth Social a vigorous call for voters to stay at the polling station until they cast their vote . “A lot of bad things happen there, they try to delay you from voting,” Trump said. The two – Republican – state election officers, Bill Gates and Stephen Richer, however, emphasized that nobody was stopped from voting. “Every voter had an opportunity to cast their vote and be counted,” Gates said. A lawsuit by the Republican National Committee to keep polling stations open until 10 p.m. failed in court because Judge Tim Ryan said the plaintiffs could not produce evidence that people were “prevented from voting.”
