Ted Cruz Spreads Misleading Information About Ballot Counting

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Source: Tom Williams / Getty

Sen. Ted Cruz tries way too hard to dunk on Democrats that he often looks like a low-information troll. Tweeting about a New York Post article about Pennsylvania election results possibly not being available on election night, the Texas senator claimed it was a problem only “Democrat blue cities” seem to have.

Cruz apparently doesn’t know that Pennsylvania is an entire state, not a city. And in case the senator forgot, legislatures make laws. In Pennsylvania, the Republican party controls both legislative houses.

Source: Twitter / Twitter

The Post article featured a picture of Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman, who previously spoke with NewsOne about efforts to undermine election integrity and voter confidence in her state

Twitter has not removed the Tweet, clearly spreading misinformation about the upcoming election. But users in a pilot project called Birdwatch added more context. A little box opens with links and more information explaining the error of Cruz’s logic.

Source: Twitter / Twitter

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania is one of nine states that does not permit the processing of ballots before election day. Other states include Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin. Some states permit advanced processing, but votes cannot be officially counted or tallied until election day. In 16 states, the ballots cannot be counted or tallied until after polls have closed.

Here’s what Chapman told NewsOne about efforts to undermine voter confidence in Pennsylvania’s elections.

We understand that people have concerns, but they can be confident in the security of our elections. There’s checks and balances. Election administrators and election officials at the county level are professionals.

And so, you know, they should be able to count every vote, you know, in a way without any interference. You know, one issue in Pennsylvania is that, unlike other states, those county election officials aren’t able to open up the ballots and start processing them until Election Day.

So that’s why the results took longer in Pennsylvania, because other states like Florida, they can do it for 15 days in advance, you know. So that’s one thing that we’re advocating for that will definitely instill more confidence for voters, is having at least two weeks where have pre-canvassing where local election officials can start processing those ballots so we can get those results faster.

But I would just say, you know, there were over 30 lawsuits in 2020. In Pennsylvania, every single lawsuit upheld that the election was free and fair. There was no widespread voter fraud. There was no undue influence. And so voters can feel confident that, you know, they can cast their ballot and have it counted.