GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said illegal immigrants and dead people are voting, said “non-citizen” voters could have pushed President Obama over the top in North Carolina in 2008, and name-checked Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis as suspect areas.
“You look at certain areas of the country in terms of the voters and the booths and everything else and what’s taking place, and illegal immigrants voting and people that have died 10 years ago voting,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Monday.
“I am talking about past elections,” he said. “When you look at the voter fraud, when you look at illegal immigrants voting all over the country, when you look at people who died 10 years ago.”
“I mean, there’s one person died 21 years ago and that person is still voting,” he said. “Was a Republican, now votes Democrat — which is sort of an interesting phenomena.”
“But we have voters all over the country where they’re not even citizens of the country, and they’re voting,” he said.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has stepped up talk of a potentially “rigged” election, earning him rebukes from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Some of his supporters have suggested he’s referring to a broader system that’s rigged against him, but Mr. Trump went into detail Monday about possible funny business specifically at the polls, saying voter fraud is “very, very common.”
“And you look at certain cities … Philadelphia is one that’s mentioned,” he said. “I think Romney got no votes and McCain got no votes.”
“You look at what’s going on in Chicago. You look at what’s going on in St. Louis — and many other cities,” he said.
“There’s tremendous voter fraud, and how Republican leadership doesn’t see that is beyond me,” he said.
At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Monday, Mr. Trump said voter fraud is “very, very common.”
He cited figures from a 2012 study by the Pew Center on the States that said about 24 million voter registrations in the country were invalid or significantly inaccurate, more than 1.8 million deceased people were listed as voters, and about 2.75 million people had registrations in more than one state.
He also suggested non-citizens might have pushed Mr. Obama over the top in North Carolina in 2008.
“It is possible that non-citizen votes were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina,” he said, citing a 2014 story in The Washington Post.
“We’re going to win in North Carolina, but we don’t want non-citizen voters, if that’s OK. Is that all right to ask for? It could have provided his margin of victory,” Mr. Trump said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.