Trump claims Florida voters wore disguises, latest in pattern of conspiracy theories

John Fritze | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Dems accuse Donald Trump of bullying Florida recount officials U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump and Gov. Rick Scott are attempting to bully Florida election officials out of doing their jobs. (Nov. 13)

WASHINGTON – Like most unsubstantiated claims leveled by President Donald Trump, his allegations of fraud in the high-stakes recount in Florida’s Senate and gubernatorial elections started with a tweet.

Shortly after polls closed on last week's midterm election, the president warned of a “big corruption scandal” in Florida as officials struggled to tally votes in Broward County. Days later, he referenced “massively infected” ballots and accused Democrats of trying to “falsify” his 2016 win in the Sunshine State, without citing evidence.

Trump went further Wednesday, suggesting that voters were using disguises to cast multiple ballots.

“When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles," Trump told the Daily Caller in an interview. "Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again. Nobody takes anything. It’s really a disgrace what’s going on.”

He also suggested there was rampant voter fraud because of what he described as a lax approach to verifying identification.

“If you buy a box of cereal – you have a voter ID,” Trump said.

The assertions were only the latest conspiracy theory embraced by Trump over the Florida gubernatorial and Senate elections as election officials raced to tally votes.

The machine recount of some 8 million votes cast in the races ended at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Thursday after a federal judge in Florida declined a request by Incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and his allies to push the deadline back so more votes could be counted. Nelson is trailing Republican Rick Scott by about 13,000 votes.

Experts who study the use of conspiracy theories in politics say the ongoing recounts in Florida have all the preconditions needed to fuel Trump’s decades-old penchant for embracing claims of subterfuge. The outcome is uncertain, the drama is high and the complexity of the issue makes it hard for voters to separate fact from fiction.

“It fits the pattern of everything he’s done so far,” said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami who has written on the issue. “The underlying message of all of Trump’s conspiracy theories is that the ‘elites’ sold out the interests of the American people.”

Trump’s use of conspiracy theories to rile up voters and shift the media’s attention is by now a well-known element of his communications strategy. He gained national prominence by questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama. During his 2016 campaign he accused Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s father of associating with President John F. Kennedy’s assassin. He flirted with the notion that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in his sleep in early 2016, may have been murdered.

All of those claims were baseless.

When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida? The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to “find” enough votes, too much spotlight on them now! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018

After winning the election, Trump explained his second-place finish in the popular vote by claiming millions of illegal ballots were cast for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump appointed a commission to investigate voter fraud, which never presented formal findings nor evidence to support his claim. Trump disbanded the group in January.

In the run-up to the midterm, Trump said that a caravan of Central Americans inching through Mexico toward the U.S. border included criminals and "unknown Middle Easterners." His administration never backed up the claim.

In theorizing about the razor-thin margin in the Florida governor and Senate races, Trump is returning to an issue – and a state – that has befuddled many Americans since the contested 2000 presidential race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. The election was decided by the Supreme Court after a recount in Florida.

Election officials were once again racing to wrap up a statewide recount amid a flurry of lawsuits filed by candidates from both parties.

An email reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK showed a Democratic party leader in Florida encouraged volunteers to send altered election forms to voters in an effort to fix ballot signature problems. Though it’s not clear that any of those requests were accepted, election experts said the revelation is likely to raise new questions about the vote-counting process.

More: Email shows Florida Democratic official sought to use altered forms for reaching voters with ballot problems

Initial results put Scott ahead of Nelson in the state’s Senate race and indicated Republican Ron DeSantis had a healthy lead over Democrat Andrew Gillum in the state’s contest for governor. Those margins have shrunk, however, as election officials count outstanding ballots.

Trump and other Republicans have zeroed in on Broward County, which has struggled to meet state-imposed deadlines to post up-to-the-hour tallies of the count. They also point to a ruling against Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes that found she violated state law by destroying ballots too quickly after the 2016 election.

“When they call this woman incompetent, they’re wrong,” Trump told The Daily Caller. “She’s very competent but in a bad way.”

Though the issues Trump and others have raised have sparked bipartisan concern, there is no evidence Snipes or other officials are tampering with the outcome of the election. Democrats have suggested the problems have more to do with outdated voting machines and underfunded election offices.

Experts said the Florida recount is fertile ground for conspiracy theorists.

It’s “a perfect situation on which such theories can rest,” said Joanne Miller, a political scientist at the University of Delaware who has studied the issue. High uncertainty and high anxiety, she said, are among the factors that can cause people to believe unsubstantiated claims.

“There's also another aspect of elections that makes them ripe for conspiracy theories: The inherent competition surrounding an election, and therefore the stakes of the outcome, are high,” Miller said.

“It's more self-esteem protective to believe that an election outcome was due to fraud than to believe, for example, that it was due to the fact that the other party had policy positions that resonated better,” she said.

Trump, of course, is not the first president or high-profile figure to hold such theories. Then-first lady Hillary Clinton referred to what she described as a “vast, right-wing conspiracy” to explain the impeachment of her husband, President Bill Clinton, in 1998.

President Richard Nixon harbored theories that Washington insiders were out to end his presidency.

But Trump is unusual in his embrace of conspiracies and his desire to share them with supporters, experts said. Both the frequency and the extent of the claims Trump makes without offering evidence make him unique in his use of them, they said.

Those who have studied the president for years – including before his political debut – note that his approach, even in business, is to keep foes and friends alike off kilter and uncertain of his motives.

“He’s a salesman,” said Gwenda Blair, a Trump biographer. “The only way it works is if people keep watching.”