Donald Trump has lost the election. States are certifying results left and right, and Biden has beat Trump by nearly six million votes. Biden has even begun naming members of his cabinet, and has formally started the Presidential transition. 

Yet, Donald Trump is claiming that the election was stolen from him. He points out unusual spikes in the vote tally, which have very high margins for Biden. 

Are Trump’s claims valid cases of voter fraud? Or are they a petty attempt to hold on to power?

The answer is clear: Trump’s claims have been proven to be baseless. 

Voting “spikes,” for example, do not prove fraud. Biden received spikes in overwhelmingly blue areas, where even Trump earned a meaningful percentage of the vote. There were spikes for Trump’s vote total in overwhelmingly red areas, too. This doesn’t prove fraud—unless your definition of fraud is counting the vote.

Trump also claims poll watchers were denied access to polling places. First off, a poll watcher is a person chosen by a political party, or a campaign, to watch the vote count taking place and to ensure that everything is secure. There is typically an even number of Democrats and Republicans. The Trump team claims that their poll watchers were not granted enough viewing access to the counting. According to many different election officials of both parties from swing states, this is simply untrue. 

Pictures and videos have been circulating of poll challengers in Michigan being locked out of voting centers and the windows being covered up. These lack context. Vote challengers from both sides were locked out due to COVID-19 restrictions. Some challengers were becoming aggressive—taking photos, not wearing masks, not maintaining social distancing—all of which is prohibited by the Michigan Department of State Bureau of Elections.

Another wildly false claim? More votes than registered voters. According to various Secretaries of State, this is simply untrue. Here are Wisconsin’s, Michigan’s, Pennsylvania’s, Georgia’s, Arizona’s, Nevada’s, and North Carolina’s numbers.

Federal judges across the country are dismissing Trump’s cases almost as quickly as they are brought forth. Even Trump’s own Attorney General Barr has said that there is no evidence of fraud. Trump has not fared any better in the court of public opinion. According to a Reuters poll, about 75% of the American public are not convinced that there was widespread voter fraud.

This election was secure. Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Kamala Harris will be the next Vice President of the United States. Donald Trump is the first President in almost 30 years to lose re-election—by the exact same electoral margin he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. The only difference here is that Joe Biden actually won the popular vote. And by an impressive margin, too. 

Trump may not recognize the harm he’s doing right now. He is normalizing the act of not trusting Democracy. With all his “evidence” being proven false, he is still denying the results and trying to overturn them. Trump is setting a precedent in which losing candidates will turn to the courts instead of trusting the will of the people. 

In 2016, even Hillary Clinton conceded, saying that, “Donald Trump is going to be our next President.” Donald Trump needs to do the same for Joe Biden if he wants to restore any shred of his dignity. 

The sad part is: he won’t. 

Ryan Burke

Ryan Burke is a sophomore at Sweet Home High School, and a former Co-Editor of the Panther Press Viewpoints Section. He is on the swim team, and likes to write about current news and events.