Donald Trump on elections: what the evidence says · JRE #2219
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
You know, Jimmy Carter was in charge of a commission, you know, that many years ago and they put him and Scoop Jackson and various senators, you know, distinguished people that were retired and they came up with a report and the report's primary finding was you cannot have mail in ballots.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform was co-chaired by Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, not Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, who died in 1983 and could not have served on it. The commission's report stated that "absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud" and expressed general skepticism about mail voting, but it did not conclude that mail-in ballots cannot be used; instead it called for further research on the pros and cons of voting by mail and recommended safeguards such as signature verification, citing Oregon's vote-by-mail system as having avoided significant fraud through such protections. Carter himself repeatedly stated he supported and personally used absentee/mail-in ballots, and in 2021 expressed disappointment that the report was being selectively cited to suggest it opposed mail voting. Fact-checkers, including PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, have repeatedly found similar claims by Trump that the commission's primary or sole finding was that mail-in ballots are inherently dishonest or should not be allowed to be false or a mischaracterization of the report's actual, more nuanced recommendations.