Tim Kennedy on elections: what the evidence says · JRE #1535

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

Barack Obama was not a candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which was contested between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, so a figure describing "104% for Obama" in that election does not correspond to any real ballot or vote tally. No state or federal election authority, including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, has published data showing any 2016 precinct recording turnout above 100% for any candidate. A related but distinct claim circulates periodically online: that some U.S. counties or states have more registered voters on their rolls than estimated eligible residents. A PolitiFact review of that related claim found it stems from comparisons of voter-registration rolls to population estimates, not from actual vote totals or turnout, and notes that federal law (the National Voter Registration Act) requires election officials to keep "inactive" voters on the rolls for years after they move, inflating raw registration counts without indicating fraudulent voting. Experts consulted in that review said outsized voter rolls are not evidence that ineligible people cast ballots. As stated, the claim about a 104% Obama turnout figure in Illinois in 2016 rests on a basic factual error, since Obama was not on the 2016 ballot, and no credible source substantiates the underlying statistic.