CAMDEN – Almost every one of the roughly 40 people who turned up to watch a film on Tuesday night – which claims massive voter fraud led to the theft of the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump – said they believed the election had been stolen.
Knox County Republicans held a July 19 screening at a commercial building in Camden owned by Michael Mullins of the film “2000 Mules.”
The nearly 90-minute film was directed by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza. In 2014, D’Souza pleaded guilty to allegations that he made illegal contributions to a U.S. Senate campaign and was sentenced to five years probation for committing campaign finance fraud. Trump granted D’Souza a presidential pardon in 2018.
After the film, Knox County Republican Committee Chairwoman Victoria Bucklin asked those in attendance if they thought the election was stolen and nearly all hands went up.
One of those present was Roger Tranfaglia of Rockland who is seeking the Maine House District 42 seat now held by Democratic Rep. Valli Geiger. The seat represents Rockland and part of Owls Head in the Legislative Assembly.
Emails were sent on Sunday, July 17 to every Republican legislative candidate in Knox County asking if they believe in the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. None responded as of Wednesday morning July 20.
The false allegation of widespread voter fraud led to the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C., where scores of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop the vote count elections that gave the presidency to Democrat Joseph Biden.
Bucklin spoke about those held in prison since the January 6 protest, saying they have been deprived of their basic human rights.
One woman said she knew a poll watcher in Rockland who she said witnessed unspecified irregularities, but no one listened to her.
Other people complained that the film was to be screened in the commercial building and that there should be an effort to screen it at the Strand Theater in Rockland so that more people “know the truth”.
D’Souza features in the film an organization named True The Vote. True The Vote said it used cellphone location data to track people’s movements in major swing states around the time of the 2020 election. high number of stops at mail-in ballot drop boxes during the 2020 election. The film alleges that these individuals, the “mules”, made multiple stops because they filled the drop boxes with stacks of ballots full.
An analysis of the film by the Reuters news service said the entire claim is based on cellphone location data, which does not remotely show that people were actually using drop boxes instead of just walk or even drive by these boxes.
Reuters also found that drop boxes tend to be in high-traffic areas such as public libraries, shopping malls, municipal buildings or schools. For example, a map of drop boxes in the five metropolitan Atlanta counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton shows that all are clustered in busy locations likely to have high cell phone activity.
Reuters also focused on a scene from the film showing a woman wearing a face mask and gloves dropping off a ballot before turning to place her gloves in a nearby trash can. It is claimed in the documentary that she is a “mule” because she wore gloves (to supposedly hide her fingerprints) and did not look at the trash can, so she must have known about it beforehand. Documentary makers do not appear to have considered the possibility of the woman wearing gloves, as well as her face mask, as a personal protective measure against COVID-19, Reuters said.
A man present at the Camden screening of the film claimed that in all of the legal challenges to the 2020 election, none of the courts had based their decisions on evidence.
As Reuters reported, state and federal judges — some appointed by Trump — have dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump or his allies alleging voter fraud and other improprieties.
According to the Washington Post, instead of alleging “widespread fraud or an election-altering conspiracy,” the lawsuits brought by the team and Trump allies have focused on smaller complaints, which have been largely dismissed by lawmakers. judges due to a lack of evidence. The courts have ruled that the Republicans did not provide evidence to back up their claims – just speculation, rumor or hearsay.
On November 27, 2020, the Post reported that a federal appeals court had rejected a Trump campaign proposal to block Biden from being declared the winner of Pennsylvania. At the time, Judge Stephanos Bibas, on behalf of the three-judge panel, wrote: “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. The accusations of injustice are serious. But calling an election unfair doesn’t make it that way. He added: “Charges require specific allegations and then evidence. We have neither here.
On Dec. 1, then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election, even as President Trump continued legal efforts to overturn his election. defeat. Two weeks later, Barr announced his resignation from the Trump administration.
The newspaper also asked some of those present, as they entered the building where the film was set, if they had watched the congressional hearings on the January 6 insurrection and each replied that they had not.
Mullins addressed the rally and said whether the claims are Russian influence in the 2016 election or the allegations made about the 2020 election, the issues should be investigated so the public can trust the results. elections.
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