Khan, Minaal
Kim, Elizabeth
Kordia, Maya
Tran, Mina
4th Period
2/27/25
2020 Election Fraud
Task: Write a well-developed essay that argues your position on the extent to which Trump’s
claim about Biden’s use of fraud is valid.
AP English Language and Composition
Reading Time: 15 minutes
Suggested Writing Time: 40 minutes
The 2020 United States’ election sparked a controversial issue over the integrity of Biden’s
victory. Donald Trump and his followers accused Biden of fraudulent actions by tampering with
the mail-in votes, irregularities, and questionable voting procedures. The concerns about the
rectitude of elections were preexisting, but Biden was held liable for tampering with the voting
process. If fraudulent actions had affected the outcomes of the election of 2020, it increases the
concern for the safety or future elections and the importance of replenishing public trust.
Carefully read the following ten sources, including the introductory information for each source.
Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent,
well-developed essay that argues your position on the extent to which Trump’s claim about
Biden’s use of fraud is valid.
Source A (Bauder)
Source B (Benkler)
Source C (Eggers)
Source D (Donald Trump White House Press Conference as Election Counts Continue Transcript
November 5)
Source E (Graham)
Source F (New Documents Show Trump Repeatedly Pressed DOJ to Overturn Election Results
before Inciting Capitol Attack)
Source G (Presidential Election of 2020 - 270toWin)
Source H (Serwer)
Source I (Keating)
Source J (Duffin)
Directions: In your response you should do the following:
Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position.
Select and use evidence from at least three of the provided sources to support your line of
reasoning. Indicate clearly the sources used through direct quotation, paraphrase, or
summary. You may cite the sources by using the descriptions in parentheses. You may
NOT refer to the sources by their letter, i.e. According to Source A …
Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.
Source A
Bauder, David, et al. “Fox, Dominion Reach $787M Settlement over Election Claims.” AP
NEWS, 18 Apr. 2023, apnews.com/article/foxnews-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-
0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe.
The following is excerpted from a news website by journalists David Bauder, Randall Chase, and
Geoff Mulvihill, reporting on Fox News.
The stunning settlement emerged just as opening statements were supposed to begin, abruptly
ending a case that had embarrassed Fox News over several months and raised the possibility that
network founder Rupert Murdoch and stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity would have
to testify publicly.
“The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson told reporters
outside a Delaware courthouse after Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced the deal.
Outside of the $787.5 million promised to Colorado-based Dominion, it was unclear what other
consequences Fox would face. Fox acknowledged in a statement “the court’s rulings finding
certain claims about Dominion to be false,” but no apology was offered.
Dominion had sued Fox for $1.6 billion, arguing that the top-rated news outlet damaged the
company’s reputation by peddling phony conspiracy theories that claimed its equipment
switched votes from former President Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Davis, in an earlier
ruling, said it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations about Dominion aired on Fox
by Trump allies were true.
Dominion set out to prove in the lawsuit that Fox acted with malice in airing allegations that it
knew to be false, or with “reckless disregard” for the truth. It presented volumes of internal
emails and text messages that showed Fox executives and personalities saying they knew the
accusations were untrue, even as the falsehoods were aired on programs hosted by Maria
Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeannine Pirro.
Source B
Benkler, Yochai, et al. “Mail-in Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation
Campaign.” Papers.ssrn.com, 2 Oct. 2020,
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3703701.
The following is an essay by experts analyzing the disinformation campaign surrounding mail-in
voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The claim that election fraud is a major concern with mail-in ballots has become the central
threat to election participation during the COVID-19 pandemic and to the legitimacy of the
outcome of the election across the political spectrum. President Trump has repeatedly cited his
concerns over voter fraud associated with mail-in ballots as a reason that he may not abide by an
adverse electoral outcome. Polling conducted in September 2020 suggests that nearly half of
Republicans agree with the president that election fraud is a major concern associated with
expanded mail-in voting during the pandemic. Few Democrats share that belief. Despite the
consensus among independent academic and journalistic investigations that voter fraud is rare
and extremely unlikely to determine a national election, tens of millions of Americans believe
the opposite. This is a study of the disinformation campaign that led to widespread acceptance of
this apparently false belief and to its partisan distribution pattern. Contrary to the focus of most
contemporary work on disinformation, our findings suggest that this highly effective
disinformation campaign, with potentially profound effects for both participation in and the
legitimacy of the 2020 election, was an elite-driven, mass-media led process. Social media
played only a secondary and supportive role.
Our results are based on analyzing over fifty-five thousand online media stories, five million
tweets, and seventy-five thousand posts on public Facebook pages garnering millions of
engagements. They are consistent with our findings about the American political media ecosystem
from 2015-2018, published in Network Propaganda , in which we found that Fox News and Donald
Trump’s own campaign were far more influential in spreading false beliefs than Russian trolls or
Facebook clickbait artists. This dynamic appears to be even more pronounced in this election
cycle, likely because Donald Trump’s position as president and his leadership of the Republican
Party allow him to operate directly through political and media elites, rather than relying on online
media as he did when he sought to advance his then-still-insurgent positions in 2015 and the first
half of 2016.
Source C
Eggers, Andrew C., et al. “No Evidence for Systematic Voter Fraud: A Guide to Statistical
Claims about the 2020 Election.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.
118, no. 45, 9 Nov. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103619118.
The following is an essay by an expert from a study examining statistical claims and finding no
evidence of systematic voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Following the 2020 US elections, President Trump and other Republicans questioned Biden’s
victory in public statements and lawsuits. Although Trump’s legal challenges were unsuccessful,
many of his supporters were apparently convinced by his claims that the election was stolen: A
survey in December 2020 found that over 75% of Republican voters found merit in claims that
millions of fraudulent ballots were cast, voting machines were manipulated, and thousands of votes
were recorded for dead people.
In this paper, we consider several widely disseminated claims purporting to call into question the
2020 US presidential election result. We focus on statistical claims, i.e., claims that are based on
allegedly anomalous patterns in the official vote counts. The common logic of these claims is
that some aspect of the 2020 result would be highly unlikely or even impossible if the election
had been properly administered. We performed an extensive search to identify the most
pervasive such claims appearing in social media posts, expert witness testimony, and research
papers.* Our purpose in this paper is to address several of the most pervasive statistical claims in
one place and using a common conceptual framework.
We conclude that each of the statistical claims we consider fails in one of two ways. In some
instances, accurate claims are made about the election results but they are not actually
inconsistent with a free and fair election. In other instances, the supposedly anomalous fact about
the 2020 election result turns out to be incorrect.
The 2020 election was remarkable in many ways (e.g., unusually high levels of mail-in voting
and turnout), and election administration may well have been imperfect. But we see nothing in
these statistical tests that supports Trump’s claim of a stolen election.
Source D
“Donald Trump White House Press Conference as Election Counts Continue Transcript
November 5.” Rev.com, 2024, www.rev.com/transcripts/donald-trump-white-house-
press-conference-as-election-counts-continue-transcript-november-5.
The following is a transcript of oral commentary from President Donald Trump's November 5,
2020, press conference addressing ongoing election counts and alleging voter fraud.
Donald Trump: (00:02) Thank you very much. Thank you. Donald Trump: (00:08) Good
evening. I'd like to provide the American people with an update on our efforts to protect the
integrity of our very important 2020 election. If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you
count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came
in late, we're looking to them very strongly, but a lot of votes came in late. Donald Trump:
(00:36) I've already decisively won many critical states, including massive victories in Florida,
Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, to name just a few. We won these and many other victories despite historic
election interference from big media, big money, and big tech. As everybody saw, we won by
historic numbers, and the pollsters got it knowingly wrong. They got it knowingly wrong. We
had polls that were so ridiculous and everybody knew it at the time. Donald Trump: (01:06)
There was no blue wave that they predicted. They thought there was going to be a big blue wave.
That was false. That was done for suppression reasons. But instead there was a big red wave, and
it's been properly acknowledged actually by the media. They were, I think, very impressed, but
that was after the fact. That doesn't do us any good. Donald Trump: (01:26) We kept the Senate
despite having twice as many seats to defend as Democrats, and in a really much more
competitive states. We did a fantastic job with the Senate. I think we're very proud of what's
happened there. We had many more seats to defend.
Source E
Graham, Matthew H., and Omer Yair. “Expressive Responding and Belief in 2020 Election
Fraud.” Political Behavior, vol. 46, no. 2, Springer Science+Business Media, July 2023,
pp. 1349–74, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09875-w.
The following is from an academic journal analyzing partisan responses and belief in the 2020
election fraud.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump’s effort to delegitimize or overturn the results of the 2020
presidential election are widely viewed as a threat to American democracy. A core component of
this threat is the apparent willingness of Trump’s supporters to believe that his election loss was
a consequence of fraud. Despite years of telegraphing his intent to dispute the result of any
election he lost, surveys suggest that Trump has convinced a sizeable proportion of the American
public that Biden’s victory was fraudulent (Arceneaux & Truex, 2022; Jacobson, 2021). This
appears
to have constrained the public behavior of Republican elites, many of whom privately
acknowledged Biden’s victory while continuing to support Trump’s claims in public.1 The myth
of a fraudulent election has become so central in contemporary American politics that it has
become known as “the big lie.”
Source F
“New Documents Show Trump Repeatedly Pressed DOJ to Overturn Election Results before
Inciting Capitol Attack.” The Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats, 15
June 2021, oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/new-documents-show-
trump-repeatedly-pressed-doj-to-overturn-election-results.
The following is a government document detailing efforts by former President Trump to pressure
the DOJ into overturning the 2020 election results.
Washington, D.C. (June 15, 2021)— Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the
Committee on Oversight and Reform, released new documents showing President Trump's efforts
to pressure the Department of Justice (DOJ) to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential
election. At 2:00 p.m., the Committee will hold its second hearing on the events of January 6, 2021,
in which insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt a joint session of Congress convened
to count Electoral College votes.
"These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation's chief law enforcement
agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost," Chairwoman Maloney said. "Those
who aided or witnessed President Trump's unlawful actions must answer the Committee's questions
about this attempted subversion of democracy. My Committee is committed to ensuring that the
events leading to the violent January 6 insurrection are fully investigated."
On May 21, 2021, the Committee sent a letter to DOJ requesting documents relating to President
Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election prior to the January 6 attack.
Documents obtained by the Committee in response to this letter show that in December 2020 and
early January 2021, President Trump, his Chief of Staff, and outside allies repeatedly put pressure
on senior DOJ officials to challenge the results of the presidential election and advance
unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, with the apparent goal of keeping President Trump in
power despite losing the 2020 election.
Source G
“Presidential Election of 2020 - 270toWin.” 270toWin.com, 2020, www.270towin.com/2020-
election/.
The following is an image of poll results signifying how Trump thinks Biden is cheating because
more votes were cast in the 2020 presidential election than in any other U.S. election in history,
along with the turnout rate being the highest in more than a century.
Source H
Serwer, Adam. “If You Didn’t Vote for Trump, Your Vote Is Fraudulent.” The Atlantic, 10 Dec.
2020, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/voter-fraud/617354/.
The following is from a news website discussing how fraudulent votes impacted the 2020 election
results.
Armed protesters gathered outside the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson
Saturday night, demanding that she overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in her
state.
“We will not stand down, we will not stop, we will continue to rise up, we will continue to take
this election back for the president that actually won it by a landslide,” one protester at the scene
declared, NPR reported. Benson told the outlet that “their threats and their attacks are aimed at
the heart of democracy itself, trying to erode the public’s confidence in the democratic process,
trying to sow seeds of doubt among everyone that their votes counted, that their voices were
heard, that the results of the election are accurate.”
Source I
Keating, Christopher. “Quinnipiac Poll: 77% of Republicans Believe There Was Widespread
Fraud in the Presidential Election; 60% Overall Consider Joe Biden’s Victory
Legitimate.” Hartford Courant, 10 Dec. 2020, www.courant.com/2020/12/10/quinnipiac-
poll-77-of-republicans-believe-there-was-widespread-fraud-in-the-presidential-election-
60-overall-consider-joe-bidens-victory-legitimate/.
The following is from a news website reporting on a poll showing that Republicans believed
there was widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
A new Quinnipiac University poll says 77% of Republicans believe there was widespread voter
fraud during the November election between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
In a deeply polarized nation, 60% of registered voters polled believe that Biden’s victory was
legitimate, but 34% do not.
The latest national poll by the Hamden-based university shows huge differences in political
perceptions by voters, based on their party affiliation. Among Democrats, 97% say there was no
widespread fraud in the election, but 77% of Republicans believe there was. Among independents,
62% said there was no widespread fraud and 35% said they believe there was.
“Was the election on the level? ‘No way’ say the vast majority of Republicans,” said Tim Malloy,
a former reporter and author who is now a polling analyst for Quinnipiac. “The dearth of
Republicans in the House and Senate willing to acknowledge the Biden win is in step with their
base.”
Source J
Duffin, Erin. “2020 Presidential Election: Voter Turnout Rate U.S. 2020.” Statista, 10 Dec.
2020, www.statista.com/statistics/1184621/presidential-election-voter-turnout-rate-state/.
The following is a scholarly data showing how states who were mainly a Republican state,
turned to a Democrat state by displaying the votes.
Works Cited
Bauder, David, et al. “Fox, Dominion Reach $787.5M Settlement over False Election Claims.”
AP News, 19 Apr. 2023, apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-
2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share.
Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.
Benkler, Yochai, et al. “Mail-in Voter Fraud: Anatomy of a Disinformation
Campaign.” Papers.ssrn.com, 2 Oct. 2020,
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3703701.
“Donald Trump White House Press Conference as Election Counts Continue Transcript
November 5.” Rev.com, 2024, www.rev.com/transcripts/donald-trump-white-house-
press-conference-as-election-counts-continue-transcript-november-5.
Duffin, Erin. “2020 Presidential Election: Voter Turnout Rate U.S. 2020.” Statista, 10 Dec.
2020, www.statista.com/statistics/1184621/presidential-election-voter-turnout-rate-state/.
Eggers, Andrew C., et al. “No Evidence for Systematic Voter Fraud: A Guide to Statistical
Claims about the 2020 Election.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.
118, no. 45, Nov. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103619118.
Graham, Matthew H., and Omer Yair. “Expressive Responding and Belief in 2020 Election
Fraud.” Political Behavior, vol. 46, no. 2, June 2024, pp. 1349–74. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-023-09875-w.
Keating, Christopher. “Quinnipiac Poll: 77% of Republicans Believe There Was Widespread
Fraud in the Presidential Election; 60% Overall Consider Joe Biden’s Victory
Legitimate.” Hartford Courant, 10 Dec. 2020, www.courant.com/2020/12/10/quinnipiac-
poll-77-of-republicans-believe-there-was-widespread-fraud-in-the-presidential-election-
60-overall-consider-joe-bidens-victory-legitimate/.
“New Documents Show Trump Repeatedly Pressed DOJ to Overturn Election Results before
Inciting Capitol Attack.” The Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats, 15
June 2021, oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/new-documents-show-
trump-repeatedly-pressed-doj-to-overturn-election-results.
“Presidential Election of 2020 - 270toWin.” 270toWin.com, 2020, www.270towin.com/2020-
election/.
Serwer, Adam. “If You Didn’t Vote for Trump, Your Vote Is Fraudulent.” The Atlantic, 10 Dec.
2020, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/voter-fraud/617354/.
