“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” pushed back on right-wing claims that one of its segments proves there was voter fraud in the 2020 election, saying their use of the show as evidence is “horses—.”
In a lengthy Twitter thread Thursday, “Last Week Tonight” addressed “new viewers” of the show who encountered it through conservative users that used a November 2019 segment to push President Trump’s voter fraud claims.
“First: sorry we swear so much! But second: the way people are using that segment is horses—,” the show tweeted. “If you watch our segment through to the end, you’ll notice that we say the biggest vulnerability is if a state uses direct-recording electronic voting machines, or DREs, especially those without a paper trail.”
As regular viewers of “Last Week Tonight” would expect, there was a lot more copiously researched material to come. The segment showed an example of a journalist explaining how a voting machine could be hacked within two minutes, and it later shows a news story of a local election in which a woman knew that people had voted for but her votes had been switched.
“Last Week Tonight” though urged people to watch to the end of the segment, saying that voting machines with the biggest vulnerability are “direct-recording electronic voting machines, or DREs, especially those without a paper trail.” And it continued to note that of the states where the Trump campaign is contesting results, only one state (Nevada) uses DREs, but still has a paper trail. And there’s more.
“On top of which, a huge proportion of votes this year came in on absentee ballots, which are… y’know… paper ballots,” “Last Week Tonight” tweeted.
Naturally, Oliver’s show has done its homework, and there’s still much more which you can find in the tweets below, as well as a link to a “Pants-On-Fire” PolitiFact story about Dominion Voting Systems and “Hammer/Scorecard rumors.” But of course as you would expect with the show, they also concluded with a gif of an “all-mouse band.”
You can also check out the full original segment on voting machines from “Last Week Tonight” above.
Hello to all our new viewers who've encountered our 2019 segment on voting machines through conservative media using it to push Trump's voter-fraud claims! First: sorry we swear so much! But second: the way people are using that segment is horseshit!
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
If you watch our segment through to the end, you'll notice that we say the biggest vulnerability is if a state uses direct-recording electronic voting machines, or DREs, especially those without a paper trail. https://t.co/n3P0KWTlvP
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
Good news! Of the states where the Trump campaign is contesting the election results – PA, GA, MI, WI, AZ and NV – only Nevada still uses DRE machines, and even those produce a paper trail.
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
In the story, we also suggest that a good failsafe is to perform a risk-limiting audit after an election is completed. GA is wrapping up its risk-limiting audit. PA, NV and MI are piloting risk-limiting audits this year. AZ and WI are performing more limited audits this year.
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
(Is now the time to point out that in 2019, the House passed the SAFE Act, which would've required every state to have risk-limiting audits in federal elections, but McConnell didn't bring it up for a vote in the Senate? It sure seems like a good time to mention it.)
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
If you didn't click through, here's the important part: pic.twitter.com/TCCF3PbHEk
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
And here's @PolitiFact's writeups of the Dominion Voting Systems and Hammer/Scorecard rumors that you may've seen — both of which they rate "Pants on Fire". (Note: "Pants on Fire" is bad.)https://t.co/2h1FgZpuvuhttps://t.co/jP2Rx2Z4LI
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
And here is a GIF of an all-mouse band. pic.twitter.com/pPUDbWSBrs
— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) November 19, 2020
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