Jimmy Carter acknowledged fraud while supporting mail-in voting
President Donald Trump, who has previously encouraged voters to cast mail-in ballots, appears to currently be against the practice.
“Jimmy Carter, the best thing he ever did, he headed a commission after he was president,” Trump said March 9 during the Republican Members Issues Conference. “It was the single best thing. And he did a thing on mail-in ballots. He said mail-in ballots should not be allowed because they are inherently dishonest.”
But this is a misrepresentation of what was in a report, according to The Associated Press. Former President Carter was for mail-in ballots.
“The administration’s claims about President Carter’s views on mail-in voting are not true,” the Carter Center told The AP. “(The claims do not) consider the rest of the report’s findings or President Carter’s acknowledgment of the safeguards that have emerged in the 20-plus years since this report came out.”
The report refers to a study by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, with co-chairs Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State and Republican James Baker. The group published a report in 2005 titled, “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections,” which included the conclusion that “absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
However, the report did not recommend eliminating mail-in ballots and went on to suggest methods to reduce the fraud.
Carter actually supported mail-in voting.
“I urge political leaders across the country to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures to help protect the core of American democracy — the right of our citizens the vote,” he said in May 2020.
Months later, he said, “I approve the use of absentee ballots and have been using them for more than five years.”
Iran didn’t release list of targets
A March 3 Instagram post appears to include some disturbing information about the Iran war.
“IRAN DROPPED A LIST. SUMMER IS CANCELED,” reads the text over a video of a woman explaining how Iran has created a list of U.S. targets to attack.
“There are the places I’ve heard,” the woman said as a list of 11 U.S. cities appeared on the screen. The list includes: 1. Great Falls, Mont.; 2. Cheyenne, Wyo.; 3. Ogden/Clearfield, Utah; 4. Shreveport, La.; 5. Honolulu, Hawaii; 6. Omaha, Nebraska.; 7. Colorado Springs, Colo.; 8. Albuquerque, N.M.; 9. Washington D.C.; 10. Seattle, Wash.; and 11. San Francisco, Calif.
But this list is not real. There is no evidence this list came from Iranian officials, according to PolitiFact. Similar lists have also been posted on TikTok and Facebook.
The list appears to be taken from an article published by the International Business Times under the headline, “Full List of 15 US Cities on Nuclear Target If 'World War 3' Erupts — Is Yours One of Them?”
The first 11 cities on that list are the same as the Instagram post. Other cities listed in the article are: 12. Houston, Texas; 13. Chicago, Ill.; 14. Los Angeles, Calif.; and 15. New York City.
Alex Wellerstein, a Stevens Institute of Technology nuclear historian, told PolitiFact that the targets wouldn’t be known.
“In general I would emphasize that no matter the scenario imagined, we do not know the war plans that such nations have, and so could only speculate based on what we think their targeting philosophy, strategic goals, and technical capabilities are,” Wellerstein said.
Few countries have Tomahawk missiles
The Pentagon is investigating a military strike on an Iranian girls’ school which left 175 people dead, many of them children, reports said. It has been stated that the strike came from a Tomahawk cruise missile.
President Donald Trump was recently asked about footage of the strike, and if the U.S. was responsible.
“Well, I haven't seen it, and I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around is … sold and used by other countries,” the president said. “You know that. And whether it's Iran, (which) also has some Tomahawks. They wish they had more. But whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk — a Tomahawk is very generic. It's sold to other countries.”
But that’s incorrect, according to PolitiFact. Only a few countries have Tomahawk missiles.
“The only other countries using Tomahawks are Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands,” Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told PolitiFact. “Iran has none, though it has lots of missiles of different kinds.”
Tomahawk cruise missiles are manufactured by the Raytheon Missile Systems Company in Tucson, Ariz.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.