Two people cited by President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign as dead people who illegally voted in Georgia’s presidential election have turned out to be living people mistaken for deceased individuals.
On November 11, the Trump campaign claimed via Twitter that James Blalock—a World War II veteran in Covington, Georgia—had illegally voted in the election. A tweet from the Trump War Room Twitter account wrote that Blalock had passed away 14 years ago in January 2006.
Mr. James Blalock of Covington, Georgia, a World War II veteran, voted in the election.
The only problem? He passed away 14 years ago, in January 2006.
Sadly, Mr. Blalock is a victim of voter fraud. pic.twitter.com/fcynn3fxIh
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) November 11, 2020
The story was repeated by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and also posted by him in an opinion piece that ran on the network’s website.
“Mr. Blalock was a mailman for 33 years until he passed away in 2006. Fourteen years later, according to state records, he was still mailing things,” Tucker wrote. “James Blalock cast a ballot in last week’s election.”
“How did he do that?” Carlson’s column continued. “Maybe he was just one of those extraordinary mail carriers; neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night nor even death itself could keep him from the mail. In his case, maybe voting from the grave wasn’t really fraud, it was just commitment.”
However, Newton County officials disavowed the claim, stating that Blalock hadn’t voted, according to 11alive.com. Rather, Blalock’s widow voted, and she is registered under his name as “Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr.” She also signed that name when she voted.
“The media reports of a deceased voter casting their ballot in Newton County are inaccurate,” the county wrote in a November 12 post explaining the situation.
Both the Trump War Room Twitter account and Carlson’s opinion article also mentioned Linda Kesler of Nicholson, who allegedly voted even though she died in 2003.
Mrs. Linda Kesler of Nicholson, Georgia voted in the election.
The only problem? She passed away 17 years ago, in 2003.
Sadly, Mrs. Kesler is a victim of voter fraud. pic.twitter.com/QqD4VnjfJX
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) November 11, 2020
The Jackson County Board of Elections later clarified that a woman named Linda Kesler had in fact voted, but she is an entirely different person who “has a different address, birthday, and zip who is entitled to vote.”
Nevertheless, Trump has continued to allege that widespread voter fraud in Georgia cost him the state which he won in 2016.
On Friday evening, Trump wrote, “Georgia Secretary of State, a so-called Republican (RINO), won’t let the people checking the ballots see the signatures for fraud. Why? Without this the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless. Everyone knows that we won the state. Where is @BrianKempGA?”
A RINO is an initialism for a “Republican in name only” and Kemp is the state’s Republican governor.
As of November 13, Joe Biden is projected to win Georgia by 14,122 votes. The state has started an audit, and now local officials in each of the state’s 159 counties must submit new vote counts by Wednesday night, two days before the state’s election certification deadline of November 20, reports The New York Times.
