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Experts Debunk Trump Claim of Mass Vote Fraud

Experts and elected officials on Monday debunked Donald Trump's claim that "millions" of Americans voted illegally on Election Day, as the president-elect railed against ballot recount efforts spearheaded by the Green Party.

The Republican billionaire's shock victory on November 8 saw him clinch the crucial Electoral College count, which determines the presidency, but lose the popular vote to rival Hillary Clinton by more than two million votes.

Cloistered in his Florida resort for the long Thanksgiving weekend, the 70-year-old maverick tycoon who has never previously held elected office took to Twitter to indulge in one of his customary tweet storms.

On Sunday, before he boarded his private jet back to New York to resume meetings with potential cabinet picks, he claimed he would have won the popular vote if it were not for "the millions of people who voted illegally."

"Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California -- so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!" he followed up later.

His outburst came as steps were being taken toward recounting votes in three swing states which Trump won: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

But no election observers believe there was widespread fraud and few expect recounts to change the outcome of the vote, which former secretary of state Clinton conceded to Trump in an early-hours phone call on November 9.

Trump won 290 Electoral College votes, compared to 232 for Clinton and may add another 16 from Michigan, where the results are due to be certified Monday.

Experts and elected officials fell over themselves on Monday to dismiss Trump's claims as totally unsubstantiated and said they set a dangerous precedent by potentially undermining trust in democracy or confidence in his leadership.

Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said there may be evidence of some fraud, but nothing close to what Trump claimed.

"I have not seen anything in the millions, I don't know what he was talking about," he told CNN.

"I think it's a claim that's completely unsubstantiated," said Costas Panagopoulos, director of the Elections and Campaign Management program at Fordham University.

- 'Seed of doubt' -

"I think he's trying to plant a seed of doubt in the American public to negate against the things advanced on the other side of the aisle about potential irregularities or even fraud that are the basis for the recounts," he added.

Trump spent weeks during the campaign warning that the result might be "rigged" and is now -- with his aides -- pushing back hard against proposed recounts.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who received 1.1 percent of the vote in Wisconsin, has requested a recount in the state. Trump won 47.9 percent and Clinton, the former secretary of state, won 46.9 percent of the Wisconsin vote.

Clinton's campaign has said it would join the process and the dispute roils what is already been a rough transition period, with Trump in back-to-back meetings with people he is considering for cabinet.

On Monday, he also threatened to end the thaw in diplomatic relations with Cuba, following the death of Fidel Castro, unless Havana makes concessions on human rights and opening up its economy.

Discord has flared in the Trump camp over the pick for secretary of state, the most prestigious job in the cabinet, in particular over the candidacy of Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Other potential candidates are David Petraeus, the most celebrated general of his generation who later resigned as CIA director and pleaded guilty to showing classified material to his mistress; and Bob Corker, a Republican lawmaker chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Trump is to meet Petraeus on Monday. He meets Romney for a second time on Tuesday, in addition to a planned meeting with Corker the same day.

The Republican former Massachusetts governor was one of Trump's most outspoken critics during the campaign, and Trump aide Kellyanne Conway declared, in an unusual public statement by a senior political aide, that she had received "a deluge" of concern from supporters warning against Romney.

Trump has also scheduled meetings on Monday with Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of General Growth Properties, Paul Atkins, former commissioner of the security and exchange commission, and David Steward, chairman of World Wide Technology.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday revised its forecasts to say that Trump's big-spending plan and tax cuts are expected to help double the U.S. economic growth rate by 2018.

Source: Agence France Presse


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