"Opportunity for fraud" is a new phrase being used for committing fraud on voters by keeping the big lie going for 6 years. and explaining away the lack of evidence, the 2020 election was stolen, Trump's fundamental basis for abusing his power is that the 2020 election was stolen. It has been his excuse for most domestic acts he has taken to give J6 criminals and election denier icon Tina Peters a get-out-of-jail pass and to federalize elections so the big leader in the White House can more easily control the vote system and the outcome. This is in spite of those charged with seditiion or battering police officers or violating rules protecting ballot integrity have been given due process, jury trials, pleading guilty, and after appeals upon appeals. Now, a new possible director of national intelligence, former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is using the term "opportunity for fraud" to describe Trump's relentless search for an event. for which no court has found sufficient evidence so far in six years to change the 2020 outcome. Even Trjmps's own AG said the 2020 election was fraud-free. Despite this, Trump is obsessed with keeping this lie alive, giving him the tool to rationalize a witch hunt because if there is smoke in the process itself and these isolated examples, there's certainly fire everywhere else. and then he also has a pitch that puts. into question any vote tally that does not go his way. For those in MAGA who dismiss the issue of evidence as some lib press and media, or lib judges, trust the truth in every word coming from Trump, are those who are willing victims or ignorant of the deception of Trump's pitch that" since there is an opportunity for fraud, there is fraud."( In the case of California, it was uttered even before and during the counting was completed.) There is also a willful ignoring of the rigorous measures used to mitigate fraud, or of the lack of evidence that enough was done to overturn the outcome of 2020.
Even claiming "an opportunity for fraud" is another way to institutionalize an aura of paranoia, undermine faith in the electoral processes, give more fodder to Trump to fix what is not broken for political gain, and avoid looking like a loser, with such lies and insinuations. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-do-you-tell-political-lie-from.html
The term "opportunity for fraud" is used in risk management of the systems proposed or in use by those who evaluate it because it indicates the steps needed to reduce the likelihood of that happening. The fraud Truad has committed is to ignore and keep followers in the dark about the extreme measures, legitimate practices, and rules already required of compliant election officials to keep such "opportunities" to isolated examples. There are thousands of county clerks and state election officials who are sworn to such risk management procedures, but the one who violated her oath to follow procedure is Tina Peters, who listened to Trump's speeches to "secure the votes cast". Instead of following the required procedure, she secured the vote tabulators by locking them. up and giving the codes for access to a MAGA loyal volunteer, tried to cover it up, lied, and got convicted by a trial of peers of violation of the state of Colorado criminal law. She appealed, and her conviction was upheld, though the sentence did not take into consideration her First Amendment rights to state her opinion, and Colorado Governor Polis released her from state prison after she had already served half her 9-year sentence. Note: her conviction was not overturned.
For those who are ignorant of the procedures their clerks use to verify their votes, both in the registration process and in ensuring their ballots are counted, the "opportunity for fraud" needs to be scrutinized, as do the measures taken. States are in control of this per the Constitution, not the federal government. Being ignorant of that is to fool oneself, and not understanding or learning about it is to be a willing fool.
The key to having a voter's ballot counted, whatever the process, is that the signature at registration matches the signature on the ballot cast. That is true whether the voter received their ballot by mail, did not request it, requested it, mailed it, dropped it off, was "harvested" by someone else, or turned up in person at a polling place. or showed them their papers or didn't. In most instances, there are both red and blue clerks examining signatures, and if there is a question. The ballot is kept separate and provisional until the voter is given a chance to appeal. That makes "opportunity for fraud" rarely happen in reality.
This constant drumbeat that there was fraud in 2020, in 2026 November there will also be fraud by libs and into 2028 asell, is in itself a fraud on their MAGA supporters. There is a high leap between "opportunity for fraud" to actual evidence of fraud itself, and that "opportunity" appeals to either the blind loyal (if Trump says it happens and will, it did and will) or to the unthinking ignorant who do not know squat about the process elections officials use to keep that risk at a minimum. One would think that after 6 years, and with no evidence from both red and blue judges that the 2020 election was stolen, and based on isolated examples of those who tried to cheat getting caught, there was enough of this to have changed the outcome of the 2020 election.
A word to the media: Make how the vote counts, and the signature process works a big and ongoing story. Part of the problem is that it is easier to just cite court cases, but voters need a greater understanding of the processes used to mitigate fraud in the process they use. This is a good one for local and state media since each local or state elections official have their own set of rules and process.
