Democracy Dies in Darkness

Trump-commissioned report undercut his claims of dead and double voters

A report commissioned by the former president’s campaign and obtained by The Post did not back up his claims of fraud and did not provide evidence to overturn the 2020 election

March 17, 2023 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
President Donald Trump speaks during a victory rally on Dec. 5, 2020, in Valdosta, Ga. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
7 min

When Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in a now-infamous bid to overturn the 2020 election, he alleged that thousands of dead people had voted in the state.

“So dead people voted, and I think the number is close to 5,000 people. And they went to obituaries. They went to all sorts of methods to come up with an accurate number, and a minimum is close to about 5,000 voters,” he said, without citing his study.