Twitter Slaps Warning on Trump Tweets, Doesn’t Disclose Partnership with Groups Pushing Mail-in Ballots

Jack Dorsey
Getty Images
Joshua Klein

Twitter slapped warning labels on several of President Trump’s tweets on Thursday after the tweets encouraged voters who submitted ballots by mail to visit their polling stations on Election Day in order to verify their vote had been counted. Twitter deemed the messages a violation of its policy against advocating illegal election activity.  

Preventing users from reading the posts without first viewing a warning that the tweet “violated the Twitter rules about civic and election integrity,” the social media behemoth conveniently neglected to disclose its partnership with two groups financed by leftist donors deeply involved in voter participation efforts, including drives pushing mail-in balloting.

In light of concerns that use of mail-in voting without voter identification would allow for rampant fraud, Trump’s tweets encouraged voters who submitted ballots by mail to verify their vote had indeed been counted.

In a thread of tweets, the president suggested signing and mailing in ballots as early as possible, and then suggested going to the polls to verify the mail-in vote had been counted. “VOTE,” he wrote, adding that it “is a citizen’s right to do”:

Based on the massive number of Unsolicited & Solicited Ballots that will be sent to potential Voters for the upcoming 2020 Election, & in order for you to MAKE SURE YOUR VOTE COUNTS & IS COUNTED, SIGN & MAIL IN your Ballot as EARLY as possible. On Election Day, or Early Voting,..

Writing in the second and last tweets on the issue, Trump continued: 

…..go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted). If it has you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly. If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do). If your Mail In Ballot arrives....

….after you Vote, which it should not, that Ballot will not be used or counted in that your vote has already been cast & tabulated. YOU ARE NOW ASSURED THAT YOUR PRECIOUS VOTE HAS BEEN COUNTED, it hasn’t been “lost, thrown out, or in any way destroyed”. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

Twitter blocked the visibility of the last two tweets, stating:

We placed a public interest notice on two Tweets in this thread for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice.

The laws regarding the invalidation of mail-in ballots when individuals choose to vote in person are complex, and vary significantly by state. Our goal is to prevent people from sharing advice about voting twice, which may be illegal.

To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes.

Per our policies, this Tweet will remain on the service given its relevance to ongoing public conversation. Engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Quote Tweet, but not Like, Reply, or Retweet it.

Twitter neglected to disclose that it is a “Premier Partner” of Vote Early Day, an election advocacy group that educates voters about their option to cast ballots prior to Election Day, including via vote-by-mail, as Breitbart News previously reported.

Analysts have posited that proposals such as vote-by-mail help the Democrat Party, as left-wing operatives have adopted means such as paying homeless voters, taking advantage of the elderly, posing as registered voters, and printing counterfeit ballots.

With mail-in voting making authentication more difficult, fears abound over the prospect of large-scale voter fraud, especially due to past mishaps. 

Referring to mail-in voting without checks and balances or the requirement of providing identification as “a national ballot harvesting,” Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) recently explained how “the Democrats are trying to use the postal service as a way to steal the upcoming election.”

“Ballots will be sent out to people who have been deceased for years and years,” Hice said. “That is an ingredient for absolute disaster and fraud in every way.”

Vote Early Day’s homepage promotes mail-in balloting, telling potential voters that “more states are adopting additional Vote Early options, such as vote-by-mail, and we are expecting these changes to increase voter turnout. We want everyone to know their options.”

The organization even suggests voters “throw a party or parade” so “friends can come together to fill-in their mail-in ballots.”

The website states:

Through parties at the polls and community parades to early voting sites, organizations across the country will inspire more Americans to vote early. Even in states without in-person early voting, friends can come together to fill-in their mail-in ballots.

The group’s mission statement includes mail-in options [emphasis added]:

When Americans vote early, they ensure that last minute problems will not prevent them from casting their ballots – and help shorten voting lines on Election Day for everyone. But voting early rules – both for in-person and by-mail options – vary widely all over the country, causing confusion and preventing voters from casting their ballots. We’re here to make voting early easier. Given our current conditions with COVID-19, having multiple options to safely cast your ballot is critical.

Vote Early Day openly states it is supported by one organization: “Vote Early Day is a holiday for all Americans supported by a project at New Venture Fund.”

The New Venture Fund (NVF) is, in turn, managed under an administrative agreement with the shadowy, massively funded Arabella Advisors strategy company which pushes the interests of wealthy leftist donors.

Arabella specializes in sponsoring countless dark money pop-up organizations advocating progressive policies and designed to look like grassroots activist groups, as exposed in a recent extensive report by conservative watchdog Capital Research Center.

Billionaire activist George Soros’s Open Society documents that it provided financing to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, one of four nonprofits run by Arabella Advisors, another being the NVF. Arabella nonprofits also evidence close financial workings with initiatives for the Democracy Alliance, another network of highly influential donors, including Soros.

Other listed media companies that are “Premier Partners” of Vote Early Day are BuzzFeed, MTV, Univision, and USA Today.

More “Premier Partners” include leftist groups such as the League of Women Voters, the Democracy Fund, Alliance for Youth Organizing, and Rise.

Becoming a “Premier Partner” for Vote Early Day, as Twitter did, requires activism on the part of each partner organization, including a commitment to the following (below are all direct quotes): 

  • Agree to include their name or logo in public materials (e.g. press release and website);
  • Share their Vote Early Day activation plans with the Steering Committee in advance;
  • Report back successes and feedback;
  • Commit to a flagship on-the-ground activation, mobilize a national network of at least 50 partners, or reach 1 million people through digital or platform integrations

Vote Early Day is not Twitter’s sole involvement in election advocacy. 

The social media giant, along with Google and Facebook, is also a 2020 partner for the National Voter Registration Day, which claims it “wants to make sure everyone has the opportunity to vote.”

The National Voter Registration Day also pushes mail-in ballots, saying it seeks to educate citizens to “request mail-in ballots, learn about early voting options, and more.”

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, National Voter Registration Day says it is working on “incorporating supplemental resources and messaging in our toolkits, posters, and trainings about how to vote by mail.”

The National Voter Registration is sponsored by the Democracy Fund, a charitable foundation created by eBay founder and liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar.

Omidyar’s self-styled “philanthropic investment firm,” the Omidyar Network, is also a funder of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which has partnered with Facebook to draft principals in an initiative to help determine whether a certain news story is “disputed.”

The Omidyar Network has partnered with the Open Society on projects, and it has given grants to third parties using the Soros-funded Tides Foundation as a “fiscal sponsor.” Tides is one of the largest donors to left-wing causes in the U.S.

Breitbart News extensively reported a slew of other progressive groups tied to Soros money who have been working overtime to push mail-in voting.

This is not the first time Twitter has labeled Trump’s tweets concerning mail-in ballots while failing to disclose its partnership with two groups financed by leftist donors that are engaged in a massive voter participation effort, including drives pushing mail-in balloting.

Breitbart News previously reported in late May that Twitter, for the first time, put a fact-check label on tweets from Trump, using the controversial tactic to label messages in which the president claimed there is “no way” that “mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.