A day after former Vice President Joe Biden was announced as President-elect of the United States, supporters of President Donald Trump expressed their doubts during a “Trump Train” event at the Cowboys Dancehall in San Antonio.
Biden was projected to be the winner of the presidential election after flipping Pennsylvania, a state that went to Trump in 2016. Trump has refused to concede, citing allegations of voter fraud without any proof. Political experts, along with Trump’s aides, have said that the legal fights are unlikely to overturn the results of the election. Some Republican and conservative leaders, including George W. Bush, have congratulated Biden on his victory.
Still, Trump’s supporters remain unconvinced. Jayson Martinez, one of the participants, said he is a proud Hispanic Republican. He said he’s been researching Trump since he first ran for office.
“I think of myself as a very smart individual,” Martinez said. “I have been studying him for at least four years, if not more. It is amazing to me that he beat out all of these lawyers and everyone, including Hillary Clinton. Ever since then, he’s been dominating.”
Martinez said he’s concerned about how he thinks the left side of the aisle would run the country.
“I am a realist,” Martinez said. “The world is twisted right now. I don’t think Democrats are for the people. People who vote that way are not doing their research. They are just picking Biden just because.”
Like the president, Martinez cast doubt on the ballot counting process.
“The numbers don’t add up,” Martinez said. “They don’t make sense. This is coming from a person who researches numbers all of the time. It is very shady and it makes me sad to the core.”
Most voter fraud allegations related to the election have been largely disproven and many of Trump’s legal team’s claims in court have been thrown out because of insufficient evidence. Others have continued, but none of them appear to take issue with a large enough number of votes to have any impact on the outcome of the election.
For example, viral social media posts claimed there were more votes cast than registered voters in Wisconsin, which is not true. A misleading video from Arizona led people to believe that using a Sharpie would invalidate a ballot, another claim that was debunked. In Georgia, a poll worker went into hiding after people falsely claimed he threw ballots in the trash. It turned out the poll worker tossed out instructions to the ballot, which weren’t supposed to be mailed in the first place.
But Martinez believes Trump unfairly lost the election, and that Biden’s demeanor is proof of it.
“If he fairly lost, that is one thing,” Martinez said. “But he didn’t and that is the reality of it. He was cheated. There is nothing he could have done. You have all of these one-sided ballots for Biden coming through out of nowhere and then reports of ballots being found in ditches and creeks. That is not right. Then, Biden has been hiding in his basement this whole time lets me know he wasn’t worried one bit.”
Like all types of voting in this election, mail-in ballots hit record numbers this year. Beyond the pure unprecedented turnout of the election, mail-in ballots were also used at a higher rate this year because fears of spreading the coronavirus caused most states — not including Texas — to expand eligibility requirements for absentee voters.
Mail-in ballots disproportionately went to Biden for several reasons. For one, Democratic voters are more likely to be afraid of social settings where the virus could spread, polling has shown, leading them to cast more absentee ballots. Another reason experts have cited is that Trump told his supporters for months leading up to the election that mail-in ballots are dangerous. Read more about Bexar County mail-in ballots here.
Another participant in the “Trump Train” on Sunday agreed with Martinez.
“If every legal vote is counted and Trump falls short, so be it, I am not a sore loser, but at the end of the day, every legal vote should count,” said Gary Shafer. “It shouldn’t be someone who is 173-years-old voting. Come on now.”
He said there is a reason why he plans to continue driving along with the “Trump Train.”
“It is a way for us Republicans to get together and unite,” Shafer said. “We believe in unity. There is no segregation. We don’t believe that there is one set race or religion. All of us here from different background believe and support President Donald Trump.”
Shafer said he is confident about Trump’s pursuit of litigation regarding the ballot counting process, though his own aides have said otherwise.
“I think when it goes to the Supreme Court and due process, I think the truth will come out and Trump will remain our President,” Shafer said. “It is going to be an uphill battle and we are in it for the long haul. We didn’t hang up our Trump flags. We didn’t call it quits the day the media announced Biden as the President-elect. So yes, we are still here for the long haul. It is not over yet.”
Media outlets base their election projections based on the number of votes counted, the number of votes left to be counted, and the candidate’s lead in the race.
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