When Mrs. James Blalock of Covington, GA voted this year she never imagined it'd cause so much of a ruckus that soon-to-be ex-President Trump's campaign and Fox's Tucker Carlson, among others on the alt-right would be talking about her vote.
Source: 11 Alive, Georgia
Accusations of voter fraud continue to be in the headlines after last week's general election, including the claims that people who are dead voted. 11Alive confirmed that two of the four Georgia voters the president's campaign accused of fraudulently voting while “dead” are alive.
President Donald Trump’s campaign tweeted accusations claiming that James Blalock of Covington, who is deceased, voted in the election.
“The only problem? He passed away 14 years ago. Sadly, Mr. Blalock is a victim of voter fraud,” the tweet reads.
The accusations were amplified on national television.
“Mr. Blalock was a mailman for 33 years until he passed away in 2006. Fourteen years later, according to state records, he was still mailing things. James Blalock cast a ballot in last week’s election,” Tucker Carlson said in a clip and story labeled on Fox News' website as an opinion piece.
Seems that Agnes Blalock has always voted as Mrs James Blalock, as testified by the local registrar, and that new software just didn't pick up the prefix of Mrs.
Tucker Carlson got all worked up about it a few nights ago. The other mentioned by Carlson, a Linda Kessler did die in 2003. However, Lynda Kessler, with a different spelling, address, and zip code did vote and is apparently also very much alive as well.
“James Blalock cast a ballot in last week’s election. How did he do that? Maybe he was just one of those extraordinary mail carriers; neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night nor even death itself could keep him from the mail. In his case, maybe voting from the grave wasn’t really fraud, it was just commitment,” Carlson said.
The Trump campaign got in on this foolishness as well.
Mr. James Blalock of Covington, Georgia, a World War II veteran, voted in the election.
The only problem? He passed away 14 years ago, in January 2006.
Sadly, Mr. Blalock is a victim of voter fraud. pic.twitter.com/fcynn3fxIh— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) November 11, 2020
Just a comedy of errors all around.
UPDATE: On Friday night, Tucker Carlson issued this apology for his screw-up.
“We’ve got some good news tonight, and an apology. One of the people who voted in last week’s election isn’t dead. James Blalock is still dead, we told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It’s old-fashioned and we missed it. Now, a whole bunch of dead people did vote, we showed you their names, we proved it, but James Blalock was not among them. It was Mrs. James Blalock. So apologies for that, and of course we’re always going to correct when we’re wrong. And we were.”
And no, he didn't prove a damn thing, of course. And he also didn't apologize for his other mistakes either. But that's par for the course at Fox "News."