How Republicans can use their new powers to mend American electoral system
If 2020 was a concern, will GOP use new powers to fix election system?
Ken Block, author of "Disproven" and former data expert for the Trump 2020 campaign, joined The Final 5 with Jim Lokay to analyze the stark contrast between Donald Trump’s refusal to concede in 2020 and his decisive victory in 2024. Block credited the win to strategic moves, including addressing the Libertarian vote and targeted campaigning in swing states, rather than fraud allegations. While acknowledging lingering issues like voter roll inconsistencies, Block emphasized the lack of evidence for widespread fraud in past elections and urged political capital be spent on practical election reforms rather than relitigating 2020.
WASHINGTON - The man who was hired by former President Trump's 2020 campaign to investigate voter fraud (but found none) says now President-elect Trump and congressional Republicans have an opportunity to make moves to reinstate trust in the system. But will they do it?
In a conversation on The Final 5 with Jim Lokay, author Ken Block, who worked with the Trump 2020 campaign to investigate voter fraud allegations, offered insights into the political strategies that defined the 2024 presidential election. Block, the author of "Disproven, My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign, the Data that Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can Improve Our Elections," recounted his role in assessing claims of voter fraud during the contentious 2020 race and shared his perspective on the decisive victory of President-elect Donald Trump in 2024.
"I was brought in to do the legal due diligence, the data part," Block explained, describing his work for the Trump campaign in 2020. "They pushed about 20 different claims of fraud that other people had made to me, and they asked me to weigh in and take the role of the opposing team’s expert in court to determine if the claims held up or not, and none of them did."
Reflecting on the stark contrast between the 2020 and 2024 elections, Block noted that Trump’s strategic approach played a pivotal role in the latter. "President Trump made it very clear that if he lost, it could only have been possible because of fraud. He won, so there were no claims of fraud. Fraud doesn’t typically work that way—it’s either provable, or it’s not," Block remarked.
Block highlighted the impact of third-party votes in 2020 and how their diminished presence in 2024 shifted the electoral landscape. "In 2020, the Libertarian presidential candidate took a lot of votes, in some cases five times as many as Trump lost by in key states like Georgia and Arizona," he said. "This time, the Libertarian votes melted away. President Trump’s promises to the Libertarian Convention, including eliminating the Department of Education and bringing RFK Jr. on board, resonated. Combined with the Green Party’s stronger presence in swing states, the net result was decisive."
Block credited the Trump campaign’s strategic navigation of swing states for the 2024 outcome. "The whole election hinged on the six swing states. The Trump campaign navigated that beautifully and masterfully. It was the difference-maker," he stated.
Lokay brought up recent remarks from Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI Director nominee, about potentially pursuing those who allegedly "helped rig" the 2020 election. Block pushed back on the idea of relitigating the past, emphasizing the lack of evidence. "After four years of intense scrutiny, nobody has surfaced any evidence of actionable voter fraud—enough fraud to have changed an election result. It isn’t there, and this won’t be fruitful," he said.
Instead, Block advocated for focusing political capital on election reform. "There’s a golden opportunity for Republicans, with control of both chambers of Congress, to do productive work. For example, there are millions of voters on the rolls who carry registrations in multiple states. This isn’t about fraud; it’s about the outdated way we conduct elections," he argued. "Let’s get some compromise and consensus, and let’s improve our elections across the board."
Block’s practical suggestions included addressing duplicate voter registrations and streamlining how states maintain voter rolls. "The way we do it now is the way we did it roughly 200 years ago, and it just doesn’t make any sense now," he said.