--- title: Donald Trump Continues to Claim Election Is Rigged description: Donald Trump refuses to back down from his claim that the upcoming election results will be rigged at polling places canonical: https://time.com/4532679/donald-trump-election-rigged/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-16T17:45:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T17:34:57.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Claims Election Will Be Rigged at Polling Sites og:description: Trump tweeted that the election is rigged "at many polling places" og:url: https://time.com/4532679/donald-trump-election-rigged/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9337fd97fcd24b7/6988aa21e20a87f393a92cc1/trump-donald1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Trump speaks at a charity event in Edison, New Jersey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Claims Election Will Be Rigged at Polling Sites twitter:description: Trump tweeted that the election is rigged "at many polling places" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9337fd97fcd24b7/6988aa21e20a87f393a92cc1/trump-donald1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Claims Election Will Be Rigged at Polling Sites > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:34 PM UTCPublished: Oct 16, 2016 5:45 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a Bollywood-themed charity concert put on by the Republican Hindu Coalition in Edison, N.J., on Oct. 15, 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a Bollywood-themed charity concert put on by the Republican Hindu Coalition in Edison, N.J., on Oct. 15, 2016 Jonathan Ernst—Reuters by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:34 PM UTCPublished: Oct 16, 2016 5:45 PM UTC Donald Trump refuses to back down from his claim, which has been made without specific evidence, that the upcoming election results will be rigged at polling places. The Republican nominee for President tweeted on Sunday that the election was being rigged at polling places, just hours after his running mate, Governor Mike Pence, told Chuck Todd on NBC’s _Meet the Press_ that he [will accept Election Day results](http://time.com/4532635/mike-pence-donald-trump-meet-the-press/). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787699930718695425) Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Saturday criticized Trump for questioning the validity of the electoral process. “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the Speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity,” Ryan spokesperson AshLee Strong [said](http://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/). Trump returned to his theme Monday morning, tweeting that “large scale voter fraud” is endemic and that “naive” Republican leaders needed to recognize it: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/787995025527410688) Other party supporters have stood by Trump’s claims, which have [emerged in recent days](http://time.com/4532520/paul-ryan-donald-trumps-rigged-election/) as the candidate illustrated far-fetched imagined plots to defeat him to explain his sinking poll numbers. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on [ABC’s _This Week_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/newt-gingrich-backs-rigged-election-claim-voters-monitor/story?id=42830113), blaming the “unending one-sided assault of the news media” for the election being rigged. Gingrich said the rigging is not happening at the local level, though he encouraged voters to monitor polling places. Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that Democrats could steal an extremely close election by having supposedly dead people vote in inner cities. “I’m sorry, dead people generally vote for Democrats rather than Republicans,” Giuliani said on [CNN’s _State of the Union_](http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/16/politics/rudy-giuliani-rigged-elections-donald-trump/). “You want me to \[say\] that I think the election in Philadelphia and Chicago is going to be fair? 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