Pence says he and Trump 'reserve the right' to challenge election
RENO — Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence said Thursday in Reno he and running mate Donald Trump reserve the right to file suit against the election results.
The statement comes the day after the final presidential debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, during which Trump said he might not accept the results of the election.
Pence, while stopping short of saying they wouldn’t accept the results, on Thursday said they would reserve the right to challenge the results.
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"Of course, we will accept a clear election result, but we also reserve the right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of questionable results," he said. "We will follow it by the rules and traditions of many candidates who came before."
The Trump campaign has made voter fraud and election shenanigans a central part of its platform in recent days, alleging voter fraud is widespread and could sway the election. Several studies dispute that, showing voter fraud is a rarity.
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The crowd of around 400 by and large also felt the problem of voter fraud was a threat, though remained split on whether or not it was ubiquitous.
Bill Smith, 63, of Dayton, said he believed it was real as evidenced by a lack of support for voter ID laws.
“The only reason they don’t want voter ID is so they can sway the election," he said. "If they didn’t want to cheat, then they’d go for voter ID. It’s simple.”
Michael Cox, 63, of Richmond, Calif., said he also felt the problem was widespread and he agreed with Trump on the wait-and-see approach to the election results.
"We’ll see what the election results are," he said. "I know that they’ve already found filled out ballots with Hillary’s name on it before they were even given out. There is voter fraud taking place before they’re even handing out ballots."
To date, there have been no credible reports about finding ballots with Clinton's name already marked.
Jenny Souza, 64, of Manteca, Calif., said she didn't know if the issue was rampant, but it definitely existed.
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"We already have evidence from the other side that they plan on and there is voter fraud going on," she said. "We have dead people that vote."
While many were unswayed by any evidence to the contrary, some also felt it was a distraction from the issues and was being used as a talking point to drum up furor.
"I just think it’s another issue that they bring up when they don’t have anything else to talk about," said Tana Gliatto, 71, of Yreka, Calif. "I have not witnessed anything like that in my area. I’m not concerned about it."
Julia Ainsburg, 79, of Reno, said voter fraud wasn't an issue to her either. Rather, those in the media were the ones to blame for any kind of control over the election.
“If the election is rigged, it’s by the media because they are so biased," she said. "My blood pressure really goes up, I don’t even want to watch or listen to any news shows anymore. They are not for the Donald. Plain and simple. Anybody can see that.”
To Nancy Ferrari, 65, of Reno, the question was still there. Clinton and Obama were liars and would do anything to keep Trump out of office, she said.
However, there was one way to prove it wasn't an issue.
"Now if he wins, of course, I don’t think there’s any fraud," Ferrari said through a laugh.
Pence also said Trump won the debate “hands down” and proved he was bringing the conservative movement together.
“Until too long, it seemed like he was fighting all on his own, but now this movement is coming together, Nevada is coming together and we’re going to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States of America.”
Follow Seth A. Richardson on Twitter: @SethARichardson
