The former Mississippi official whose tweet may have inspired President Trump to order a “major investigation” into voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election says he has been receiving death threats. “There are people who want to kill me,” ex-welfare head Gregg Phillips told The Clarion-Ledger. “It’s insane.” PolitiFact and others have traced the original claim regarding fraud on Election Day to Phillips, who in the past has been accused of profiting from connections he made while serving in government — something he has denied. After Trump’s victory, Phillips tweeted out, “We have verified more than three million votes cast by non-citizens. We are joining @truethevote to initiate legal action.” Then he tweeted: “Completed analysis of database of 180 million voter registrations. Number of non-citizen votes exceeds 3 million. Consulting legal team.” InfoWars published a story with the headline, “Report: Three Million Votes in Presidential Election Cast by Illegal Aliens. Trump may have won popular vote.” The Drudge Report picked up the story, too.
Asked if the 3 million votes cast by non-citizens is accurate, Phillips responded, “That’s our opinion based on our research and analysis that we conducted and are prepared to stand by. If I’m wrong, I’m just going to say I’m wrong. I screwed up.” He paused and said, “I’m not wrong.”
He said he collected and analyzed more than 180 million voting records, using his algorithm. He said he had also analyzed records since ballots were cast.
He is a board member of True the Vote, which sued in 2014 to get Mississippi’s voting records, but failed. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said sharing the records would violate privacy.
Despite that, Phillips said he had a specific number for how many non-citizen votes were cast in Mississippi on Nov. 8, but wouldn’t share what that number was. “I’m just a guy putting a tweet,” he said. “All social media seems like fake news, especially Twitter.”
Full Article: Voter fraud probe traced back to ex-MS welfare head.