“They’re fighting so hard to steal this damn thing. …Look at what is happening in your state, every day they talk about expanding hours; Who has heard of these things? Trump, visibly frustrated, said Sunday in Lititz, Pennsylvania. “We should have voting in one day and ballots.” He added: “It’s a shame, and I’m the only one who talks about it because everyone is afraid to talk about it, and then they accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist. … Those who should be locked up are those who cheat in these horrible elections that we are experiencing in our country.”

On Saturday in Salem, Virginia, he told the crowd: “I would love to win the popular vote with them by cheating. Let them cheat, because that’s what they do, they do it very well, they are very professional. But I think we have a very good chance of winning the popular vote.” Later, at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, a prerecorded message from Trump encouraged attendees to vote and “keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat, and they cheat.” And, frankly, it’s the only thing they do well.”

And on Friday night in Milwaukee, he falsely claimed to have won Wisconsin twice, saying “these are minor details.” Trump won Wisconsin in 2016, but lost the state to Biden in 2020.

Trump’s preemptive warnings about voter fraud, despite no evidence of widespread fraud, are part of a pattern dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, an election he also claims was “rigged” before win it

But Trump’s latest remarks are renewing concern among election experts who fear a repeat of the 2020 election, when the former president’s false claims of widespread fraud culminated in a pro-Trump mob storming the US Capitol on the 6th. January 2021. During Sunday’s rally, Trump also said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House.

In this election cycle, Trump has encouraged his supporters to make the election “too big to rig,” a slogan that suggests the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump has also set the stage for major disappointment among his supporters in in case the election results are not a victory for him. He has repeatedly claimed that he is leading in the polls and has suggested that the only way Democrats can win is by cheating. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, leads Trump by about 2 percentage points nationally, according to the Washington Post’s average of high-quality public polls.

Trump has not committed to accepting the results of the 2024 election, saying he would do so only “if it’s a fair election” and claiming the only way he will lose is if there is fraud. Harris has said she is committed to free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump’s allegations have gone nowhere in court, but they have fostered a false belief among many of his supporters that fraud is rampant, said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Research and Innovation, a nonprofit organization. for-profit that seeks to generate confidence in the elections.

Although polls show an extremely close race, Trump’s rhetoric has convinced many of his supporters that his victory is inevitable, Becker said.

“You can imagine the shock some Trump supporters might feel if he turns out to lose and how that shock could turn to anger and even potentially violence in the post-election period,” he said. In 2020, “his allies directed their followers toward public servants, and many of them had to go to alternative locations to be safe. They had to get security. They had to deal with doxing. … Now, we have seen many of his followers infected with four more years of lies about the election.”

In an emailed statement, Claire Zunk, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, praised “President Trump’s unprecedented election integrity operation…committed to upholding the law and protecting every legal vote,” but neither she nor a spokeswoman of the Trump campaign directly addressed Trump’s suggestions that “Cheating” could swing the race.

Harris on Sunday urged Americans to ignore signs from Trump that he might declare victory prematurely on Tuesday night, arguing that they are aimed at discouraging people from voting.

“Their goal is to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country. We did it in 2020,” Harris told reporters. “He lost and the systems that exist for these 2024 elections have integrity. They are good systems and the vote of the people will determine the result of these elections. And everyone should know that their vote is their power to determine the outcome of the election, and their vote will count.”

In recent days, Trump has focused his accusations of voter fraud on Pennsylvania, a state that nonpartisan election experts consider a near must-win for both him and Harris. According to the Post’s average of polls, Harris leads the state by less than a point.

During a recent rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Trump claimed, “They’ve already started cheating in Lancaster.” And in a social media post, he stated: “Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught, at large-scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT DECEPTIONS TO THE AUTHORITIES. Law enforcement must act NOW!”

Democratic officials and voting rights advocates vehemently dispute Trump’s claims. Lancaster County election officials recently said they identified approximately 2,500 voter registration applications that were potentially fraudulent and that local authorities were investigating.

Trump has falsely claimed that there were ballots filled out with the same pen: ballots are not opened in Pennsylvania until Election Day. Officials respond that identifying faulty registration applications shows the system is working and they will not give ballots to ineligible voters. Voting rights advocates say the suspicious requests are likely the fault of a careless pollster and not a nefarious scheme to steal the election.

The Trump campaign and the RNC are highlighting allegations of voter fraud and voter suppression as part of an attempt to “ensure a secure election for ALL Americans, regardless of who they vote for,” said campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. Trump. , he said in an emailed statement.

Experts say some problems are inevitable during any election, but they are almost always resolved and affect only a small number of the tens of millions of votes cast.

Rhetoric like Trump’s threatens the ability of many Americans to accept the results of a free and fair election, said Tammy Patrick, executive director of programs at the National Association of Election Officials. Their language further erodes trust in the democratic process, he said, and lays the groundwork for violence if the outcome is not what some would like.

“This happened before: we all watched TV on January 6,” Patrick said. “We have all seen with our own eyes what the manifestation of this type of rhetoric is. Right now, many (election officials) are holding their breath to see what will happen in the next week.”

He said public officials and American leaders should ask for patience during the vote counting process, which could last several days. In Maricopa County, home to most Arizona voters, officials have said it could take workers 10 to 13 days to finish processing ballots.

Colby Itkowitz and Maeve Reston contributed to this report.