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Opinion

Shaw: Recent letter about conspiracy filled with misinformation

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It’s no surprise that our West Valley king of conspiracy theories and misinformation, Brian Reilly, is pedaling the latest theory promoted by Dinesh D’Souza in his “2000 Mules” fictional, so-called “documentary.”

The premise for this latest bogus claim of widespread voter fraud — cell phone pings — is riddled with holes.

And Mr. D’Souza himself was in fact convicted (after pleading guilty) of actual campaign finance fraud (source fbi.gov) — hardly a credible source. To counter this wild misinformation, one need only visit any one of many sites that fact checked this bogus production.

It’s no surprise that no federal or state courts or even our part-time AG Brnovich (while he runs for the U.S. Senate as his new day job) can find any truth in D’Souza’s misinformation bonanza.

An excerpt of one such site sums it up well: “Cell phone tracking data is insufficient to establish anything other than a person was within 100 feet of a particular location,” said Charles Stewart, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It can’t establish precisely where they were nor, importantly, what they were doing.”

“For example, someone who purportedly visited several drop boxes could be a delivery person, cab driver or postal worker who works in the area. Burden said elections officials would also have legitimate reasons to visit drop boxes, which have several security mechanisms in place. And drop boxes are intentionally placed in high-traffic areas such as libraries and college campuses, meaning average citizens could potentially come into contact with them in their daily routines.”

The drop box that I used in 2020 was inside a secure office at the Peoria city offices — a high traffic complex that no doubt is visited regularly by city employees who work there, residents (from Peoria along with those from the surrounding area to drop off a ballot like myself), and a host of others doing business with the city, such as contractors submitting building permits along with other firms doing business with the city on a regular basis.

Mr. Reilly’s disparaging comments directed at the highly conservative FOX News network is apparently due to its unbiased review of Mr. D’Souza’s phony claims in his “documentary.” Sorry, Mr. Reilly, but even Fox finds your latest rabbit hole unworthy of promoting on its network.