Conservatives fall for joke tweet about ripping up Trump ballots

Powerful figures in conservative media fell for a joke tweet in which someone claiming to be a postal worker in Ohio said he was ripping up absentee ballots cast for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, The Daily Beast reports.

i love working at the post office in Columbus, Ohio and ripping up absentee ballots that vote for trump

— raandy (@randygdub) October 16, 2016

The tweet from @randygdub went viral and spawned a post from the conservative blogger GatewayPundit. The Drudge Report then linked to the blog post about the tweet. 

Postal Worker Brags About Destroying Trump Ballots… https://t.co/WlWz0aG9aY

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) October 17, 2016

{mosads}Other conservative figures in media also cited the tweet, including radio host Rush Limbaugh.

“So you’ve got a postal worker out there admitting he’s opening absentee ballots that have been mailed in, and he’s just destroying the ones for Trump. What happens if he opens one up for Hillary, gotta reseal it?” Limbaugh asked during his show on Monday, referring to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Daily Beast contacted the owner of the Twitter account and asked if he is really a postal worker in Ohio. His response: “lol no.”

Jim Hoft, the author of GatewayPundit, said Twitter should consider banning @randygdub. 

“I find it concerning that far left buffoons think voter fraud is a joke,” Hoft said. “ ‘Raandy’ may think destroying votes is funny, but many Americans still believe in the sanctity of the ballot box even after eight years of [President] Obama. To joke about rigging an election is not a laughing matter. I’ve seen others get banned from Twitter for far less than this.”

Trump on Monday tweeted that there is “large scale voter fraud” going on in the presidential race as he makes the case that the election is “rigged” against him.