A tweet was posted here last night about alleged Trump supporters with dogs intimidating early voters in Cincinnati.
The tweet gave no source link.
I searched every Cincinnati news source last night to no avail.
This morning:
No evidence for āTrump supporters with dogsā tweet claim https://t.co/4sTFKWDlqz via @enquirer
ā justa farmer (@justafarmer4) October 31, 2016
Outside of a single unsubstantiated tweet, there is currently no evidence Donald Trump supporters with dogs harassed African-Americans voting early in Cincinnati.
At about 10 p.m. Sunday, Christian writer and progressive political activist Jim Wallis tweeted to his 32,600 followers that āTrump supporters - men with dogsā showed up at a polling location to intimidate voters. āYelling matches ensued,ā he concluded.
One problem: Wallis provided no evidence that the incident he described actually took place.
The lack of proof didnāt stop the tweet from getting a lot of attention and ricocheting around Twitter and into the inboxes of Cincinnati reporters. By 8 a.m. Monday, Wallisā tweet had approached 3,500 retweets.
Some on Twitter took Wallis at his word but others were doubtful, asking him for proof. Wallis has yet to provide any evidence to back up his claim.
The Enquirer is looking into Wallisā tweet and has yet to find any sources or footage to substantiate the incident he describes. Two local officials who oversee the Hamilton County Board of Elections, the site of in-person early voting for the city of Cincinnati, said they had no evidence of such an event.
āIāve heard nothing about this. If something happened, I think I wouldāve heard from staff there,ā said Alex Triantafilou, member of the Board of Elections and chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, via several early Monday morning texts. āJust to be clear, if something like that happened - I donāt know a thing about it.ā
Tim Burke, chairman of the Board of Elections and of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said he was at the board both Saturday and Sunday. āI saw a couple of seeing eye dogs, one miniature horse wearing a campaign sign and another rather large but friendly dog on a leash,ā he said in a text Monday morning. āBut saw nothing like that nor did I hear of anything like that.ā