{"id":72463,"date":"2026-05-15T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/72463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:04:26","slug":"j-d-vance-makes-odd-remark-about-dead-people-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/72463\/","title":{"rendered":"J.D. Vance makes odd remark about \u2018dead people\u2019 voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice President J.D. Vance<\/a> made an unusual remark about \u201cdead people\u201d voting during an anti-fraud address in Bangor, Maine, at a public event tied to the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.<\/p>\n

The exchange began when an audience member shouted a reference to deceased individuals casting ballots<\/a>, echoing allegations previously raised by President Donald Trump<\/a> about the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

\"Vance<\/p>\n

Vance expanded fraud\u2011review priorities after federal audits flagged identity\u2011theft risks in benefit systems. By: ZUMAPRESS.com \/ MEGA<\/p>\n

Vance responded, \u201cUnfortunately, they vote for Democrats, they don\u2019t vote for us, my friends,\u201d drawing laughter from the crowd. The comment came after he questioned whether deceased people were improperly receiving federal benefits, saying, \u201cCall me old fashioned. I don\u2019t think the dead people eat, so certainly they don\u2019t need food stamps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Election administration experts have repeatedly said isolated cases involving ballots cast in the names of deceased individuals have occurred in the United States, but they maintain such incidents are rare and not significant enough to alter election outcomes.<\/p>\n

Task force to eliminate fraud and its mandate<\/p>\n

The Bangor speech was part of Vance\u2019s work leading the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a federal initiative created by Trump. The group held its inaugural meeting on March 27 and was tasked with investigating alleged misuse of federal programs.<\/p>\n

During the event, Vance said the administration\u2019s anti-fraud efforts marked a shift in federal priorities. \u201cIt\u2019s about protecting you, the money you send to the government and the services that you rely on,\u201d he told the audience, adding the administration is \u201cfighting to protect your tax dollars and fighting to put the fraudsters in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance described the scale of alleged fraud as widespread, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s like fishing in a barrel,\u201d and argued federal agencies had failed to ask \u201cdifficult questions\u201d about improper payments and identity misuse.<\/p>\n

Federal report on medicaid payments<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s Maine visit followed federal scrutiny of the state\u2019s Medicaid system. Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report stating Maine made \u201cat least $45.6 million in improper fee-for-service Medicaid payments\u201d tied to services for children diagnosed with autism.<\/p>\n

\"Trump\u2019s<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s directives shaped the task force\u2019s focus on Medicaid oversight and improper\u2011payment detection. By: ZUMAPRESS.com \/ MEGA<\/p>\n

The task force has also identified several Democratic-led states, including Illinois, Minnesota, California and New York, as jurisdictions under review for alleged fraud or mismanagement involving federally funded programs.<\/p>\n

Vance cites examples of alleged fraud schemes<\/p>\n

During the Bangor event, Vance outlined several types of fraud the task force is investigating. He cited cases involving people driving luxury vehicles while receiving low-income assistance, saying, \u201cPeople driving Lamborghinis who are getting low income assistance\u2026 that\u2019s supposed to go for housing and food for our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also referenced alleged hospice fraud, stating, \u201cWhy is it that we have people in hospice claiming hospice benefits but who have no terminal illnesses?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance later shifted to identity theft, arguing that some fraudulent claims involve stolen identities. \u201cThey\u2019re stealing somebody else\u2019s identity, claiming hospice services and then when that hard working American goes to apply for some other benefit, they get tagged by the bank as being a fraudster, even though it wasn\u2019t them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Vance asked the audience how many people knew someone affected by identity theft, he noted that \u201cat least half of the hands shot up.\u201d He blamed the issue on what he described as weak federal enforcement before the Trump administration, adding, \u201cThat changed the moment Donald J. Trump became the President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vice President J.D. Vance made an unusual remark about \u201cdead people\u201d voting during an anti-fraud address in Bangor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[119],"tags":[41507,41505,39436,41506,169,168,32597,74,4678],"class_list":["post-72463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jd-vance","tag-audience-member","tag-deceased-individuals","tag-election-administration","tag-federal-priorities","tag-james-david-vance","tag-jd-vance","tag-task-force","tag-trump","tag-vance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116578973392980784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}