Trump camp tells surrogates to point out instances of voter fraud

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Donald Trump's campaign instructed surrogates on television to sow doubts about the election's validity due to voter fraud in the days since Trump indicated at Wednesday's debate he may not accept the election's outcome if he loses.

In private campaign talking points obtained by The Hill, Trump's media team told surrogates to question the validity of vote counts in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia.

The internal memo suggests surrogates say things like "We have also seen very significant recent voting irregularities across the country from Pennsylvania to Colorado and an increase in unlawful voting by illegal immigrants."

The memo goes on to cite individual incidents of voter fraud in news reports.

In general, studies have found that specific voter fraud cases are extremely rare.

Trump addressed the controversy surrounding his debate comment on Thursday, saying he will accept the results "if I win."

His running mate, however, said the campaign would only contest the results if the election were extremely close. Gov. Mike Pence said Friday the campaign would "reserve the right" to do so if that were the case.

"As Donald Trump said ... of course we will accept a clear election result," he said. "But we also reserve the right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of questionable results."