I am guessing a reaction to total loss of trust in media by general public. Now they have launched a mass propaganda against alternative news by calling them "fake news" . Nytimes just doesn't get it.
Given no one has commented on why they down voted, this is just speculation on my part based on what I've seen elsewhere on HN.
http://wavy.com/2016/11/08/police-no-reports-of-voter-intimi...
And right below that, an IBT page repeating it verbatim without investigation:
http://www.ibtimes.com/voter-fraud-2016-where-election-day-r...
It's not uncommon these days for news organisations to lazily use Twitter as a source in this way. Actually contacting the police force which had supposedly escorted voters would involve actual reporting.