A North Carolina GOP county chair pursuing a false election conspiracy theory “threatened to get a county elections director fired or have her pay cut unless she helped him gain illegal access to voting equipment,” Reuters reported (see story here).
William Keith Senter was “aggressive, threatening, and hostile” toward Michella Huff, the Surry County elections director, when she refused, according to the state elections board, which asked law enforcement to investigate. He was asking her to violate state law.
Reuters said Senter and an individual who promotes election conspiracies met with Huff and claimed “there was a ‘chip’ in the voting machines that … influenced [the] election results,'” which the state election board dismissed as “fabricated disinformation.” Republicans across the country have tried to access voting equipment in their quest to discredit the 2020 election.
Trump won Surry County by a wide margin, carried North Carolina, and was awarded the state’s 15 electoral votes (see results here), so what is the freaking point of disputing the election results in a county where Trump got over 75% of the votes? Why risk criminal prosecution over election results in a state your candidate won?
Reuters, a U.K.-based news service, says it has “documented more than 900 threatening or hostile messages aimed at election officials” in the U.S. following the 2020 election. Surveys have shown most Republicans believe the election was “stolen” by voting fraud, despite the lack of any evidence it was, and peddling false election conspiracy theories to that gullible group has become a cottage industry, often used for fundraising purposes.
Someone who honestly wanted to know if an election was tainted by irregularities or fraud would seek evidence first, then make up their mind; with these people it’s the reverse, they’ve made up their mind and are seeking evidence to prove their point. And, they latch onto any explanation, however outlandish, that supports their belief. That’s not honest inquiry, and when it involves breaking the law, it descends into criminal behavior.