Our October print edition includes a piece about ghost hunters, and a story that alludes to nearly two years of fruitless attempts to track down election fraud, both in Nevada and nationally. The pursuers of the paranormal have come up with little verifiable evidence that ghosts exist; election deniers have none at all.
Each time their fraud claims are debunked, conspiracy theorists double down on accusations. They allude to vast conspiracies, mysterious formulas and fantastic plots which dissolve into the ether upon close inspection. Rinse and repeat. The spin cycle of false claims has had an effect. True believers stay loyal, and many others suspect that “if there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
It has been repeatedly proven that claims of widespread election fraud are as fictional as the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. The 2020 election was the most secure in our history. Yet, polls indicate that the majority of Americans, regardless of party, suspect that election integrity may be a problem.
Studies show that more than a third of Americans believe in ghosts, and about one in 10 says they have seen one. I doubt any amount of scientific fact will move those percentages. The same seems to be true of the election deniers—who now have plenty of like-minded candidates to vote for up and down the November ballot.
A belief in spirits of the netherworld hurts no one. The conviction that our elections are rigged—when not a single verifiable investigation, recount, audit or court decision nationwide has supported the claim—undermines democracy. In Nevada, candidates for the U.S. Senate, secretary of state and many other state and local offices are election deniers, and far scarier and more dangerous than any specter or poltergeist.
Know who you’re voting for Nov. 8. Going into a polling place uninformed could turn Election Day into a second, much-scarier Halloween.
There WAS cheating in the election, but it was by REPUBLICANS!
https://www.thebulwark.com/the-pattern-of-gop-voter-fraud/
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank, maintains a public database of ballot-fraud cases. A review of the database reveals an astonishing fact: In every listed indictment and conviction for voter fraud or other malfeasance in connection with the 2020 presidential general election, when the culprit’s political affiliation is known he or she turns out to be a Republican or “unabashed conservative.”