The Big Lie, Con't

We go from Arizona across the country to New Hampshire, where The Big Lie is running into problems in the Granite State like a stone wall, and Trump continues to be a blockhead.

Outside a nondescript building, guarded 24/7 by state troopers, the leaders of Windham's election audit field questions on the type of tape they're using to seal boxes, why the livestream briefly failed and whether any ballot boxes have gone missing. 

Unlike audits of 2020 election results that have popped up in Arizona and Georgia, New Hampshire's audit arose from a tangible gap in vote tallies in a race for state representative. Auditors have said their early assessment reveals no sign of fraud and instead points to human errors that they don't believe are pervasive statewide. 

Even so, the bipartisan audit has become a flashpoint in this small town. And some conservatives are clinging to claims that the issue in Windham could point to broader election integrity problems throughout New Hampshire or even beyond. 

Harri Hursti, an expert in electronic voting security and part of the three-man team leading the audit, said he's been surprised at the level of "malicious misinformation" swirling around the audit. 

"I'm a little bit surprised at the level of confusion and the level of deliberate trolling," Hursti said. "The level of this is more than I expected. Nevertheless, we have to get the truth out. We have to make sure that people have the facts." 

While the Windham audit wraps up this week, the 2020 election conspiracy theories are sure to persist. Among those amplifying them: former President Donald Trump and his allies. In a statement Monday night, Trump seized on the errors auditors are uncovering in New Hampshire and then claimed -- without any supporting evidence -- that Democrats were somehow behind it. 

"Why aren't Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans doing anything about what went on in the 2020 Election? How can the Democrats be allowed to get away with this?" Trump said. 

Trump's longtime political ally Corey Lewandowski, who lives in Windham, has also seized on the audit as evidence that there are voter discrepancies elsewhere. 

"This isn't just about the town of Windham," Lewandowski said at an event flanked by conservatives who are pushing for an even broader audit in New Hampshire. "We're seeing things take place across this entire country." 

There's no indication that the presidential tallies were miscounted, and Trump's race is not being audited here. He lost the state by nearly 60,000 votes and -- even if Trump had managed to turn his fortunes around -- New Hampshire's four electoral votes would not have been enough to land him back in the Oval Office.

 

Every audit the doesn't somehow prove a massive democratic party conspiracy somehow still proves and even worse Democratic party conspiracy, you see. It'll never end, until we get rid of elections entirely and just declare Republicans the permanent winners in everything.

At the very least, it'll be used to justify the next wave of political violence against Democratic candidates and voters, and if election nullification comes along like I expect it will in 2022, it will be widespread and lethal violence.