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They cast doubt on the 2020 election results. Now they’re on your 2024 ballot.

By Dylan Rhoney

October 10, 2024

Since the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has repeatedly lied that the election was stolen and cast doubt on the outcome. Here are some prominent North Carolinians who echoed that lie.

Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen had deadly consequences on January 6, 2021. In the three-and-a-half years since, Republican politicians across the country have embraced and spread the “Big Lie,” which continues to sow doubt about the legitimacy of US elections at the local, state, and federal levels, despite a complete lack of any evidence proving widespread irregularities and fraud

In North Carolina, some of the public figures who parroted the Big Lie remain in positions of power on local boards of elections, while others are running for state and federal office.

The most notable North Carolinian to entertain Trump’s false claims about the validity of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory may be current Speaker of the North Carolina House and Congressional candidate, Tim Moore. 

In 2020, Moore went to Pennsylvania to review the ballot count in the Keystone State, and took a photo next to a sign that read “Fraud Squad” and a member of Congress who held a sign reading “Stop the Steal,” falsely indicating Trump had won the election.

Moore is heavily favored to be elected to Congress and will be leaving the General Assembly at the end of this year. However, several election deniers remain in the state legislature and are on the ballot again this fall.

Election deniers in the General Assembly

Thirteen Republicans in the General Assembly signed onto a letter calling for a national audit of the 2020 election, and for Trump’s reinstatement as president.

State Sens. Ted Alexander, Bob Steinburg, as well as Reps.  Jay Adams, Mike Clampitt, Edward Goodwin, Bobby Hanig, Kelly Hastings, Keith Kidwell, Donnie Loftis, Jeff McNeely, Tim Moffitt, Larry Pittman, Wayne Sasser, Mitchell Setzer, Harry Warren, and Sam Watford all signed on to the letter.

Other lawmakers, like State Sen.  Warren Daniel, who represents Burke, Caldwell, and part of Buncombe County, cast doubt on the outcome in other ways. 

“We’ll have to wait and see where the evidence of election fraud leads in multiple states that Biden allegedly ‘won,’” Daniel, who is the chairman of the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee, said on social media days after the election on Nov. 9, 2020.

State Rep. Jeffrey McNeely, who chairs the Agriculture and Transportation Committees in the State House, called for audits of voting machines in the state, and went as far as going to Durham County and demanding to inspect their machines.

“We look forward to working with them, proving that our elections were true and were valid and there was nothing wrong with them. If that’s not the case, then we look to do an investigation, and if there needs to be criminal charges, they will be filed,” he said in October 2021.

McNeely is also a member of the Freedom Caucus. Several of their members, including State Rep. Keith Kidwell and State Sen. Bobby Hanig, held a press conference in 2021 calling for an audit of voting machines.

Republicans in the state have long cast doubt on the legitimacy of elections in Durham after votes that were tallied late in the night of the 2016 election cemented Roy Cooper’s victory over then-Governor Pat McCrory.

Election deniers are on local boards of elections

Election deniers have also found themselves administering elections in communities across the state.

John Adams, a member of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, called on Trump to invoke Martial Law in a post to Facebook in the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. 

“I hope he declares marshall law [sic] and uses the military to get to the bottom of all this cheating. They know and have the proof. If it’s going down let’s get it over with,” Adams wrote.

The post also featured a photo of Biden standing with Satan and Trump beside Jesus Christ. 

Adams remains a member of the board.

In Mecklenburg County, home of the state’s largest city, two members of the Board of Elections voted not to certify the county’s results. Elizabeth McDowell and Mary Potter Summa, both of whom are still on the board, voted against certifying Biden’s victory in the county. They were ultimately overruled by the majority.

In Burke County, current board member Anthony Iovino shared a Facebook post in April 2021 that argued the election was stolen.

“If they can steal an election right in front of your face, think of what they are doing behind your back,” Iovino’s post read.

The ‘Big Lie’ continues to sow doubt in our elections

Four years after he first lied about winning the 2020 election, Donald Trump is once again the Republican nominee for president. And once again, he is casting doubt on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election before a single vote has been cast.

Earlier this year, he said that he would only accept the outcome of the election if “everything is honest,” an indication that he once again believes that they’ll only be “honest’ if he wins. 

Trump has also continued his attacks against mail-in-voting, as he did in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic raged across the country. 

In a post to Truth Social last month, Trump said the US Postal Service “…is a poorly run mess that is experiencing mail loss and delays at a level never seen before…With this being FACT, how can we possibly be expected to allow or trust the US Postal Service to run the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, have also spent several months this year pushing a new bill that would ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections, even though noncitizens are already barred from voting in federal elections. Trump, however, kept pushing the lie that noncitizens will vote in massive numbers.  

“A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically,” Trump said during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. “And these people are trying to get them to vote. And that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.” 

In reality, non-citizen voting is a virtually non-existent problem. A state review found a grand total of nine individuals who were excused from jury duty because they claimed they were not US citizens and who also appeared on the state’s voter rolls.

That’s nine out of 7.6 million registered voters in North Carolina.

A study of the 2016 election also found only 30 incidents of non-citizen voting among the more than 23 million votes cast across the survey area. An analysis from the conservative Heritage Foundation — the same group that spearheaded the controversial Project 2025 policy guide — found just 24 cases of noncitizen voting between 2003 and 2023.

Non-citizens simply don’t register or vote in meaningful numbers, and if they do, the penalties are severe. Federal penalties for illegal voting may include deportation and revocation of their legal status, as well as denial of future immigration status, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

And yet, Trump and his allies continue to perpetuate the lie about non-citizens voting. In North Carolina, Republicans in the General Assembly approved a ballot measure for the November election that asks voters to decide whether or not noncitizens should be allowed to vote in North Carolina — a redundant effort, since the state’s constitution outlines that only American citizens are allowed to vote in elections.

“Every person born in the United States and every person who has been naturalized, 18 years of age, and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State,” the North Carolina Constitution reads.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) also filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Board of Elections in August, claiming that 225,000 registrations in the state did not properly confirm whether or not the registered voters were indeed citizens.

Collectively, these efforts make clear that Trump, with the support of many Republicans, is once again setting the stage to challenge the outcome of the presidential election, if he loses.

Author

  • Dylan Rhoney

    Dylan Rhoney is an App State grad from Morganton who is passionate about travel, politics, history, and all things North Carolina. He lives in Raleigh.

CATEGORIES: Election 2024
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