On Wednesday afternoon at 2 PM, a group called “Citizens for Election Integrity” held a press conference in the state capitol to allege that there were “polling irregularities and electronic vote manipulation” in last week’s state-wide election.
They further called on Attorney General Beshear to release the details of his investigations into voter irregularities reported to either his office or to the state Board of Elections.
The problems their press release listed include: a college student’s signature forged on a polling book while he is away at college; results from two counties that showed more votes in the race for governor than were cast in that county; and unusual vote counts in one county’s absentee ballots.
The group was founded by Erika Calihan and Kris Stuebs, with their Facebook page having launched on Tuesday, one day before their press conference. Calihan is a Bevin appointee, and has been a long-time Bevin supporter.
Governor Bevin had promoted the press conference on Twitter, and said he would attend if his schedule permitted, but he was not present for the presser.
The group’s claims were debunked fairly quickly, as reporters began contacting the election officials in the counties the group mentioned in their press conference. The story moved quickly enough that the only way to keep up with it was by following the Twitter accounts of certain reporters:
Calihan playing a video of Jake Burd saying someone forged his signature on Election Day, even though he was out of state. Not sure yet if this is the only one they have or if they have 5,000 more.
— Joe Sonka 😐 (@joesonka) November 13, 2019
Calihan now showing Anderson County results to suggest fraud. I already debunked this in my story this morning.
— Joe Sonka 😐 (@joesonka) November 13, 2019
This appears to suggest that Calihan and Stuebs actually presented zero evidence of voting fraud at their news conference today. Burd was the only possible bit of evidence, but this shows it was likely just a mistake.
— Joe Sonka 😐 (@joesonka) November 13, 2019
At this press conference for the Citizens for election integrity. One of the county’s they’ve brought up is Anderson county. Talked to the clerk today and he stressed that the results from election night are unofficial and that his official results are accurate
— Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) November 13, 2019
I feel like I need to stress that the State Board of Elections does not certify results based on what CNN puts up on election night. https://t.co/q8ZJv8STJ1
— Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) November 13, 2019
The Menifee County clerk also got back to me with why their numbers were off. The total ballots cast on the SBE website didn't include absentee ballots. This also was resolved for the official results.
— Daniel Desrochers (@drdesrochers) November 13, 2019
The reason some numbers have changed and may change
Joe Sonka reference “my story from this morning.” He did a good explainer in the C-J about the recanvass process (which you should go read), and included the following info:
In a small number of counties, we already know the vote totals will be slightly different from the unofficial results now listed on the State Board of Elections’ website — though not because of errors discovered in the vote printouts of the recanvass.
In at least three counties — Jefferson, Anderson and Logan — official vote totals sent to the State Board of Elections on Friday included absentee vote totals that are not included in the unofficial totals listed on the board’s website.
…
[One clerk], a Republican, said his office has been frustrated by baseless conspiracy theories about why its vote totals are slightly different on the Associated Press tally and the state website, but expects the totals from Friday to match what it finds after the recanvass.
The Beshear campaign responds to the claims at the press conference
The Beshear campaign released this statement after the press conference was over:
Last week, hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians made their voices heard at the ballot box and Andy Beshear received the most votes. Governor-Elect Beshear is focused on building his transition so he can immediately begin serving the people of Kentucky on day one of
his term. Following reports of a social media disinformation campaign, today’s bizarre and baseless attempt by a Bevin campaign supporter and government appointee to discredit the voices of Kentuckians will not succeed in changing the result of the election.It is clear this group’s goal is not to actually show that Matt Bevin got more votes than Andy Beshear; they are grasping at straws to try to undermine confidence in election results with which they disagree.
–30–