Louisiana might seem an unlikely battleground for claims that the 2020 election was rigged to steal the election from then-President Donald Trump. After all, Trump won Louisiana’s electoral votes by a huge margin, garnering even more votes here than he did in 2016.
But a growing movement of Republicans in Louisiana, some linked to the MyPillow CEO and election fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, have spent months pushing a theory that Louisiana’s elections are rife with fraud.
While election officials and independent watchdogs say voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Louisiana and elsewhere, the movement could have ramifications on Louisiana’s long-running effort to choose new voting machines, the 2023 election for secretary of state and the broader direction of the Louisiana Republican Party, which dominates statewide politics.
Since the 2020 election, the former chief executives of two major Louisiana corporations embarked on a tour to speak to Republican groups about what they believe are systemic problems with the state’s elections. They created a report that purports to back up their claims, and sent supporters on door-to-door canvasses to try and prove the voter rolls are inaccurate.
Yet, Republican candidates were big winners around Louisiana in 2020, and again last fall. The easy victories posted by Trump and Louisiana’s congressional Republicans also were consistent with the history of the last few decades, with GOP candidates winning by ever-larger margins in a state that, two decades ago, was purple or even blue.
Moreover, clerks of court, registrars of voters, state election officials and auditors all agree that claims about widespread or systemic fraud in Louisiana’s elections are baseless.