In Michigan’s Macomb County, the Republican head of the board that will certify November’s election results called on former U.S. President Donald Trump to fight to stay in power after his election loss in 2020.
In North Carolina’s Henderson County, a Republican election board member emailed legislators in August to claim, without evidence, that Democrats were flooding the state with illegal votes.
And in Pennsylvania, considered a must win for both Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican officials in six counties have voted against certifying results since 2020.
Four years after Trump tried to overturn his election loss, his false conspiracy theories about voter fraud have become an article of faith among many Republican members of local election boards that certify results. Their rise raises the chances that pro-Trump officials in multiple jurisdictions will be able to delay or sow doubt over the Nov. 5 presidential election if Trump loses.
Reuters examined election boards in the five largest counties in each of the seven battleground states that are likely to determine the election’s outcome. It found that nearly half – or 16 of the 35 county election boards – had at least one member who has expressed pro-Trump skepticism about the electoral process, including theories that Trump won the 2020 election, doubts about the integrity of voting machines or beliefs about widespread fraud in mail ballots….
State officials say there is little chance that local boards could block certification indefinitely. A more likely scenario is that local delays cascade to the state level, ultimately resulting in states missing the Dec. 11 deadline set by federal law for states to submit election results to Washington. That could provide an opening for Trump and his Republican allies in Congress to try to overturn results if he loses, say Democrats, election officials in swing states and voting-rights specialists at legal nonprofits.
“By sowing doubts at the county level about whether an election should be certified, they are laying the groundwork to argue that if President Trump loses in a particular state, that the electoral slates from that state should not be counted,” said Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group….