Group’s claims of irregularities in Kentucky governor election quickly debunked
A small group of self-described “moms” held a news conference in the Kentucky Capitol Wednesday afternoon to make claims of irregularities in last week’s gubernatorial election, all of which were almost immediately proven inaccurate or irrelevant.
The group, which called itself the Citizens for Election Integrity, demanded that the State Board of Elections release voter logs and data pertaining to the election even though its claims were shown to be unfounded.
Speculation about fraud in the election has been stoked by Gov. Matt Bevin, who claimed there were several “irregularities” in his narrow loss to Gov.-elect Andy Beshear but provided no evidence to back up his claims. One of his claims, that thousands of absentee ballots were illegally counted, was not included among the issues the Citizens for Election Integrity had with the election.
On Wednesday, Bevin lent the group credibility on Twitter. “For those interested in the integrity of the election process in Kentucky and in America (which should be ALL of us), this looks like an event worth attending...” he wrote. “I will plan to be in attendance at 2:00pm today in Frankfort as my schedule allows...”
He did not attend.
The group is newly created, has no website and only created a Facebook page Monday. Its executive director, Erika Calihan, supported Bevin’s campaign and was appointed by Bevin to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Kentucky Court of Appeals and Supreme Court in January.
“Kentuckians do not deserve speculation for what has happened,” Calihan said. “Kentuckians deserve answers.”
She then proceeded to speculate that Kentucky’s election had been hacked without providing any credible evidence. She claimed the state’s election system was vulnerable to attack because the state uses an online system to present unofficial election results to the public on election night.
When pressed to present evidence that supported its claims, the group called for an investigation.
“We’re just moms,” Calihan said. “Why are we doing this, we don’t want to be doing this. I’d rather be relaxing with my kids, but here I am. We want the attorney general to investigate that.”
The Office of the Attorney General said that by law it cannot provide details about specific complaints or pending elections.
“The nature of the calls during this cycle were typical of the calls received in previous cycles,” said deputy Attorney General J. Michael Brown. “The most common questions received through the hotline were procedural or general legal questions.”
Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said counties keep vote totals on computers that are not connected to the internet and that none of the voting machines are connected to the internet.
“I’d like to point out that the website used for returns on election night is for public information only and is not used to report election results,” Blevins said.
The group highlighted four examples of supposed voter fraud. The first was that of a college student named Jacob Burd, whose family alleges that someone voted in his name in Jefferson County on Election Day. The group showed a video of Burd saying he was in Tampa that day and did not vote.
The Jefferson County Board of Elections said there are two Jacob Burds that vote at the same polling location, but are in different precincts. One is 19 and the other is not. The clerk’s office said it appeared the older Jacob Burd signed in the younger Jacob Burd’s place and the information has been reported to the attorney general’s office.
The group then highlighted the state’s unofficial vote totals in two counties — Menifee and Anderson — to question the integrity of the election.
In Anderson County, election results presented on the county’s website did not match results on the State Board of Elections website. Anderson County Clerk Jason Denny explained that the county accidentally failed to include absentee ballot totals in the numbers sent to the state on election night.
However, the county’s official election results reflect the absentee ballots and every vote was counted, Denny said.
“It looks like there was a discrepancy,” Denny said. “It wasn’t.”
The State Board of Elections posts unofficial results on its website to inform the press and public about the election in a timely manner, but the board doesn’t certify the election based on the results displayed on its website. Instead, each county sends a separate form, signed by a Democrat, a Republican, the County Clerk and the sheriff, that certifies the county’s official election results. Those results are then put into a report that is approved by the State Board of Elections.
The State Board of Elections website also displayed a discrepancy in Menifee County results. The website showed there were more votes cast in all six statewide elections than total ballots cast. Menifee County Clerk Krystal Chapman said the discrepancy was caused by the fact that the number of total ballots cast did not include absentee ballots on the website.
The group also cited screenshots of CNN on election night as evidence that election results were hacked. About 500 votes shifted from Bevin to Beshear on the two screenshots.
The group did not explain why this information was relevant, since Kentucky election officials do not use the numbers displayed on CNN when tallying election results.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 4:16 PM.
