‘You’re causing harm.’ Bevin concedes but leaves poison pill behind.
Gov. Matt Bevin finally did what many thought he would not — he conceded the governor’s race to Attorney General Andy Beshear. And while he is to be commended for taking the obvious step and not forcing a costly contest in the Legislature, he didn’t leave without a tiny poison pill. At the concession press conference on Thursday, after he wished Beshear well, he again brought up a lack of transparency in Kentucky’s electoral process without providing a lick of proof.
“There is not any real sense of transparency for how the voting process works,” Bevin said Thursday. “What you are going to see is that we do not have checks and balances.”
Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins said Friday that he and all the other county clerks in Kentucky would love to know what he’s talking about, but these kinds of unsubstantiated rumors will harm democracy.
“The ultimate danger is when people lose confidence in the system and that their vote counts,” he said. “We need to continue to challenge the governor, and say ‘you’re causing harm, show us the facts or be quiet.’”
Josh Douglas, a University of Kentucky law professor and the author of “Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting,” said he’s been “beating the drum”’ this week about Bevin’s unfounded accusations.
“No one likes a sore loser,” Douglas said. “It’s dangerous for a losing candidate to claim they lost because of fraud without any evidence. It undermines our confidence in the election system.”
Bevin’s narcissism may have blocked his ability to accept a loss that was extremely personal to him, so personal that Kentucky voters overwhelming chose every other Republican on the ticket. Unlike Bevin, Kentucky Republilcans, including U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, were so very unsurprised by the results that they quickly sent signals he should go.
Some of his supporters also pitched a fit. Two of his political appointees, Erika Calihan and Kristen Stuebs set up a farcical press conference on Wednesday in which they acted as though CNN’s election night counts were used by the Secretary of State’s tally. Other claims were quickly debunked. For example, some absentee ballots were not properly loaded election night, but then were added to the finals. And one Jacob Burd signed in another Jacob Burd’s place, a mistake that was quickly corrected.
And no, the voting machines are not connected to the Internet, Blevins affirmed. It might make us feel better if the machines had a paper backup, but they have backup memory sticks in case something goes wrong.
Also, no one, not Bevin or his political appointees, ever made an official complaint to the Secretary of State’s office, and no one from the Election Integrity Task Force, made up of the FBI and U.S. Attorneys, ever raised an alarm.
Bevin had talked up the Wednesday press conference on Twitter, although failed to show. It seems someone or something, whether McConnell or his own conscience, prevailed upon him to do what was best for Kentucky.
But here’s another little piece of this election sideshow. The “election fraud” press conference was filmed by Millie Weaver, a contributor to InfoWars, a far-right, conspiracy-based website run by Alex Jones, the man who frequently tried to paint the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax.
So if you’re really worried about election integrity, here’s a real concern: This is the kind of playbook being prepared for Donald Trump’s election next year, although presumably it won’t be run like the clown car we saw last week. People like Matt Bevin will keep sowing the seeds of electoral doubt; more and more people will start to believe them. Trump thought the election was “rigged” when he won because he couldn’t stand the fact that he lost the popular vote. Imagine his reaction if he loses the whole thing.
“There really is not massive voter fraud,” Douglas said. “It’s very low, but people seem to think it’s high, because politicians make these wild claims without having any evidence behind them.”
