Kentucky officials should not spread lies about the 2020 election that elected them

For independent voters and others who haven’t already made up their mind on how they will vote next year, or simply fed up with Republican and Democrat dysfunction and want to see Kentucky improve on many fronts, I hope to shed some light on what one elected official is doing that is beyond dysfunctional.

Fifty-nine times courts across America, many with Trump appointees, struck down attempts at proving the 2020 elections were fraudulent. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, including Trump senior appointees, both said the elections were sound and the results valid. Some attorneys have been sanctioned and others had their law licenses suspended due to the reckless nature of their attempts to overthrow valid elections, cast doubt on the electoral process and undermine the American institutions that execute our sacred right to vote. But still, the “Restore Election Integrity” tour that State Senator Adrienne Southworth put together rolled into Central Kentucky last month.

The advertising says they have an “irrefutable presentation regarding election fraud. Every tour stop will expose deceit at many levels and explain action steps to restore our election system for the future.” I paid close attention to the presentations she made in Woodford and Franklin counties, and did not see any “irrefutable” facts, or any deceit exposed in any credible way. I heard a lot of conspiracy theories, and how most of our elected officials, county clerks and constitutional officers are part of a big cover up of election fraud and deceit, or incompetent, and there’s not one voting machine worth casting a vote on — despite our election machines lacking any modems and having been certified (in testing the public can attend) as tamper-proof.

Southworth claimed to have proof of all of it and that Mr. Trump actually won 410 electoral votes versus the 232 tabulated and verified. And when asked about that statement being refuted by Trump appointed judges, including the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security with senior Trump appointees, she finally told the crowds in Versailles and Frankfort that “the truth hasn’t come out yet.” Wow. And her “action steps to restore election integrity” came down to “go talk with your legislator about this.”

Ms. Southworth is cynically trying to raise her profile by exploiting the fears of some Kentuckians by using her office as cover to tour Kentucky spreading all this nonsense that we have yet to see one shred of evidence for and numerous courts and federal departments have debunked, including many of her fellow Republicans.

If she really believed Kentucky’s 2020 elections — in which she was elected — were hacked and altered, she would provide her “evidence” to law enforcement, like a good citizen would. Or at least she would have voted for (like the vast majority of both parties did), rather than against, legislation last session to ban ballot harvesting, clean up the voter rolls, and transition to paper ballots and away from the electronic machines she dishonestly says were manipulated without hard evidence our courts have proven does not exist.

I would encourage voters talk to their county clerks, and elected officials to examine the facts for yourself. Wouldn’t it be more productive and helpful to discuss how to educate kids better, improve family, business, and farm health and incomes, and get our General Assembly to focus on real issues versus these fabricated distractions? And most importantly, please do not vote straight ticket without educating yourself on the candidates running to represent you.

Joe Graviss is a civic entrepreneur, retired businessman and former state representative from Versailles who lost to Adrienne Southworth in the 2020 election for the 7th District Senate seat.

This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 9:25 AM.