Richard Blakley joined his fellow WorldNetDaily writers in fearmongering about election fraud in his Sept. 5 column:
The 2020 election was a mess. Only the gullible and self-deceived believe Joe Biden legally obtained more votes than any presidential candidate in U.S. history. If this were true, Democrats would have beaten their drums concerning this “historic” vote, like the pig in the old Valleydale Sausage commercials, but even Democrats know no one would believe it. They even booted Biden from the 2024 presidential race.
The Heartland Institute recently “concluded that mail-in ballot fraud ‘significantly’ impacted the 2020 presidential election,” and revealed that just the effect of fraudulent mail-in ballots was enough to hand Biden the election. The study charged state legislatures “to do all in their power to ensure the 2024 presidential election is as secure as possible.”
In fact, it was not a “study” at all but, rather, a poll conducted by notoriously biased Rasmussen Reports more than three years after the election — meaning that nothing at all was actually proven despite what Blakley thinks. And despite Blakley insisting that only “the gullible and self-deceived” think the 2020 election was not stolen, he offers no hard evidence otherwise. Blakey went on to whine:
After Harris’/Biden’s first two years of disastrous policies, the 2022 election was also plagued with problems. We did see a “Red Wave” in Florida, where election integrity was strictly guarded. States like Arizona had multiple problems, with ballot printers in Republican areas suddenly not working or running out of ink, disenfranchising voters who waited in line for hours, never getting to vote.
Blakley offered no evidence of voters who were allegedly disenfranchised. And the printer issues in Arizona were caused by a change to thicker paper — done in response to right-wing conspiracy theories after the 2020 election. The ranting continued:
The 2024 election is already full of Democrats’ “fun and games,” as they vow to “guard democracy.” Members of the North Carolina Board of Elections (NCSBE) are selected by the governor. North Carolina’s governor, being a Democrat, of course put three Democrats on the board along with two Republicans, so all the votes down party lines allow Democrats to win.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) and other GOP officials are suing the Democrat-led NCSBE because the RNC says the board allowed “nearly a quarter million people” to register to vote in North Carolina without proving their identity. The RNC requested a federal judge revoke these registrations, making these people ineligible to cast a ballot in the 2024 race unless they re-register.
In fact, North Carolina was following federal law, which requires voter registration applicants to provide either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number but also allows those with neither to provide another form of ID. A judge recently ruled that private litigants like the RNC do not have the right to sue under that federal law. After a lot more ranting about North Carolina, Blakley huffed while citing a discredited far-right website:
The Gateway Pundit published numerous cases of voter fraud going back as far as 2004. Democrat organizations like “Operation Big Vote” and “GBI strategies” are plagued with “thousands of fraudulent ballot registrations.” Concerning the 2020 election, while Democrats knew of “widespread, systemic ongoing voter registration fraud in Michigan,” since the investigation was turned over to FBI Director Chris Wray, “no charges have been filed” for more than three years.
NPR reported that “800,000 noncitizens” are allowed to vote in the local elections of New York City. Might this have influenced election results?
Blakley seems to have missed the part where he wrote that noncitizens are allowed to vote only in local elections. He offered no evidence that any noncitizen has voted in a national election through that. He then concluded with more fearmongering:
Also, Texas removed 1 million ineligible voters from registration rolls since the 2020 election, but meanwhile, over 13 million illegal aliens have crossed the border.
It looks like the 2024 election is going to be a mess. Surprised?
Again, Blakley offered no factual evidence to back up his fearmongering. He’s just trying to push the mandated right-wing narrative.
Blakley rehashed the North Carolina case in his Oct. 22 column, adding:
In North Carolina, the party of the governor is critical. The governor handpicks the people serving on the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE). Democrat Governor Cooper always picks three Democrats and two Republicans, meaning the democrats control the board of elections for at least two election cycles.
But if a Republican governor appoints three Republicans and two Democats to the board of elections, shouldn’t it also be considered suspect? Blakley didn’t answer that; still, he huffed, “North Carolina needs a Republican governor.” He didn’t mention that the Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, got busted for making extreme comments on a porn website’s message board, such as declaring himself a “black NAZI!” He ultimately lost.