Trump claims massive fraud in NH election as 1 town audits legislative races – WCAX

WINDHAM, N.H. (WCAX) – After the extremely close 2016 presidential election in New Hampshire, Donald Trump claimed widespread voter fraud across the state. The claim was debunked by the governor and the state’s highest-ranking election officials.

Now, the former president is once again claiming fraud in a race he lost by more than 59,000 votes.

“It is hard to not take it personally. There is so many of us that put in the blood, sweat and tears to plan these things to make sure that they are 100% accurate,” Lebanon City Clerk Kristin Kenniston said.

Kenniston is charged with making sure Lebanon elections go off without a hitch. She says there is a lot of training, planning and testing involved.

We do a hand tally prior to running test ballots through, and then we compare the tape to the hand tally, and every time we find a discrepancy, it’s human error,” Kenniston said.

On occasion, she says mistakes do happen. Though the experts say they rarely affect the outcome of an election.

In Windham, New Hampshire, an audit of that town’s 2020 state representatives races is getting underway after irregularities in several contests.

The audit is welcomed news to former president Donald Trump. In a statement, Trump wrote: “Congratulations to the great Patriots of Windham, New Hampshire for their incredible fight to seek out the truth on the massive Election Fraud which took place in New Hampshire and the 2020 Presidential Election. The spirit for transparency and justice is being displayed all over the Country by media outlets which do not represent Fake News. People are watching in droves as these Patriots work tirelessly to reveal the real facts of the most tainted and corrupt Election in American history. Congratulations Windham—look forward to seeing the results.”

But political scientists say Trump’s claims lack evidence.

“An election where the Republicans made gains in the state Legislature was rigged against Donald Trump. Now that doesn’t really logically add up at all,” said John Lappie, a politics professor at Plymouth State University.

Lappie says Trump is using the audit to continue meritless claims about the 2020 outcome.

“What this is really coming down to is nothing more than the president’s refusal to accept the results of the last election,” Lappie said.

Gov. Chris Sununu, a fellow Republican, signed a bill authorizing the audit but he has said on multiple occasions that New Hampshire elections are accurate and reliable.

“All the recounts were verified and true, and now we are going to audit 300 votes. So that doesn’t define massive voter fraud,” said Sununu, R-New Hampshire.

“It’s certainly nothing that is good for party unity to be creating these intra-party fights over a conspiracy theory,” Lappie said.

Local election officials say the ongoing debate sows doubt in the overall democratic process. They say anyone with concerns or questions about any election should contact their local town and city offices.

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