Jim Hartman: Election law and bizarre conspiracy theories

Jim Hartman

Far-right Republican candidate for governor Joey Gilbert lost his race to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo by more than 26,000 votes on June 14 (38% to 27%).
That result was confirmed by a statewide recount that cost Gilbert $191,000, paid for by Robert Beadles, an activist cryptocurrency millionaire.
Gilbert, a criminal defense/personal injury lawyer, refused to accept his primary election defeat. Instead, he filed a lawsuit claiming the race was rigged. He argues a mysterious algorithm was inserted into election machines that flipped at least 55,000 votes in Lombardo’s favor.
The lawsuit is based on an apparent “analysis” done by an “expert mathematician” that an “illegal formula” was used to tabulate votes with “predetermined results” and Gilbert’s loss was a “mathematical impossibility.”
The claims center on a 40-page analysis from election conspiracy theorist Edward Solomon who alleges since the 2020 election that “algorithms” have been responsible for switching votes.
Solomon’s claims about the 2020 presidential election in Georgia were repeatedly debunked by expert fact-checkers and ultimately proven false by a hand-count of paper ballots, which confirmed the result.
According to details released in the libel suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, Solomon has no math degree and served two years in prison on a drug charge.
A Carson City judge set a trial date in the case for Aug. 12.
While the vote claims by Gilbert are bizarre, they bring to mind President Trump asking lawyer Sidney Powell to be his “special counsel” to investigate alleged election theft back in December 2020.
Media liberals howled in derision at Powell’s wacky conspiracy theories about the election. She claimed Dominion Voting machines were rigged by Iran, China and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013). Total nonsense.
But Democrats have their own wackadoodles who have promoted crazy voting machine conspiracy theories.
In 2004, serious, prominent, respected Democrats contended the Diebold company voting machines were rigged in Ohio flipping votes from John Kerry to George Bush. Bush won Ohio by over 118,000 votes, but without Ohio he would have lost the election.
The “gist” of the conspiracy theory was that the CEO of Diebold, which provided some of Ohio’s voting machines, was a Bush supporter. And, one of Diebold’s computer software engineers “had given $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000.”
The Diebold conspiracy theory was idiotic and thoroughly refuted.
Yet, during the official count of the 2004 Electoral College vote, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) objected to Ohio casting their electoral votes, requiring both houses to debate Ohio’s electoral votes for two hours.
Thirty-one House Democrats and Boxer unjustifiably voted not to count Ohio’s electoral votes.
In early July, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth and seven other prominent Republicans released a report entitled “LOST, NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election.”
The 72-page report studied all 64 cases containing 187 counts brought by Trump and his supporters in six battleground states — including Nevada.
In Nevada, Trump and supporters brought 10 cases with 28 counts challenging the results. They were unsuccessful in proving fraud or irregularities sufficient to overturn the election result in any Nevada court or investigation.
No evidence established that Dominion voting machines and software were fraudulently manipulated or the Agilis Sorting Systems machine used to verify signatures was unreliable.
Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske conducted numerous investigations of the election results and repeatedly confirmed the integrity of the election, finding no allegations of election misconduct that would have any impact on the election outcome.
Cegavske certified the results, with Biden carrying Nevada by 33,596 votes.
A critical conclusion: The Danforth report notes Trump lost the election because a small but significant subset of Republican voters supported GOP candidates down ballot – but not Trump for president.
Email Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.