Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine was widely mocked after claiming during a Newsmax interview that Democratic voters in California went dumpster diving for discarded ballots to rig the primary election.
Republicans have alleged fraud took place but many of the fraud allegations appear to stem from a misunderstanding of how California counts votes, particularly the time required to complete the process.
California uses a nonpartisan "jungle" primary system, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. Because the state relies heavily on mail-in voting and must process millions of ballots, final results in major races can take days or even weeks to be fully certified.
Fine argued that delays in counting ballots and California's widespread use of mail-in voting create conditions that mean "there’s no reasonable explanation other than fraud.” He also claimed, without presenting evidence, that the state sends ballots to ineligible voters, including people who have died or moved away, and said he believes election fraud is occurring as a result.
He added:
"They have virtually no signature verification, so people can just dig through garbage cans, find ballots, and send them in apparently forever after an election is over. It’s not okay, it’s gotta come to an end, and people need to go to jail.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Fine's remarks came after President Donald Trump faced criticism for storming out of a Meet the Press interview after insisting that both the 2020 presidential election and California's gubernatorial race were rigged.
When moderator Kristen Welker pressed him for evidence to support his claims, Trump responded by attacking both her and NBC, calling them "crooked" and accusing the network of knowingly ignoring election fraud.
Fine's comments only go to show just how low Republicans will go to sow doubt in the electoral process, and he was swiftly criticized for promoting a baseless conspiracy theory.
Fine's remarks to Newsmax followed the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles' announcement that it had launched multiple investigations into alleged election fraud in California and dispatched a federal prosecutor to observe operations at the county's vote-counting center.
Something tells us all of this yelling about fraud isn't exactly a winning midterm strategy.
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