Theodore Decker: “LaRose, Others Playing Dangerous Game in Overstating Election Fraud”
November 3, 2022
Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Theodore Decker used his column today to call out phony Frank LaRose and the election lies he’s spouting to further his own political ambitions. Decker rightly points out that LaRose knows better than the election conspiracies he’s been trafficking in, but he’s so hungry to run for Senate in two years that he’ll do or say anything to get himself ahead, even if it’s dangerous to our democracy.
“Considering his job is largely to ensure the accuracy of elections, LaRose has walked a razor-thin line, thin enough that he’s already lost his balance and planted his foot squarely in slop more than once. His political future, by his estimation at least, demands that he embrace the belief that when it comes to voting, something must be rotten in the state of Ohio. But as secretary of state, he knows as well as anyone that voter fraud in Ohio is ‘exceedingly rare.’ How do we know? Because he said so,” writes Decker.
“Frank LaRose knows better than the election lies he’s spouting, but he wants so badly to run for Senate in two years, he’s willing to debase what’s left of his reputation and dabble in conspiracy theories. Frank LaRose’s phoniness is no longer just pathetic, it’s dangerous,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.
Read more from Decker HERE and below:
- Considering his job is largely to ensure the accuracy of elections, LaRose has walked a razor-thin line, thin enough that he’s already lost his balance and planted his foot squarely in slop more than once.
- His political future, by his estimation at least, demands that he embrace the belief that when it comes to voting, something must be rotten in the state of Ohio. But as secretary of state, he knows as well as anyone that voter fraud in Ohio is “exceedingly rare.” How do we know?
- Because he said so.
- Yet with no evidence that voter fraud in Ohio is anything more than an isolated and historically tiny problem, the Republican incumbent seeking reelection is still doing plenty of talking about it lately.
- Even though he flat-out said fraud was “exceedingly rare” and that Joe Biden won the presidential election, LaRose also has poked at elections procedures in other states and raised the specter of more widespread fraud through a series of announcements and official actions.
- Earlier this year, he said on social media that a handful of potential cases of fraud were “ONLY THE BEGINNING.”
- In October, he announced a “public integrity” unit to ferret out these instances of voter fraud, a move that critics said was mostly for-show given how minuscule the problem is. As if to underscore that fact, a few weeks later he made another announcement, that his office had referred 75 cases of “potential” voter fraud tied to the 2020 election. And “potential” is the word that matters here.
- Meanwhile, there is a handy little graphic sitting on LaRose’s website that declares “OHIO’S VOTING IS SECURE.”
- But the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband underscores that hyperbole is not guaranteed to be harmless. In Arizona, a judge just stepped in to order sometimes armed, self-appointed ballot box “monitors” wearing body armor to back off. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see this ending badly for voters, poll workers, or both.
- Fomenting distrust over our elections without evidence has and will have real-time consequences. Treating an American institution with such cavalier disregard in the name of personal political aspirations is worse than reckless. The longer it persists, the more monstrous it grows.
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