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Friday, March 29, 2024

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By Simon Gonzalez

America is the most advanced country on the planet. We have smart houses, smart phones, apps to make life easier and more convenient, entertainment and communication at our fingertips.

You would think with our amazing technology we could devise a foolproof system for choosing our leaders. But instead, here it is three weeks after the election and races at the county, state and national levels are in question.

Donald Trump is making cabinet appointments. Roy Cooper is preparing to move into the governor’s mansion. The newly elected New Hanover County Board of Commissioners is ready to be seated.

Not so fast.

The results are in question because of conspiracy theories that could come straight from the plot of a spy novel. Russian hackers influencing an election. Mysterious ballots suddenly appearing to affect the balance of power. Shadowy third-party groups and nefarious folks skulking around at the dead of night.

The seating of the new commissioners is on hold until the Board of Elections rules on protests filed by John Christian Anderson. Pat McCrory won’t move out of the people’s house in Raleigh until every possible recount scenario has been exhausted — especially the viability of those mysterious 90,000 ballots in Durham County. And Trump … well, he’s ignoring the ridiculous recounts demanded by Green Party candidate Jill Stein and proceeding with picking his administration.

A recount in the county commissioners race already was scheduled because of the slim margins in the results. Less than 500 votes separate second and fifth in the race for three seats. The margin between third-place finisher Patricia Kusek and Julia Boseman in fourth was just 364 votes, prompting Boseman to request the recount.

Anderson’s protests add another layer of intrigue.

This is not his first-time foray into election protests. He delayed the seating of the commissioners two years ago, when he questioned the validity of ballots cast at the Williston Middle School precinct. This time, he is alleging tampering based on claims that he personally witnessed someone entering an early voting site between the hours of 1– 3 a.m. on multiple nights. He also included an allegation of voter fraud, citing a “scheme to operate an absentee ballot mill.”

Anderson wants to personally inspect ballots for instances of fraud and invalidate any such ballots. If there is extensive fraud, his protest application includes a request for a new election.

The Board of Elections is expected to discuss the protests during its meeting Thursday morning. A recount was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but is on hold so it can be held in conjunction with a statewide recount.

Cooper’s lead in the gubernatorial race is about 9,800 votes, barely within the 10,000-vote threshold that would entitle McCrory to ask for a statewide recount.

The Republicans would rather focus on one county than the entire state, though. They are questioning the validity of the 90,000 votes in Durham that were added to the statewide results about 11:30 p.m. on election night and swung the lead from McCrory to Cooper.

North Carolina Republicans claim they were tabulated by faulty machines, and want them recounted by hand.

Machines are at the heart of Stein’s selective recount efforts. She wants recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — states Trump narrowly won — based on the dubious theory that election machines were hacked, even though Michigan is a paper and optical scan state, with nothing connected to the Internet.

Stein claims to be merely concerned with the integrity of the election, but is seemingly unconcerned with said integrity in states narrowly won by Hillary Clinton. She is proceeding even though members of her party have distanced themselves from her efforts. Her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, said the Green Party shouldn’t be seen as “carrying the water for the Democrats.”

So why is Stein — who barely received 1 percent of the nationwide vote — asking for recounts? Surely not for the attention she has garnered and the money she has raised, commodities in very short supply during her presidential bid.

Of course, that’s just a conspiracy theory. But in this post-election silly season, it fits right in.

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