Election officials in the US are facing a growing barrage of claims that the outcome of last year’s presidential election, which saw Democratic candidate Joe Biden the winner, needs to be revisited.
The 2020 vote has long been under attack, mostly by well-funded associates of former president Donald Trump, who are now pushing authorities to investigate or decertify the vote.
Trump’s allies are pushing to inspect protected machines and urging top officials to conduct audits or sign on to a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 results.
“I’m warning you that I’ve been going around the country. We’re starting lawsuits everywhere,” said Douglas Frank, one of Trump’s associates, who claims to have discovered secret algorithms used to rig the vote.
Trump himself is leading the ongoing assault on the vote, regularly firing off statements in which he asserts that the vote was rigged.
Another Trump associate, Mike Lindell said in an interview this week that he has spent $25 million promoting claims of election fraud.
He told the Washington Post, that more than 100,000 votes were flipped from Trump to Biden in Alabama.
"What happened in 2020 was completely the biggest crime in the history of the United States, probably the world," he said.
“I’m not backing down, and I hope you wouldn’t, and anyone wouldn’t in this country, if they knew what I knew,” Lindell told the Post.
Attacks exhaust election officials
US election officials say the campaign against the vote is exhausting and troubling as they launch preparations for the 2022 midterm elections.
They said the onslaught continues to eat up their time and spread distrust in the election system.
“For many election workers, this has become a full-time job,” said Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
“If we want to continue to provide safe, secure and accessible elections, constantly running down absurd conspiracy theories is not sustainable,” he added.
State and local officials said no one has presented actual evidence that rampant fraud tainted the 2020 election.
They claimed that they have done numerous ballot reviews and legal proceedings that have so far affirmed that the vote was secure.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his election loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Allegations that provoked a mob of his supporters, at a rally to storm the Capitol as Congress was meeting to certify Biden's election victory, on January 6, this year.
The attack resulted in the death of at least five people, including a police officer who was guarding the Congress building.
Trump was impeached for inciting his supporters to storm the building.