Why do Savin and Co Want Secretary of State Offices?
Savin and Marchant (1:20 forward) tell the same story: that George Soros launched, in Savin’s words, an “attack on America” by donating to a Democratic candidate in the Nevada’s 2004 Secretary of State race (51:59 forward, Juan’s site, BitChute – 5/3/22). Soros, according to Savin, had realized that Secretary of State offices “have say in the mechanics of how elections are handled…. If you can control how the elections are handled, legally, technically, what devices are used, and what procedures are allowed, you can cook the vote.” (Savin. 16:15-16:37, Juan’s site, Rumble – 4/27/22)
Savin also says: “We are working hard to get a leveraged position in the most important place of all, and that’s where the attack on America began in 2004, right here in Nevada… We’re fighting back through the same positions using their playbook in reverse. It’s a winning strategy…, the people that control the elections in the states, in large measure, it’s the Secretary of State position.” (Savin. 51:59 forward, Juan’s site, BitChute – 5/3/22)
Of course, in reality no modern Secretary of State – Soros-backed or otherwise – has “cooked the vote,” and there are multiple layers of safeguards in place to prevent election rigging from that or any other quarter.
But the convictions that drive Savin, Marchant, and their like-minded candidates aren’t based in reality. They derive from a mix of fanatical Trumpism, conspiracy theories, and long-running conservative lies about supposedly widespread election fraud on behalf of Democratic candidates.
How Seriously Should We Take the Coalition’s Claim That it Just Wants Free and Fair Elections?
Not seriously at all. These candidates have staked their personal and political identities on the idea that their ideological opponents only have power because of rigged elections. They have repeatedly shown, by word and deed, that they’re willing to act on these beliefs – often in illegal and profoundly undemocratic ways.
Consider these examples: Arizona’s Mark Finchem, a Trump endorsee and sitting state legislator, introduced a bill to “set aside” election results from Arizona’s two largest blue counties (and a red county with a large blue stronghold) – in other words, to throw out the vast majority of Democratic votes cast in Arizona in 2020. The bill also aims to “decertify” the election results (neither “setting aside” nor “decertifying” election results is a real thing, though this hasn’t stopped Trumpists from pretending that they are). The bill further calls for Arizona’s Republican legislature to send whatever electors it pleases in future presidential contests, regardless of the popular vote. On his Telegram channel, Finchem justified it by writing, “I am just trying to be a champion for the voters who were fighting for justice and had their voices denied.”
And Colorado’s Tina Peters – a serving county election official – is facing seven felony charges for breaching her own county’s election systems and delivering the resulting data to Stop the Steal activists. As a result, Peters is barred by court order from actually conducting elections. She was a rock star at the Republican convention in April: according to the Denver Post, attendees “chanted her name, gave roaring applause when she was mentioned, and stood applauding as she spoke.” Peters recently lost her primary, but has – predictably – made evidence-free claims that the election was rigged against her.
In fact, Savin himself simply does not accept the results of elections he doesn’t like – following a line of argument that’s common in QAnon circles, he believes that Trump is secretly still the commander-in-chief. Indeed, he often holds forth on that theme at great length (examples: YT, Rumble, 35:32 forward, with a succinct quote around 57:10 – 5/17/21; see also 1:08:30 forward, Rumble, Rumble2, BeforeItsNews – 5/11/22).
Savin claims the military – or at least the part of the military that controls weapons of mass destruction – doesn’t recognize Biden as commander-in-chief. To explain this, he relies on a popular QAnon theory: that according to Trump’s Executive Order 13848 (which very much does not say this), if the intelligence community put out a report within 45 days of the election saying that “foreign interference” was found, “we could adjust the vote, cancel the vote, recount the vote, whatever we had to do” (YT, Rumble 43:54-45:10 – 5/17/21).
This is not a vision of integrity and justice – it is a vision of unrestrained power to act in Trump’s favor, regardless of the actual results of the election.