Stephanie Grace: Trump’s “Big Lie” promoter receives hero’s welcome from Louisiana election panel | Columnist Stephanie Grace

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The Retired Army Col. Phil Waldron was warmly welcomed and granted star-witness status at last week’s meeting by the Louisiana Voting System Commission, which is responsible for selecting new voting machines to replace those out of date in the state.

He probably won’t get that kind of acceptance from the next government panel he faces.

Waldron has now been subpoenaed to provide documents and sit for a deposition of a U.S. House committee investigating the factors leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Although the subpoena arrived late in the week, his involvement in Donald Trump’s effort to strip Joe Biden of his legitimate, endlessly verified victory became public when Waldron testified about the “integrity” of the election. in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

The man Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin spoke to for about 90 minutes of expert advice, it turns out, worked closely with Trump’s legal team looking for ways to repeal Congress and was Vice President Mike Pence is the will of the voters. key swing states.

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Waldron released an immediately infamous PowerPoint presentation, a version in which Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows was returned to the committee before he stopped working, outlining various ideas to reverse the result of the election. He also repeatedly met with Meadows, he told The Washington Post, and said goodbye to members of Congress.

PowerPoint featured a plan for Pence to disqualify voters from “states where the fraud occurred,” though many courts found no evidence of irregularities that could alter any of the state’s results. It also proposed declaring a national emergency and having U.S. Marshals and National Guard troops “secure” ballot papers in major states, according to the Post.

“Mr. Waldron has been reported to have played a role in promoting claims of election fraud and disseminating potential strategies for challenging 2020 election results,” the U.S. Rep. Said. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., The chairman of the 1/6 committee. “Apparently he was also talking to officials in the Trump White House and in Congress who were discussing his theories in the weeks leading up to the attack on Jan. 6. The document he reportedly provided to Administration officials and Members of Congress are a disturbing blueprint for reversing a nationwide election. “

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But sure, let’s ask this person for advice on how Louisiana should run its elections, and how – in his words – the state can ensure that all voters can trust that their votes is exactly counted as cast, and that “we really are a government. of the people, of the people, and for the people.”

With news reports already outlined in Waldron’s attempt to overturn those things for the presidential election before the Louisiana hearing, you’d think the topic might come up. No.

Ardoin, a Republican who struggled to silence fellow conspiracy theorists while running in the clean election, welcomed Waldron and mentioned that he had a “fan club” in the room (an aide later told NBC News that the invitation to speak has been issued at the request of “a group of citizens”). When it was his turn to ask, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, who heads the committee overseeing the elections, said the two have talked “many times” and she likes the “fresh ideas” it brings to the table. .

So about those ideas. In extensive testimony, Waldron said his general interest in the subject of ballot vulnerability stemmed from concerns over Black Lives Matter and Antifa, not out of excessive concern about any attempt to hijack the election itself led by White House. He claimed that the Louisiana system is vulnerable to fake votes and fake counts and suggested some sort of manual verification of votes, which was questioned by some Republicans on the panel, citing difficulty in implementation. Ardoin also pointed out, rightly, that any system that takes too long to provide results can undermine confidence rather than enhance it.

The irony here is that the voting machines that Louisiana needs to replace are outdated, but the secretary of state’s office has a solid track record in the history of running elections. Although he sometimes allows Big Lie supporters to steal the presidential election, a neutral observer might think that Ardoin has been a great defender of election integrity.

If he wanted to keep it that way, he should send Waldron and his ilk packing, for goodness sake.

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