A denial of denial

To the Editor:

Your editorial last Friday entitled “The real election deniers” is a masterpiece of conflation and confusion.

About the recent Los Angeles mayoral election you state both that “there is gigantic election fraud going on and anyone who denies that is the real election denier” and later “the real election deniers are those who insist that the only democratic way to conduct elections is to follow a banana republic guide to good government.”

While I would not support California election law (with no required ID, ballots cast by mail the day of the election and extended counting) I also know there is nothing unconstitutional or illegal with California’s system, although it does take time to get a final count. To suggest that it mirrors the action of a banana republic is disingenuous. The Lakeland Times editorial staff seems to suggest that there should be a federalization of our elections laws. As a constitutional conservative I would oppose that and suggest my friends at the Times think about what the makeup of the federal government might look like in 2028 and what federal laws we may get then.

You also seem stupefied how Spencer Pratt could slide from second to third in the Los Angeles mayoral primary as the votes were legally counted and allege fraud, a serious charge. The socialist Nitthya Raman ended up with 29 percent of the vote to finish second while Pratt ended up with 25 percent. The registration in LA county by party? In this election cycle it was 52 percent Democratic and 18 percent percent Republican with the rest being other or none. I doubt you have spent much time in LA as I have but those who know the LA electorate know a great majority of those that said other are truly socialists. It is one of the reasons I chose not to live in LA. If you had asked me before the election if there were more Republicans or socialists in LA I would have probably suggested the latter. Regardless, Pratt finishing third should not be a shock and is not in itself evidence of fraud.

You conflate the election in LA with the 2020 presidential election and suggest a grand progressive conspiracy. As I am sure you know there were 62 lawsuits filed in nine states alleging irregularities in the election with no substantive finding of fraud. This included multiple lawsuits in Wisconsin filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) that you cite and which were found to be meritless by our state Supreme Court. Perhaps the Times wants to be known as an organization which only supports Supreme Court decisions if they fit comfortably in your political worldview but that is not the action of committed constitutionalists If you want to repudiate the entirety of the American justice system to support your fever dreams you are free to do so but you will do it in a fact-challenged environment.

As someone who has pledged to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” I think your editorial attacks and weakens citizen belief in the integrity of our elections. Your editorial staff has the right to think the 2020 presidential election was stolen and California progressives stole the runner up spot in the LA Mayoral primary. However, when you suggest that when I disagree with you that I, and others who are similarly minded, are the election deniers you beclown yourself. 

Todd R. Laughman, colonel, USAFR, ret.

Arbor Vitae