'Smooth move, Mr. Lindell': Idaho officials blast MyPillow CEO as recounts show fewer votes for Trump
In response to claims of election fraud from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Idaho officials conducted hand recounts in two small counties this week.
In a document called "The Big Lie" on his FrankSpeech.com website, Lindell alleged that about 35,000 votes in Idaho were switched electronically from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
In response to Lindell's allegations, the Idaho Secretary of State's Office — led by Republican Lawerence Denney — decided to conduct recounts in Camas and Butte counties, which were selected because of their small size, allowing Lindell's claims to be easily proven or disproven.
"The office of the Idaho Secretary of State takes free, fair, and accurate elections seriously, so when we are presented with allegations that come with specific details which we can examine, we want to do so," Denney told Boise's Channel 11.
Denney's chief deputy, Chad Houck, added: "Once we had the (Big Lie) document in hand, we immediately believed there was something amiss."
"This document alleged electronic manipulation in all 44 counties," Houck explained. "At least 7 Idaho counties have no electronic steps in their vote counting processes. That was a huge red flag, and one we knew we could either prove or disprove fairly directly."
In Butte County, the official canvass from last year showed 1,202 votes for Trump, and 188 for Biden. But Lindell alleged that Butte County should have had only 130 votes for Biden.
"The actual ballots, upon manual inspection and hand-evaluation in the presence of local representatives from both Republican and Democratic parties, in fact showed exactly the expected 188 marked votes for Biden, not 130 as alleged (by Lindell)," Houck said.
According to the station, "The only anomaly was that only 1,406 of the 1,415 ballots originally tallied for the county's canvass were counted, resulting in a lower number of 1,193 for Trump compared to the canvased 1,202," with the discrepancy attributed to sorting and storage issues.
In Camas County, last year's canvass showed 507 votes for Trump, and 149 for Biden. The hand recount found 508 votes for Trump, and 149 for Biden.
"This human error of 0.14 percent could easily have been in our own process, or on election day, but it was well short of the supposed 54 vote difference alleged by the 'Big Lie' spreadsheet," Houck said.
Idaho officials now plan to conduct a third recount next month in Bonner County, where Lindell alleges that 2,244 votes were switched from Trump to Biden.
Bonner County Clerk Mike Rosedale recently blasted Lindell's claims in a news release, according to the Daily Bee.
"While I generally agree with Mike Lindell's focus on massive voter fraud in 6-plus key states, his facts regarding Idaho quite miss the mark. Well, completely miss the mark," Rosedale said.
"What this means is that somebody just assigned a magic vote fraud number to all Idaho counties. Their goal appears to make a big splash. Shock and Awe. Every State. Oh the Horror. This should make your blood boil (Democrats AND Republicans)," Rosedale added. "For the sake of apparently trying to make a big splash, he tarnished the reputations of possibly thousands of counties across the USA. Smooth move Mr. Lindell."
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