Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images, jamirae/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images, Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images, and Igoriss/iStock/Getty Images Plus.The Kansas Legislature hosted an odd contingent last month.
In 2022 an NPR report found that over the previous year and a half, four election denial influencers—Mike Lindell being the biggest among them—had appeared in more than 300 events across 45 states and D.C., often with elected officials and political candidates. The“We do know there’s multistate orgs that are coordinating these efforts and providing ideas to the folks,” said Griffith, the Secure Democracy USA policy director, referring to election denial activists.
Wendy Weiser, the director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, also spoke about “an interdependent network” of individuals who are pushing these ideas at the state level. “Those who come testify are often the same people who are driving those strategies,” she said.
That the lineups include few to zero voting activists with real expertise doesn’t seem to matter. At least, it didn’t bother state Sen. Mike Thompson, the Kansas legislator who chaired his state’s bogus committee on elections. “It’s not about the expertise but I think you look at, for example, the work some of these people have done and they’ve committed huge amounts of time,” Thompson told the Kansas City Star.