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LessAspin

(1,963 posts)
Mon Aug 28, 2023, 12:41 PM Aug 2023

bbc: Iowa man spread Election Conspiracies is in Charge of Elections

He spread conspiracies about elections. Now he oversees them

David Whipple in his office in Indianola. He faces a special election to keep his job as auditor of Warren County

By Mike Wendling
BBC News in Iowa

A controversy over conspiracy theories that has engulfed a small Iowa county shows the continuing power of Donald Trump's false claims about election fraud.

Like millions of other Americans, David Whipple was enraged by the 2020 election.

"The left has tried real hard to steal our nation, but no thanks. We will remain Patriots and free Americans," he wrote on Facebook, days after it became clear that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States.

It was just one of a string of messages that Mr Whipple shared around that time with conspiratorial themes. Others included links to QAnon and 9/11 conspiracy theory videos, and cast further doubt on the 2020 election.

Those posts went almost entirely unnoticed at the time, and for more than two years afterwards - until, in June of this year, Mr Whipple was appointed as the auditor of Warren County, Iowa.

Among his duties, he will now oversee elections.

That has baffled and outraged many in this rural county of about 50,000 people just south of Des Moines. On Tuesday, Mr Whipple faces a special election that could remove him from office...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66589065



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bbc: Iowa man spread Election Conspiracies is in Charge of Elections (Original Post) LessAspin Aug 2023 OP
"David, find me some more votes!" "Right away, Sir" dalton99a Aug 2023 #1
What a traitorous dick. byronius Aug 2023 #2
Whipple is Out LessAspin Aug 2023 #3
Not anymore. MarineCombatEngineer Aug 2023 #4

LessAspin

(1,963 posts)
3. Whipple is Out
Wed Aug 30, 2023, 05:09 PM
Aug 2023

Thanks to the BBC for highlighting this story.

Every vote in every district needs to count with Democracy hanging by a thread..





MarineCombatEngineer

(18,060 posts)
4. Not anymore.
Wed Aug 30, 2023, 09:20 PM
Aug 2023

Warren County voters ousted him and elected a Dem. to the position with a wide margin of victory so he can't claim election fraud.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/voters-in-one-iowa-county-reject-gop-appointed-auditor-who-posted-about-2020-election-doubts/ar-AA1g0P4S?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=129703a3b0af405cb5c5c5290934e07d&ei=125

Voters in one Iowa county reject GOP-appointed auditor who posted about 2020 election doubts


INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — Earlier this summer, a GOP-controlled board in an Iowa county decided that the person who would oversee their local elections would be a fellow Republican who had no specific experience running elections and who made prior social media posts questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential contest. Local Democrats were outraged — and David Whipple's stint as county auditor didn’t last long.

On Tuesday, voters in Warren County overwhelmingly decided to replace Whipple with Kimberly Sheets, a Democrat who had served in the auditor's office. She earned about 67% of the vote over Whipple in the special election, which highlighted the desire for voters to choose their own candidate for the important office and take a stand against what some saw as an overreach by local government.

“There was a power grab,” Steven Rose, 71, of Indianola, said of Whipple's appointment to the post after the former auditor retired in June. Rose, who voted for Sheets, said: “I’m voting against what the Board of Supervisors did as much as I’m voting for the candidate.”

The dustup in the increasingly red suburban and rural county south of Des Moines is the latest example of local election offices across the U.S. being run by people who have denied the results of the 2020 presidential election or have promoted baseless conspiracy theories about how elections are run. But in Warren County, the way Whipple was appointed drew just as much — if not more — ire from voters as some of his online posts.


Suck it dirtbag.
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