January 11, 2022 10:57 AM UTC

GOP "Election Integrity" Plan: Tinfoil Hats For Voting Machines!

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• by: Colorado Pols

In a state like Colorado that leads the nation in voter participation as well as robust security to ensure the counting of ballots and verification of eligibility is accurate, Republicans face a huge disconnect between their article-of-faith belief (vigorously enforced by the ex-President) that the 2020 presidential election was stolen versus the uncontroversial reality Colorado voters experience in every election — despite incorporating basically every feature that election fraud conspiracy theorists cite as problematic. It’s become a recurring theme we’ve discussed at length in this space.

As GOP state Rep. Mark Baisley, running for a state Senate seat in arch-conservative Douglas County, showed us in a speech earlier this month before the Jefferson County Republican Men’s Club, this disconnect gets terribly awkward at times–even before the friendliest of audiences. Suggesting that he has “a lot of ideas” to improve voter security, Rep. Baisley struggles painfully to name a single such proposal. And when he finally does?

We couldn’t make this up if we tried:

BAISLEY: Uh well, I can, I have cybersecurity as my, as my background, and I’ve got a lot of ideas and I’d like to propose as, uh requirements for systems. Um…

Let me think of an example, uh… (pause) Well… (pause)

Shielding…of election systems, election machines on vote day. Uh, because the suspicion is that, uh, there is wire, wireless access to vote machines. Are there? I don’t know. I don’t know.

But if we encase them, and that’s easy to do, into foil-shielded boxes, then nothing will be able to talk to them. [Pols emphasis] Any more than your cell phone could talk…

You’re reading this correctly. Rep. Mark Baisley’s big idea for “voting integrity,” which he delivered after several moments of awkward silence to make sure he had it straight, is to…wait for it…

Wrap the machines in tinfoil.

From Clerk Tina Peters committing crimes on a wild goose chase of ignorance to Ron Hanks blowing up voting machines in campaign ads, we keep thinking that the absurdity of the “Big Lie” and its discredited proponents has finally hit a bottom from which everyone with any brains at all left will just walk away.

And then someone like Mark Baisley comes along and proves us wrong! As of today, the streak remains unbroken.