To the Editor:

A mob’s assault on our Capitol was primed by President Trump’s relentless election disinformation and tweets like “Be there, will be wild,” leading to calls of “occupying” the Capitol. With thousands gathered, Trump repeated claims dismissed by dozens of American courts, and directed the mob to the Capitol, exhorting them to “fight like hell.”

That night, Rep. Elise Stefanik stood on the floor of that iconic American building and repeated Trump’s lies.

The record needs to be corrected. For brevity, only two corrections are offered as examples.

Stefanik: “In Pennsylvania, the State Supreme Court and Secretary of State unilaterally and unconstitutionally rewrote election law eliminating signature matching requirements.”

Fact-check: “The court concluded that there was no clause in the state’s election code that allowed ballots to be rejected based on signature comparisons, and if the state’s lawmakers wanted one, they would have included it.

“It is not our role under our tripartite system of governance to engage in judicial legislation and to rewrite a statute in order to supply terms which are not present therein, and we will not do so in this instance,’ the court wrote.” (Interpretation: The courts actually refused to rewrite election law.) https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/23/pennsylvania-court-ballot-signatures-431794

Stefanik: “In Georgia, there was constitutional overreach when the secretary of state unilaterally and unconstitutionally gutted signature matching for absentee ballots, and in essence, eliminated voter verification required by state election law.”

Fact-check: “In Georgia, there are two signature matches required by state election law for absentee ballots….The signature is checked against the absentee ballot application and voter registration. No signature matching is required during the audit or recount process. It could be ordered by a court, but Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said there was no basis to conduct such an audit.” (Interpretation: Two signature matches and three recounts were enough.) https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/fact-check-electoral-certification

Stefanik made additional disproven accusations against elections in Wisconsin and Michigan in her attempt to overthrow what her mentor, Paul Ryan, called a legitimate election, certified by all 50 states and supported by dozens of legal rulings.

She is promoting Trump’s election conspiracies that are further dividing Americans against Americans at a time when she should be seeking unity by pledging to work with the new administration for the sake of the nation. To use her own word, her actions are “unconstitutional.” They are also un-American. She should resign.

Ginger Storey-Welch

Colton