New Hampshire: Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions

View the entire Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions series

Below, we compile quotes from campaigns’ ads, websites, social media posts, and statements reported in the media that illustrate endorsement or opposition to election denial — claims that the process or result of the last presidential election was illegitimate. Each of the candidates is running for an office that will play a role in administering future elections in New Hampshire. Information about the financing of these campaigns and those in other battleground states can be found here.

Governor

Karlyn Borysenko

Karlyn Borysenko (Libertarian), posted a YouTube video in June 2022 where she talked about voter fraud in the 2020 election and “2000 Mules,” a movie claim­ing large numbers of people put false ballots in drop boxes. Borysenko posted another YouTube video in June 2022 where she questioned the results of the 2020 election and argued: “There’s no way in this lifetime that Joe Biden got 81 million votes.”

Thad Riley (lost primary)

When asked about the importance of election security in January 2022, Thad Riley (R) responded: “People all around the country and over half of my political party have serious concerns with what happened in 2020. That means it’s a real issue.” Riley posted on Facebook that he was running for governor to “Establish The Office of Election Integrity and earn back trust in our elections.” In a May 2022 tweet detailing parts of his campaign platform, Riley said that he intends to “secure the integrity of our elections [by] remov[ing] loopholes that encourage cheating.” He also sent a campaign email to supporters in June 2022 saying he “will work tirelessly to once and for all shut down the fraud that was so rampant in 2020.”

Chris Sununu (won primary)

Governor Chris Sununu (R), in response to claims that a vote counting issue in Windham showed widespread fraud in the state, said: “A discrepancy of 300 votes out of over 800,000 cast does not constitute ‘massive election fraud.’” He said Trump was “misinformed” about the issue, and that “there has been absolutely no evidence of fraud or corruption in our elections.”

Karen Testerman (lost primary)

Karen Test­er­­­man (R), a former member of the Frank­lin City Coun­­­cil, said in an inter­­view about her campaign announce­­ment that she does not believe Trump lost the elec­­tion in New Hamp­shire. She has said there is wide­s­pread elec­­tion fraud in the state and that “votes are not being coun­­ted accur­ately to say the least.” In early 2021, Test­er­­­man was one of the signat­or­ies of a docu­­ment that called for the “termin­a­­tion of the state, ” proclaim­ing that the New Hamp­shire govern­­ment was ille­­git­­im­ate and the 2020 elec­­tions were “void for fraud.” In June 2022, Testerman shared an event on Facebook titled “Please Join Us Committee on Voter Confidence Meeting… Special Presentation of Irrefutable Evidence of Voter Fraud.”