Dr. Douglas G. Frank stood in from of a crowd at the Erlanger Branch of the Kenton County Library on Wednesday evening. With a booming voice and an American flag bowtie, the self-described physicist delivered an address that gave updates to his mathematical formula that allegedly shows the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
The Northern Kentucky LiberTEA group put on the event. In a series of emails ahead of the event sent by Bill McGrane, the Boone County precinct captain and co-chair on the Boone County Election Integrity Committee, the 2020 election was said to be “rigged,” and Frank would show compelling evidence of how it was done.
“If this gets you jacked up plan to attend this Wednesday meeting showing what has happened in Kentucky and our communities,” McGrane’s email reads. “Over 16,000 votes were changed by the machines in our 3 counties alone.”
Frank also said he met with Boone County Clerk Justin Crigler. Frank didn’t present data from Kenton County and had to be repeatedly reminded by the audience he was in Kenton, not Boone, but said he showed Crigler that 1,400 votes that were cast in Boone County, but “you don’t know who they are,” Frank said, elaborating that he goes into counties and states and “red pills” clerks by showing them information they don’t know.
“I’m not supposed to say anything, you know. But I like him, he seems like an honest guy,” Frank said of Crigler. “And he, along with the commissioners, had a great discussion. And we showed him several of the vulnerabilities that they have. And he says, ‘there’s nothing I can do about that. We have to follow state law.’ His hands are tied.”
Crigler did meet Frank after numerous constituents in Boone County asked to talk about election integrity and how elections work in general. Some of those same people then asked if Frank could join. Crigler said he listened to his thoughts and concerns and is looking into it. Â
Sen. Adrienne Southworth (R-Lawrenceburg) was among the guests who recently held her own event at the library titled the “Restore Election Integrity Tour.” Frank said Southworth is in Frankfort, fighting a tough battle. However, Southworth’s Senate colleagues disagree with the election fraud information she presents on the floor or often don’t motion her amendments to bills.
Last month, Sen. Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) was perhaps the most vocal about Southworth’s claims.
“We don’t have the time to debunk all this,” Thayer said on the Senate floor regarding Southworth’s claims that voting machines in Kentucky are connected to the internet. “I have to tell you: Almost every point that the senator from Anderson (county) made is, in fact, wrong. And, telling people time and time again that their vote doesn’t count leads to less voter turnout, not more, and it’s irresponsible.”
Voting machines being connected to the internet is something that Frank brought up last night, as he said he uses an “internet detector” but didn’t clarify that he had done this in Kentucky.
“I know for a fact that Kentucky’s machines were connected to the internet,” Frank said.
This is a claim that’s been repeatedly debunked by Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams.
“Kentuckians should trust the election officials and the thousands of our poll workers – both Democrats and Republicans – who actually run our elections, not the people who sell tickets to shows offering “evidence” but do not provide it to election officials or law enforcement,” Adams said. “Our voting machines do not connect to the Internet; those who make these wild claims about our elections being hacked have no experience running elections themselves and just want to exploit others for political and financial purposes.”
Frank started his presentation by showing voter registration data from Kentucky. He showed a slide that says there are 3,458,464 above 18 who can vote, while there are 3,565,428 registered to vote. He also shared that 2,149,444 people actually voted. This information is accurate but doesn’t reflect voter fraud, and it’s something that all states deal with, making it an easy target for those arguing for election fraud.
“Secretary Adams inherited a mess with voter rolls when he took office,” said Michon Lindstrom, communications director for Adams. “Since taking office, he has taken steps to clean up the rolls, and more than 100,000 dead voters have been removed. His work cleaning the rolls has been praised by the federal judge overseeing the Judicial Watch case that was brought against his predecessor to get the rolls cleaned up. If only 60% of registered voters voted, which I should note is a near-record, how would “inflated” voter rolls show evidence of fraud? Election results tend to be consistent with polling, and the vote count accurately reflects the number of votes cast.”
After presenting data, Frank dives into his algorithm that he says shows how he can predict how each “they” inflate voter rolls to rig elections. “They” are billionaires, such as Mark Zuckerberg. Based on census data, they write computer software that stuffs the ballot box.
“I can go into a state, and I can look at one county, and there are 83 ages,” Frank said. “And I can study that one county and get the 83 numbers. But those 83 numbers can predict every other county in your state. I shouldn’t be able to do that.”
But, the formula Frank uses is consistent with age-related voter turnout across the country. It simply shows that younger people tend to vote less and older people vote more.
“This is false and absurd on its face,” Adams said. “If billionaires are rigging elections, what is their motive? And why do different candidates and parties win different states? What evidence does he have of any particular billionaire doing this and risking prison to do so? Has he offered his ‘algorithm’ to law enforcement or political scientists for peer review, or is he only trying to make a profit off his unfounded claims by typically charging admission for his presentations?”
Frank didn’t charge for his presentation, but it was unclear if the Northern Kentucky LiberTEA group paid for the presentation. At the beginning, they did pass around a coffee tin for donations to the group.
McGrane also shared a video ahead of the presentation titled “Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump,” which costs $4.99.
Frank does say there was fraud in 2016, but hackers were able to prevent ballot stuffers from getting the information needed to win that election.
“The only reason we won in 2016 is because of this technical thing,” Frank said. “But, the same skill was going on in 2016 as 2020. But, we had a team of white hat hackers that did a denial of service attack, which denied them the information that stuffers need to know much to stuff in 2016.”
He then elaborates that these “white hat” hackers used predictions, but they underpredicted Trump, and he was able to win.
While these claims continue to run amok, local election officials, including Adams, call on citizens to talk to election officials.
“Voting in Kentucky has never been as accessible, nor as secure, as it has been in the two years of this Secretary of State’s administration,” Lindstrom said. “In that time, through reforms that have been supported by both Republican and Democratic legislators and have drawn national and bipartisan attention and praise, we have made it both easier to vote and harder to cheat. If you have questions or concerns about our election process, contact the Secretary of State or your county clerk, rather than some snake oil salesman or buffoon.”