No one can figure out why Republicans are shining UV lights on ballots, among other things.
Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election was a cocktail of equal parts ridiculousness and menace. On the one hand, a sitting president actively encouraged efforts to destroy American democracy — including an attack on the US Capitol. On the other hand, the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference was a thing that happened.
The terms of this “audit” appear designed to destroy confidence in the process. The lead company conducting the GOP’s audit is a Florida security company called Cyber Ninjas, which has no experience with elections. Cyber Ninjas’ CEO, Doug Logan, however, does have a history of spreading pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
After a state court ordered Cyber Ninjas to disclose how it is conducting this so-called audit, a subcontractor revealed that the process involves weighing ballots, examining them under a microscope, and examining the “thickness or feel” of individual ballots in order to identify “questionable ballots” that need to be examined by a “lead forensic examiner” and then “removed from the batch and sent for further analysis.”
And then there’s a giant mystery involving ultraviolet lights.
As part of the audit, according to a document laying out the process for examining ballots, workers are required to place ballots “under UV-B and UV-A source” to compare the illuminated ballots to “representative specimens.” It’s not at all clear what exposing the ballots to UV light is supposed to accomplish
Nevertheless, Trump reportedly talks “constantly” about how these UV lights might reveal — something — that will undercut Biden’s victory.