Allegations of election fraud are serious matters. When one political party gains votes via false allegations of “voter fraud,” voters should be wary of such claims from that party’s nominees. In the past few days, a GOP nominee for Indiana General Assembly made such claims. 1/13

Jim Schenke, the magaGOP nominee for Indiana House District 26 [FN1], replied to a July 31 post on Facebook that noted 1) a recent poll’s numbers and 2) trump “is just not a good general election candidate.” [FN2] Mr Schenke clearly took umbrage with the post. 2/13

During the online exchanges that lasted into 8/3, Mr Schenke made an outrageous claim about the 2020 general election. [FN 3-FN6] I questioned the validity of his allegations & quoted an article from a Lafayette newspaper quoting members of the election board. [FN7] 3/13

Mr Schenke replied: “If you have solid advice on how and to whom I should report the election the regularity instead of occurred in this county over the last four years I'm very happy to see such a course.” It’s difficult to make sense of his reply, but he accused 4/13

a public official, from his own party, of negligence or even criminal acts. A place for Mr Schenke to start is the Tippecanoe County Clerk who oversaw the 2020 election, Republican Julie Roush. [FN8] She needs to be apprised of Mr Schenke’s allegations. 5/13

Of several possibilities, the most obvious is Mr Schenke engaged in a prevarication. If he made these outrageous accusations that, one may reasonably infer, are meant to rip into our political system, without basis in fact so he can win office, he should withdraw. 6/13

Footnotes:
FN1. A link from his reply goes to a campaign website: “GOP Nominee at Indiana House of Representative, District 26, state delegate at Indianapa (sic) GOP, Precinct Committeman, Wabash 11 at Tippecanoe Republucan Party” 7/13

Footnotes:
FN2. “The Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll released this morning has Trump falling behind in several states. It is probably going to get worse before it, maybe, gets better. He is just not a good general election candidate. Never has been.” Paul Ogden, 07/31/24. 8/13

Footnotes (multiples needed to set out full quote):
FN3. “please do send another story about Republican election rigging in IN. I never saw such a story. What I do know is that Trump won the state by 16 points. IN was never in play. Here's some further proof of DEM rigging though. 9/13

Footnotes:
FN4. There are 19 bellweather counties in America that ALWAYS vote for the winning presidential candidate. In 2020 Trump won 18 of the 19. Indiana has a bell weather county My own Tippecanoe County always votes for the candidate that wins Indiana. 10/13

Footnotes:
FN5. In 2020 trump lost Tippecanoe by .5 percent. Of course he would have won my county if he hadn't lost the college town West Lafayette by 30 points. He would have won West Lafayette except for an interesting tidbit I learned from the county clerk who runs the elections. 11/13

Footnotes:
FN6. She said that at the last minute on election night she received 3000 votes that were nearly identical....app for Biden with little down ticket action. They were supposed to be mail in but she said they were all pristine and unfolded.” Jim Schenke, 8/2/24 12/13

Footnotes:
FN7. “Tippecanoe election officials defend system, here and in US, against claims of fraud, certify record turnout,” The Journal and Courier, 11/14/20.
FN8. Id. 13/13