A voter fraud conspiracy theorist called Philly election officials corrupt. He didn't like the

A voter fraud conspiracy theorist called Philly election officials corrupt. He didn’t like the pushback.


Clout’s election calendar shows a presidential cycle unfolding as anticipated — polls are narrowing, rhetoric is heating up, and Philadelphia’s city commissioners are in a dust-up with vote-fraud conspiracy theorists.

Meet J. Christian Adams, a lawyer who specializes in election year alarmism. He penned a screed for the conservative local website Broad & Liberty last week that leaned hard into the notion that the commissioners, who oversee elections, are corrupt. His reason: They accepted a $10 million grant from a Chicago nonprofit to pay for mail-ballot drop boxes, early voting, and raises for poll workers.

Adams was light on evidence and heavy on Mafia references. He later tweeted that commissioners took “a cash payout from the ‘Chicago family’ to build structural bias into” the election.

Clout hears that City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the lone Republican on the three-member board, told people he was exploring options, including a libel suit.

And then Adams shifted to an all-too-common partisan tactic — playing the provocative victim. It goes like this: Say something outrageous to get attention, then whine about the pushback.

Read more: https://fusion.inquirer.com/politics/clout/presidential-election-mail-ballot-conspiracy-theorists-city-commissioners-20200925.html