有些比赛还没有结束，2022年中期选举这对支持前总统唐纳德·特朗普的共和党国务卿候选人来说是一个特别的打击谎称2020年的比赛被偷了。
在周一的联合新闻发布会上，一个由两党国务卿或当选国务卿组成的小组从特朗普试图推翻他2020年失败的一些竞争最激烈的战场上——包括亚利桑那州、佐治亚州和密歇根州——表示，上周镇压选举否认者是一个信号，表明美国人也在拒绝关于选举操纵的无证据指控。
2020年选举否认主义的支持者-被全国各地的法院和地方官员调查和拒绝-迄今为止已经赢得了阿拉巴马州、印第安纳州和怀俄明州的国务卿竞选。这些办公室通常是特定州的最高选举管理者。
根据States United Action的统计，其他此类候选人在10个州失利，这是一个无党派团体，在2022年整个选举周期中密切跟踪否认选举的被提名人。
“我相信大多数人都是好的……这就是我们刚刚看到的。佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬斯佩格在由“美国联合行动”组织的活动上说:“善良的人们站了起来，他们走了出来，他们投票了，他们投票支持的是——他们投票支持正常生活。”。
共和党人Raffensperger周二赢得了第二个任期。2020年大选后，特朗普要求他“找到”足够的选票来逆转总统乔·拜登在佐治亚州的胜利，拉芬斯珀格拒绝了，后来在初选中面对特朗普支持的挑战者，并在1月6日的众议院听证会上作证。
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks to the media in Atlanta, Oct. 25, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images，文件
在新闻发布会上，Raffensperger说，鉴于中期选举结果，公众“投票给了那些将要履行职责的人，我们将坚持法治。他们会支持宪法。这就是我们现在的处境。我们将继续努力，确保我们有诚实、公平的选举。”
美国联合行动(States United Action)发现，在迄今为止举行的竞选中，14名否认选举的人在10个州的选举管理中赢得了全州的角色，而28名否认选举的人在20个州的选举管理中输掉了26场竞选。
根据一份538分析60%的美国人在上周的投票中有一位候选人，他要么完全否认，要么对上次总统选举的合法性提出质疑。
“我们必须维持(公平选举)，我们前面还有一点斗争。但我认为我们必须听从选民的意见，”亚利桑那州当选国务卿的民主党人阿德里安·丰特斯说。他以微弱优势击败了2021年1月6日在美国国会大厦的共和党人马克·芬奇姆，但他说他没有进去。
“他们把我们带到了一个地方，我认为我们可以在隧道的尽头看到阳光，并度过这一切，”丰特斯说。"希望我能成为这个团队中推动事情向前发展的关键人物."
除了国务卿竞选之外，其他一些最著名的否认选举的候选人也在周二失利，包括宾夕法尼亚州州长道格·马斯特里亚诺。如果当选，他本可以任命国务卿。
除了亚利桑那州的Finchem，特朗普支持的内华达州的Jim Marchant和密歇根州的Kristina Karamo也输了。
“我认为我们从选民那里听到的，特别是在内华达州，是他们正在寻找一个对他们诚实的人，他将消除我们投票系统中的混乱，”该州当选的民主党国务卿思科·阿吉拉尔(Cisco Aguilar)周一表示，他以两分之差击败了马尔尚。
“内华达州是一个主要的战场州，2024年的总统选举将是一场大选举。我们会做好准备，我们会非常自豪地去做，”阿吉拉尔说。
美国联合行动估计，居住在16个州的31%的人口现在将有一名选举否决者担任他们的州长、司法部长或国务卿，并对地方选举拥有一定的监督权。
国务卿和当选国务卿周一表示，他们将继续努力消除选举过程中毫无根据的怀疑，包括通过立法将骚扰选举工作人员和志愿者定为重罪等措施。
“2020年的选举表明，民主可以战胜前所未有的推翻公平、自由和准确选举结果的努力，”密歇根州国务卿乔斯林·本森(Jocelyn Benson)说，他周二再次当选连任。
本森说:“2022年表明，当我们需要对那些试图在投票箱破坏民主的人问责时，选民们准备要求问责——拒绝否认选举，拒绝取代裁判的努力，这些裁判只会通过简单地确保我们有专业人士担任国务卿的角色来推动自己团队的优势。”
但是，她说，“在我看来，我们现在真的已经走了三分之二的路。正如第一幕一样，第二幕以民主的成功而告终，但我们现在有了第三幕:2024年的总统选举。”
After beating election deniers, bipartisan group of secretaries of state talk democracy
With some races still outstanding,the 2022 midterm electionsproved to be a particular blow to the Republican secretary of state candidates who supported former President Donald Trump'sfalse claims that the 2020 contest was stolen.
At a joint news conference on Monday, a panel of bipartisan secretaries of state or secretaries-elect from some of the most contested battlegrounds where Trump tried to overturn his 2020 defeat -- including Arizona, Georgia and Michigan -- said the squashing of election deniers last week was a signal that Americans were also rejecting evidence-free claims of election-rigging.
Supporters of 2020 election denialism -- which was investigated and rejected by the courts and local officials of both parties across the country -- have so far won races for secretary of state in Alabama, Indiana and Wyoming. Such offices are often the top election administrators in a given state.
Other such candidates lost in 10 states, according to counts from States United Action, a nonpartisan group that closely tracked election-denying nominees throughout the 2022 election cycle.
"I believe that most people are good … That's what we just saw. The good people raised up, they got out, they voted and what they voted for -- they voted for normalcy," Georgia Secretary Brad Raffensperger said at the event, organized by States United Action.
Raffensperger, a Republican, on Tuesday won a second term in office. He had gained a national profile after the 2020 election, when Trump asked him to "find" enough votes to reverse President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia and Raffensperger refused, later facing a Trump-endorsed challenger in his primary and testifying at the House Jan. 6 hearings.
At the news conference, Raffensperger said that in light of the midterm election results, the public "voted for people who are going to do their job, and we're going to stand for the rule of law. They're gonna stand for the Constitution. And so that's where we are right now. And we continue to press on to make sure we have honest, fair elections."
In races that have been called so far, 14 election deniers have won a statewide role in election administration in 10 states, States United Action found, while 28 election deniers have lost 26 races for a statewide role in election administration in 20 states.
According to aFiveThirtyEight analysis, 60% of Americans had a candidate on the ballot last week who had either fully denied or raised questions about the legitimacy of the last presidential election.
"We've got to maintain [fair elections] and we've got a bit of a struggle ahead. But I think we got to follow what the voters have said," Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State-elect Adrian Fontes said. He narrowly defeated Republican Mark Finchem, who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but said he didn't go inside.
"They've led us to a place where I think we can see the light of day at the end of the tunnel and get past all of this," Fontes said. "And hopefully I'll be a key player on this team to push things forward."
Beyond the secretary of state races, some of the other most prominent election-denying candidates also lost on Tuesday, including Doug Mastriano for governor in Pennsylvania. If elected, he would have been able to appoint the secretary of state.
Along with Finchem in Arizona, Trump-backed Jim Marchant in Nevada and Kristina Karamo of Michigan also lost.
"I think what we've heard from voters, especially in Nevada, is they're looking for somebody who's gonna be honest with them, who's going to eliminate the chaos in our voting system," the state's Democratic Secretary of State-elect Cisco Aguilar, who won by two points over Marchant, said Monday.
"Nevada is a major battleground state and the [2024] election for president is going to be a big one. And we're going to be ready and we're going to do it with great pride," Aguilar said.
States United Action estimates that 31% of the population, living in 16 states, will now have an election denier as their governor, attorney general or secretary of state, with some oversight power over local elections.
The secretaries of state and secretaries-elect on Monday said they would continue to work against baseless doubt in the election process, including by introducing legislation to make it a felony to harass election workers and volunteers, among other measures.
"What the 2020 election showed was that democracy can prevail against an unprecedented effort to overturn the election results of a fair and free and accurate election," said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who was reelected to a second term on Tuesday.
"What 2022 demonstrated is that when we need accountability for those who are trying to undermine democracy at the ballot box, the voters are ready to exact that accountability -- rejecting election deniers, rejecting an effort to replace the referees, those who would only call balls and strikes that further their own team's advantage, by simply ensuring that we have professionals in these roles as secretaries of state," Benson said.
But, she said, "In my view, we are really just now two-thirds of the way. Act two ended with a success for democracy just as act one did, but we now have act three: the 2024 presidential election."
