Republican Utah Gov.-elect Spencer Cox, appeared on CNN Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Photo: KSL NewsRadio
SALT LAKE CITY — The next governor of Utah, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, has joined the voices of Republican leaders who say they’ve found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Cox, in his role as lieutenant governor, oversees elections in the state of Utah. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Cox both supported the president’s right to challenge the election results and said he saw no evidence to support claims of voter fraud.
“There’s no evidence of mass voter fraud,” the governor-elect said, while stressing the importance of investigating any allegations of wrongdoing. “If there is evidence, let’s review the evidence. Let’s put the evidence before the arbitrators of truth, the judges — let’s make those decisions and let’s move on.”
“What we shouldn’t be doing is accepting as fact baseless allegations,” Cox added.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Cox said he is “deeply troubled at the general acceptance” of unsubstantiated voter fraud allegations created to undermine the U.S. election system.
He went on to say the push to question election results has happened on both sides of the political aisle. Cox pointed to 2016 when the Democrats believed Russia tampered with President Trump’s win.
“It was wrong then and it’s wrong now,” said Cox.
Cox stated sometimes parties lose elections and that doesn’t mean “the other side cheated.” Instead, Cox said an election loss “just means we have to work harder next time to convince more voters.”
Following on the theme of unity that marked his campaign, Cox said more Republicans should feel comfortable congratulating the president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden.
“Politics has become a religion for too many people. And when politics becomes your religion, then anybody disagrees with you, isn’t just — doesn’t just have a different opinion, they’re actually evil,” Cox said.
He not only congratulated Biden, but he also disagrees with Trump administration officials who apparently have blocked key parts of the transition process, such as intelligence briefings. Cox pointed out blocking Biden from that information does not change the outcome of Election Day.
“I don’t know why this should be controversial, the idea of helping both candidates get access to this material they need. It won’t change the vote count at all,” he said.