Bevin, still claiming election fraud, says liberals are 'good at harvesting' urban votes

Ben Tobin | Courier Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Matt Bevin won't contest election loss to Andy Beshear "I truly wish the attorney general well as the next governor of this state as he assumes these responsibilities," Bevin said.

Six days before Gov.-elect Andy Beshear's inauguration, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin went on several radio shows Wednesday to say that he lost his bid for reelection because of liberals' success in "harvesting votes" in urban areas and to take aim at Beshear over abortion.

Bevin, who asked for a recanvass of the 2019 gubernatorial election results and made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in Jefferson and Fayette counties before conceding the race, said he received 38% more votes than he had when he won his first term in 2015.

But he said he had trouble winning the race because of how Democrats increased voter turnout in cities like Louisville and Lexington.

Liberals are "very good at harvesting votes in densely populated urban areas,” Bevin said in one interview.

Across at least three radio interviews, Bevin used the word "harvest" or an iteration of it several times.

It is unclear exactly what Bevin is referring to with his use of the word. Ballot harvesting, or collecting and submitting absentee or mail-in voter ballots by volunteers or workers, is esssentially prohibited in Kentucky.

Related: Bevin bashes Gov.-elect Andy Beshear on abortion stance

In response to Bevin's remarks, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes said in a statement that "such unfounded extreme rhetoric is harmful to our democracy."

"These comments have no basis in fact or reality as it relates to the Commonwealth of Kentucky's 2019 General Election," Grimes said.

Ballot harvesting occurred in a 2018 midterm race for North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District that featured Republican Mark Harris against Democrat Dan McCready. Bevin previously mentioned this race when alleging voter fraud in the Kentucky gubernatorial election.

North Carolina's elections board ordered a new election after a political operative working for Harris was accused of leading an effort to illegally collect and turn in absentee ballots.

Citizens for Election Integrity, a recently created group that held a news conference in November to allege election fraud, claimed in a Facebook post Sunday that many precincts in Jefferson County, which Beshear won handily, had "irregular results."

Specifically, the group pointed to two heavily African American precincts, M110 and M169, where Beshear won 330-0 and 274-2, respectively.

Roughly 90% of registered voters in those precincts are Democrats. Then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton crushed then-Republican candidate Donald Trump in both precincts in the 2016 presidential election.

Bevin administration: Kentucky faces $1.1B budget shortfall over next 2 years

The Jefferson County Clerk's Office declined to comment on Bevin's comments. When Bevin previously alleged voter fraud in Jefferson County, Nore Ghibaudy, a spokesman for the clerk's office and county's Board of Elections, said at the time that the governor's claims were “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

And David Turner, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association, told The Courier Journal on Wednesday that Beshear won counties across the commonwealth because he was "focused on making the lives of Kentuckians better and treating people with respect."

"Matt Bevin lost because it was nearly impossible to find a group of Kentuckians he didn’t attack. Clearly, he learned nothing from losing," Turner said. "Having a plan to improve education and protect people’s health care isn’t a conspiracy — it’s a winning message.”

Meanwhile, on WKCT, a Bowling Green radio station, Bevin attacked Beshear over his views on abortion, saying his longtime political foe made a "deal with the devil" to "slaughter unborn children for political contribution."

Bevin touted that under his tenure, he has signed 10 pieces of anti-abortion legislation into law. Several of these laws have been held up because of legal challenges.

An ardent opponent of abortion, the governor has attempted to shut down Kentucky's only abortion clinic — EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville — by claiming its transfer and transport agreements were "deficient."

A federal judge struck down Kentucky's transfer agreement law, and Bevin has appealed that decision.

More politics: Beshear names Rocky Adkins senior adviser in administration

Bevin's administration also recently refused to issue a license to Planned Parenthood to perform abortions at its Louisville clinic, claiming the reproductive health organization violated state law by temporarily providing abortions without a license almost four years ago.

Planned Parenthood has disputed any violation of state law, saying state health officials under former Gov. Steve Beshear had authorized the clinic to perform the procedure.

"The reason we have one abortion clinic left in this state, the reason we were on the cusp of having none was because we applied the actual law," Bevin told WKCT. "That’s done by the governor out of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services."

On Wednesday, Bevin said Steve Beshear did not care if people "have violated the rules" or are "running unsafe clinics," and that his son, the governor-elect, will allow abortions to proliferate in the state.

"You watch what's going to happen," Bevin said. "I mean, you're going to see abortions being performed all around this state, in Planned Parenthood clinics and others, because that's the devil."

In response to these comments, Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said the governor-elect is "committed to setting a new tone in Kentucky where we leave attacks and insults in the past."

"And he is calling on everyone from across this commonwealth to help us prove that we can treat each other with dignity and respect, find common ground and move forward together," Staley said.

Beshear will be inaugurated as governor of Kentucky on Tuesday.

ICYMI: Bevin administration leaves out Passport in awarding Medicaid contracts

Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.