A New Hampshire Republican Is Offering $1,000 for Proof of Voter Fraud by Bus

Produce even one example, and the money is yours.

Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee!

A prominent New Hampshire Republican and critic of Donald Trump is calling our conspiracy theorizing president’s bluff, offering a reward to anyone who can provide proof that “thousands” of Massachusetts residents traveled by bus to New Hampshire to vote illegally in 2016.

Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, says that any potential tipsters needn’t identify all of the thousands of illegal voters. Evidence of a single illegal vote, cast by someone who boarded a bus to the Granite State, will suffice.

I will pay $1000 to 1st person proving even 1 outofstate person took bus from MA 2 any NH polling place last ElectionDay #mapoli #nhpolitics — Fergus Cullen (@FergusCullen) February 10, 2017

Cullen’s proposal comes days after President Trump–who, despite winning the electoral college handily remains obsessed with the results of the election–reportedly riffed with senators about a conspiracy in Massachusetts to sabotage the election in the swing state. The illegal voters, he says, are the reason both he and outed Sen. Kelly Ayotte lost New Hampshire in the general election.

Senior White House advisor Stephen Miller defended Trump’s ideas on TV this weekend, saying that the phenomenon of voters taking buses to New Hampshire on election day is “widely known by anyone who’s worked in New Hampshire politics.”

Despite Trump’s claims about millions voting illegally (that is, he says, why he lost the popular vote to rival Hillary Clinton), there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the country. It has never once been documented, studies that suggest it could be happening have been discredited, and election officials in states where it has been alleged say such allegations are baloney.

And what makes the Massachusetts-residents-taking-buses-to-New Hampshire theory particularly implausible is how hard it would be to pull off undetected, or to pull off at all. As Cullen also pointed out in his many tweets about this campaign, there is a fatal flaw in the busing scenario: renting all those buses.

“Anyone claiming buses bring 100s from out-of-state to NH to vote has never tried to rent several buses,” he tweeted. “Go ahead, call around.”

To drive the point home, Cullen has also been tweeting handfuls of GIFs and still images of famous buses from pop culture–most of which are, like the voter fraud buses of Trump administration lore, pretend.

Proof: An entire family from California got off this bus at Londonderry High School and voted last fall #nhpoliticspic.twitter.com/YbSe4v4qnK — Fergus Cullen (@FergusCullen) February 13, 2017

Proof: This bunch of hippies sang “Tiny Dancer” as they filed off the bus to vote in Candia #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/1ijhUG8U2w — Fergus Cullen (@FergusCullen) February 13, 2017