North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory lost his re-election bid by a respectable number of votes, yet he and his legal team refuse to concede the election, and are instead crying “election fraud.”

McCrory lost fair and square to his Democratic opponent Attorney General Roy Cooper by 7,448 votes. Despite this, McCrory is blaming everyone and everything – but himself – for his loss.

Though it has been two weeks since the election, McCrory continues to refuse to concede, inventing culprit after culprit to explain his loss.

McCrory seems to be performing a deliberately malpracticed protest of the election results in order to kill time until his Republican-dominated legislature can reinstate McCrory as Governor, ignoring the election results.

According to Slate,

“McCrory is not so obtuse as to think he can actually overtake his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, in raw votes. His strategy is more insidious: He seems intent on delaying the formal declaration of a winner—and delegitimizing the voting process—in order to let the Republican-dominated legislature ignore the true result and re-install McCrory as governor for another four years.”

According to writer Mark Joseph Stern, pulling this off would be easier than it seems. McCrory merely needs to cry “fraud” often enough to make a claim for the Republican legislature to latch onto.

McCrory’s team has alleged that his former opponent intended to use dead Americans’ registration to vote for himself, as well as alleging that underage voters are somehow registered. True to his Republican roots, McCrory has also accused Black American voter outreach groups for perpetrating “massive voter fraud scheme.”

It all amounts to a bunch of sore-loser behavior, but with a goal:

“By alleging fraud, mishandling of ballots, and irregular vote-counting, McCrory is laying the groundwork for the legislature to proclaim that a “contest” has arisen as to “the conduct or results of the election.” At that point, it can step in, assert that McCrory received “the highest number” of legitimate votes, and “declare [him] to be elected.”

The best part? Under the law, the legislature’s decision is “not reviewable” by the courts. Republican legislators can simply step in, overturn the decision of the voters, and grant McCrory another term. The courts have no authority even to review the legality of their actions.”

McCrory’s popularity dropped sharply when he proposed the now-infamous “bathroom bill” which would make it illegal for individuals to use a restroom which does not correspond to their biological sex, targeting trans individuals.

Now it appears that he refuses to accept his own role in his loss, and he will break the entire system to get his way.