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Sununu Affirms Reality of President-Elect Biden, Vouches for New Hampshire's Voting Procedures

Photo of Sununu speaking at microphone
Dan Tuohy / NHPR

As some leaders of his own party refuse to acknowledge the same reality, Gov. Chris Sununu said he expects President-Elect Joe Biden to take office in January and affirmed his faith in the integrity of New Hampshire’s elections.

“Look, if there are voting irregularities, they're going to challenge those in court,” Sununu said in response to questions about the election during a Thursday press conference. “I can tell you that every day that goes by, the ability for those irregularities to be won in court dissipates, right? And the number of votes that would have to be overturned in those recounts is getting bigger and bigger by the day. So that's just the reality of it.”

Sununu did not refer to President Trump or other Republicans challenging the results of last week’s election by name, but he referred broadly to ongoing legal challenges probing potential “irregularities.” As reported by NPR, the lawsuits brought by Trump’s campaign have thus far largely failed to present any meaningful evidence of fraud but have served to fan the flames of conspiracy theorists.

(Read more: Trump Election Lawsuits Have Mostly Failed. Here's What They Tried.)

“It's their right to challenge that, and that's fine,” Sununu said Thursday. “But Joe Biden is the President Elect. And I think like most Americans, we suspect he'll be taking the oath of office in January.”

The governor also vouched, unequivocally, for the integrity of New Hampshire's elections.

"There's no indication of widespread voter fraud here in New Hampshire,” he said. “I can't speak to other states. I just don't know, every state does it different, but I can tell you, in New Hampshire, there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud.”

While the governor has expressed confidence in the state’s election systems since taking office, he spoke differently as a gubernatorial candidate. In a radio interview shortly before the 2016 election, Sununu took issue with the state’s longstanding Election Day registration option and accused Democrats of “bussing [voters] in all over the place." A similar claim has since been echoed, without evidence, by President Trump and debunked by state election authorities.

Sununu later clarified that he did not mean those comments about bussed-in voters literally, and within months of taking office said he had “never seen a bit of actual evidence” of voter fraud in New Hampshire. And this year, Sununu and other top officials overseeing the state’s elections have been unified in their message that New Hampshire voters can be confident in how the 2020 election was conducted here.

“Folks voted at an unbelievable rate, and we got the results that night,” Sununu said. “We counted, and it looks good. If there are individual cases, we're always willing to look into those, and the attorney general's office has been very good about that.”

Casey is a Senior News Editor for NHPR. You can contact her with questions or feedback at cmcdermott@nhpr.org.
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