To the editor:

On June 9th Mr. Thom wrote a letter comparing the election fraud investigations to inspecting used car. Specifically he said that he wanted to “look under the hood” to investigate an unexpected sound. We should certainly strive for clean elections and we should (and do) routinely audit the results of elections. However, what is happening now is far more than looking under the hood.

When we first saw the car we were told that the previous owner traded it in with snow tires still equipped. It’s not a problem but it will likely sound a little different on the highway (we knew beforehand that the partisan skewed use of mail-in ballots and vote counting rules would result in an overnight ‘bump’ for Biden).

As we test drive it we notice that it really doesn’t sound as bad as we thought it might (Trump outperformed most polling data). Nevertheless, despite not being able to put our finger on it we just feel something is wrong with the car. Does it shift hard? No. Did it briefly lose power while accelerating? No, not really. Is the muffler rattling? No, I guess it isn’t. (The litany of unsubstantiated fraud accusations from Sharpiegate, postal workers backdating ballots, to fake ballots crossing state lines, etc.).

We take it to our mechanic for an inspection and he gives the car a clean bill of health (the routine audits of the election results). However, we notice that something was crossed out and rewritten on the report. We are assured it was just a data entry error but we are skeptical (Antrim county tally error).

We have a couple of our friends (Republican officials and conservative judges) look it over. They find a few dings and some worn upholstery (inevitable and inconsequential irregularities), but they assure us it is one of the better used cars they’ve seen. We still know there must be something wrong. We begin to entertain wild ideas that the dealer and our mechanic have conspired with CarFax to trick us into buying the car through forged vehicle history and inspection reports (Italygate and the Dominion conspiracy theory). In desperation we find an inexperienced, sketchy mechanic to check the car again (the Maricopa County audit).

Is there no end? Looking under the hood is completely warranted. Insisting upon the complete disassembly of the engine is not.

Vance Madsen

Sauk City

formerly of New Ulm