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Candidates who voted against certifying 2020 presidential election results, or who supported rioters, are on the ballot this fall
The 2020 presidential election was not decided by fraud, even though several New York politicians voted against certifying the election results, and others attended or cheered the riot attempting to overthrow the government on Jan. 6, 2021. New York Reps. Chris Jacobs, Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik, and Lee Zeldin all voted hours after the riot not to certify the election results. Stefanik is running locally for re-election, with her district now including Rensselaer County. Zeldin is the Republican nominee for governor. several other local politicians either went to Washington D.C. that day, cheered those attending, and continue to embrace the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Liz Joy, the Republican again running against Rep. Paul Tonko in New York's 20th Congressional District, Tweeted the day before that she was attending the DC riot, and Tweeted during the disturbance that, "Hundreds of thousands of people attended today’s rally to stand for Election Integrity." Joy said that if she had been in office on Jan. 6, 2021, she would have voted against certifying the election. “Joe Biden is the president — period,” Joy said. “But I do believe there was massive voter fraud in our 2020 elections. And we have to get it right before we have the 2022 election.” Stefanik continues to support the coup and overturning a fair and free election, even after the violence. She posted on Twitter after the riot that, "Americans have a Constitutional right to protest and freedom of speech, but violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable and anti-American." But Stefanik's Senior Advisor Alex deGrasse retweeted a message during the riot claiming the rioters were undercover leftists, without any evidence. Farther south, MidHudson News reported that state Assemblymember Colin Schmitt, a New Windsor Republican, was photographed the morning of Jan. 6, speaking maskless to a busload of people departing for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Schmitt is running for the 18th Congressional seat this year. But before the photo of Schmitt talking to the busload of people en route to Washington surfaced, he issued a statement saying, “I am deeply disturbed by the assault on the United States Capitol today. There is absolutely no justification for any form of violence against the pillars of our democracy.” Elsewhere, Andrea Macko reports at Porcupine Soup that Coeymans Town Supervisor George McHugh, Westerlo Republican Chair Lisa DeGroff, and Westerlo Town Councilperson Amie Burnsidewas wrote to a judge urging leniency for William Tryon, 71, of Selkirk. who pleaded guilty to his part of the riot in the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Chris McKenna from the Times Herald-Record reports that authorities know about at least 13 people from the Hudson Valley who were part of a violent attempt to overthrow the U.S. government on Jan. 6, 2021.