Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and noted Trump acolyte, has vowed to support election administrators in Shasta County, California, after they upended the county’s election process over some officials’ belief in conspiracy theories about a stolen 2020 election.
At a board meeting this week, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors announced that they were canceling the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems, citing debunked conspiracy theories promoted by Fox News and other right-wing media outlets about the security of the company’s machines. Officials said they would look into other options for voting in the county, like hand-counting ballots, and claimed that residents don’t trust the Dominion equipment.
Supervisor Kevin Crye also announced that he’d been in touch with none other than Lindell – an election denier and chief proponent of the lies about Dominion – about the issue. Lindell offered to support a pilot voting system to replace the machines and help the county fend off any possible legal challenges, Crye said.
“There is a great sense they would like to return to something simpler and safer, and more secure from outside hacking,” Board Chairman Patrick Jones told the Los Angeles Times.
In a statement to the Times, a Dominion spokesperson said the vote to remove the machines was “yet another example of how lies about Dominion have damaged our company and diminished the public’s faith in elections.”
Right-wing grievances and Big Lie conspiracy theories have been infiltrating the local government in Shasta County for the past year. Last February, far-right anti-government activists led a successful recall vote to oust a Republican supervisor partially for enforcing COVID mandates. A few months later, two board members voted not to accept the county’s primary election results, but their efforts were squashed at the time. And later that year, two candidates backed by far-right groups were elected onto the board, leading to Tuesday’s decision.
Lindell told the Times on Wednesday that he was “pretty proud” of the county, and said that every county should follow in their footsteps. According to Crye, Lindell vowed via email that if the county faced “any pushback, including lawsuits … I will provide all the resources necessary, both including financial and legal, for this fight.” Lindell later confirmed to the Times that he would “absolutely” support the county financially if necessary.
Lindell has been instrumental in the right-wing crusade against Dominion Voting Systems since the 2020 election. In Feb. 2021, the company filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against him for promoting conspiracy theories about the company.
“After hitting the jackpot with Donald Trump’s endorsement for MyPillow and after a million-dollar bet on Fox News ads had paid out handsome returns, Michael Lindell exploited another chance to boost sales: marketing MyPillow to people who would tune in and attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the ‘Big Lie’ that Dominion had stolen the 2020 election,” the complaint said.
Lindell tried to get the case dismissed, but the Supreme Court refused to take up his case.
