Attorney David Roland was so successful in proving that the election of Democrat Penny Hubbard was improper that a St. Louis Circut Court judge ordered a special election and his client, Bruce Franks, went on to serve three years in the legislature as a state representative for the 78th House district.
“One of the things that we did with Bruce's case is we filed a lawsuit as soon as possible and we started an investigation before the election even took place,” Roland told the St. Louis Record.
Roland is one of the few attorneys in the nation who has proven election fraud.
“There can be a legitimate question as to whether votes were proper and lawful and that’s what we proved in our case,” he said. “We dug in and we found out that the election authority had been totally mishandling absentee ballots. We were able to show that roughly 250 votes were improperly counted and then my client won the second election.”
Bruce, a Democrat, had originally lost the 2016 primary election by 90 votes.
“The Hubbards were a powerful political dynasty whose family members were gathering absentee ballots and getting them cast,” Roland said in an interview. “This kind of election fraud does happen. It can be effective to change the outcome of an election where the difference is measured in a matter of dozens or maybe hundreds of votes but when you try and scale it up, you cannot engage in this kind of fraud and it not be noticed.”
Roland made the comments in regards to House Representative Justin Hill (R-Lake St. Louis) filing a resolution last week urging representatives from battle ground states in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to call a special session and investigate the election results and, if needed, to exercise their authority under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution to elect new electors.
“The idea that Missouri should have any influence on how other States interpret and apply their election laws, particularly if the results have been certified in these other States, is just ridiculous,” Roland said.
The resolution came after Hill wrote a letter urging the speaker to extend the session so the resolution could be debated. In response, House Speaker Rob Vescovo extended the session until Monday, according to media reports.
"It's valid for a candidate or voter to bring a lawsuit if they can prove that unlawful votes might have altered the outcome of the election, but states have no legitimate basis to sue over how other states handled their elections," Roland said.
Some 66 Republican state lawmakers from Missouri signed Hill’s letter.
“One of the frustrating things is I actually do believe very strongly in a federal system, which allows States to do their own thing by and large, and the idea that the state of Missouri should be able to tell another state to get in line is offensive to the idea of federalism,” Roland said.