Before the Trump era, claims of stolen presidential elections were largely the domain of the Democratic Party.
In 2000, prominent Democrats declared George W. Bush “selected, not elected.” Four years later, a conspiracy theory involving Diebold voting machines inspired 31 House Democrats to vote against certifying Bush’s victory in Ohio.
In 2016, it was Hillary Clinton and allegations of Russian collusion.
But in the wake of President Trump’s 312-226 Electoral College victory in 2024— including wins in all seven swing states — theories of election theft have largely been relegated to the fringes of the internet.
And Ray Buckley’s social media feed.
In recent days, the New Hampshire Democratic Party chair has been sharing content on his X account, arguing that the 2024 presidential election was stolen from Vice President Kamala Harris.
That includes a video of left-wing podcaster David Pakman interviewing Nathan Taylor, a self-proclaimed “cybersecurity expert” and executive director of public engagement for the Election Truth Alliance (ETA).
“BREAKING: An election expert has cast doubt on Trump’s 2024 election victory, showing possible election fraud that could lead to Harris overturning the results,” reads the X message shared by Buckley with his 12,600 followers.
“In this 28-minute deep dive, an election expert showed heat map visualizations of precinct-level 2024 data to highlight ‘unnatural’ spikes in Trump vote shares, potentially enough to flip outcomes,” reads a follow-up post, also reposted by Buckley.
Is Buckley suggesting Harris really won the 2024 election? Buckley and the New Hampshire Democratic Party declined to respond to NHJournal’s requests for comment.
Buckley has frequently and publicly attacked Republicans who supported President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Republicans have taken note now that Buckley has turned the tables.
“For years, Democrats lectured us about election denial and threats to democracy. Now their own party chairman is amplifying conspiracy theories claiming a presidential election was stolen,” said state Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem).
“Spreading internet fever dreams about stolen elections is reckless, hypocritical, and damaging to public confidence in our system. Chris Pappas, Maggie Goodlander, and Cinde Warmington, call your offices — cleanup on Aisle Ray.”
In the video distributed by Buckley, Taylor claims computer malware was used in voting tabulation machines to exaggerate turnout in specific precincts and manipulate vote totals in Trump’s favor in crucial swing states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
“We’re finding the largest voting system brand in the U.S. does seem to have cellular modems in their tabulation machines that are used to send early reports to counties from precincts,” Taylor said, echoing discredited claims raised by Republicans in 2020 and Democrats in 2004.
Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the largest election software provider in the United States, disputed Taylor’s claims.
“Tabulators don’t come with modems automatically built in,” an ES&S spokesperson told NHJournal. “They are a separate module that only gets added when they are requested by jurisdictions in states where they are allowed.”
Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia are among the states and territories that allow county election officials to use cellular modems to share unofficial tallies.
ES&S also said official results are always uploaded in person at county election headquarters before certification.
“Physical ballots and printed result tapes remain protected throughout the process,” the spokesperson said.
According to ES&S, no incidents of cellular modem-related malware were reported during the 2024 presidential election.
Taylor also claims some ballot boxes were stuffed — non-legal votes cast — while others had votes switched from one candidate to another. There is no evidence to support either claim.
“We don’t truly know how much can be stuffing versus switching,” Taylor said. “We don’t know exactly what the real turnout could have been, which was still expected to be very high. We do know that switching, deleting, and stuffing votes could have had this impact.”
Buckley, who has served as state party chair since 2007, has faced growing criticism within his party over Democrats’ repeated losses in state elections. While Democrats have been virtually undefeated in federal races since 2010, Republicans have held the Governor’s Office since 2016. Democrats have yet to produce a major candidate for governor in 2026.
Republicans have also dominated control of the state legislature since 2010, holding House majorities in all but four years and Senate majorities in all but two.
Most significantly, Buckley oversaw his own party’s loss of New Hampshire’s First-in-the-Nation presidential primary status in 2024. The DNC is considering doing the same in 2028.
