Attorney has appeared in a conspiracy theory-fueled film, falsely claimed a million ballots were destroyed in Massachusetts and recently linked his election doubts to a science-fiction novel.

MADISON, Wis. -- In case you were wondering whether the Wisconsin GOP’s sham election review could get any more outrageous: the answer is yes, it can.

Michael Gableman, Robin Vos’s handpicked special counsel, has been consulting with election conspiracy theorist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai. Ayyadurai is known for:

• Starring in MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s election conspiracy film;
• Helping Arizona with their Cyber Ninja election review circus;
• Claiming he was the victim of election fraud; and
• Concocting a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election related to the science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

It’s no wonder Gableman is seeking advice from Dr. Shiva - Gableman has already said, at a Trump rally no less, that he believes the election was rigged. Gableman also attended Mike Lindell’s QAnon bonanza and visited Arizona’s “investigation.”

While these ludicrous claims make it hard to take the Wisconsin GOP’s election sham review seriously, voter rights are at stake. Robin Vos has admitted that the real motivation is justifying radical changes to Wisconsin’s election laws. Wisconsin Republicans attempted to pass several laws earlier this year limiting absentee voting, sparking backlash from the disability community. The bills were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Read more about the Wisconsin GOP’s ongoing circus below.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gableman talking to conspiracy theorist Shiva Ayyadurai as he reviews Wisconsin's election

The attorney heading a partisan review of Wisconsin's presidential election has been consulting with a losing U.S. Senate candidate who appeared in a conspiracy theory-fueled film, falsely claimed a million ballots were destroyed in Massachusetts and recently linked his election doubts to a science-fiction novel.

Shiva Ayyadurai since he lost a 2020 primary for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts has been spreading untrue claims about elections — suggesting last month without credible evidence that more than 4% of Donald Trump’s votes were shaved off his totals. Now, he’s talking to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman for Gableman’s review of the presidential election.

Ayyadurai’s exact role is not clear.

"They’re indicating they’re going to bring in Dr. Shiva as well to help on the forensic audit," Reince Priebus, Trump’s first chief of staff, said last month on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Ayyadurai and Gableman "have had a lot of conversations," according to Harry Wait, president of the conservative watchdog group Honest Open Transparent Government. Wait said he speaks to Gableman frequently, including last week.

Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes, or 0.6 percentage points. Recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties confirmed his victory, as did a string of court decisions.

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Ayyadurai in 2018 lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and in 2020 lost the Republican primary for Senate in that state. In October, he falsely tweeted "Massachusetts Destroys Over 1 MILLION Ballots in US SENATE PRIMARY RACE committing #ElectionFraud." (In that tweet he also complained of images of ballots being deleted and at other times he has focused on images of ballots, rather than the ballots themselves.)

In February, Twitter suspended him. Ayyadurai sued state election officials over the issue but dropped his lawsuit last month.

Ayyadurai, who is helping Arizona Republicans with a review of ballots in their state, this year appeared in "Absolute Proof," a film by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell that argued the 2020 election was rigged. Fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked Lindell’s claims.

In the film, Ayyadurai maintained that voting machines had been engineered to wipe out a third of his votes in the Massachusetts primary race.

"No one has rebutted my mathematical explanation showing that they multiplied my votes by .666 and the other guy's by 1.2," Ayyadurai said in the film.

Barry Burden, the director of the Election Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Ayyadurai's claim can't be taken seriously.

"His statements about Massachusetts seem completely implausible," Burden said. "These sort of artificial multipliers and things that he latches onto seem completely detached from reality."

Ayyadurai in August appeared at an election forum Lindell hosted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Theory based on 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

During an appearance on Bannon’s podcast while he was there, Ayyadurai said figures cited at the forum suggested 4.2% of Trump’s votes had been stripped away. Ayyadurai said the reduced figures were either a part of a disinformation campaign to discredit Lindell or a sign that "a bunch of nerds" had subtracted votes from Trump based on "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy."

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide” is a 1979 comedic science-fiction novel by Douglas Adams that features a supercomputer that spends millions of years pondering the question of “life, the universe and everything.” It determines the answer is 42.

"Every state was subtracted by 4.2%," Ayyadurai told Bannon last month. "Forty-two. Do you remember 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'?”

Burden said Ayyadurai seemed to be taking as fact a faulty analysis by election conspiracy theorist Seth Keshel that contends Democrats should have done worse than they did in 2020 because they saw their vote margins slip in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

"It's totally bananas and it ignores inconvenient facts like that the 2018 election was a midterm but very good for the Democrats," said Burden, who called Keshel an amateur who didn't understand the electorate or election administration.

Gableman, who attended Lindell’s event in South Dakota, has a taxpayer-funded budget of $676,000. He plans to spend about half that amount — $325,000 — on a contractor to perform data analysis related to voting machines.

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