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C halk up another loss for conspiracy-centric election deniers.

They’re not accepting this defeat, either.

A federal judge in United States District Court in Portland last week dismissed a lawsuit brought by plaintiffs that included several unsuccessful candidates for political office in Oregon, others who want to end the state’s current voting system, and state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, whose district includes a portion of Jackson County.

The group — which, according to a report in the Oregon Capital Chronicle, plans to appeal the ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman — wants to end the state’s mail-in voting system as well as the machine tabulation of ballots.

Citing a debunked “documentary” about voter fraud, as well as the opinions of others who spread conspiracies around election malfeasance — including one who, in the suit, is quoted as claiming that Jackson County is “one of the 100 counties having the most fraud in the United States” — the plaintiffs allege that a lack of confidence in the state election system is shared “by all of Oregon’s citizens.”

Add that to the list of things they get wrong.

Last time we checked, the members of the Rogue Valley Times editorial board are Oregon citizens — and we don’t share that lack of confidence. And we’re certain we speak for countless others unswayed by the plaintiffs’ hyperbole.

Judge Beckerman used a similar line of thinking when declaring that those behind the lawsuit did not have legal standing to file the complaint.

“Plaintiffs’ alleged injury — their lack of confidence in Oregon’s election system — is not particularized to the plaintiffs in this litigation,” Beckerman wrote. “Rather, plaintiffs allege that … (it) is ‘a statewide issue.’ As such, plaintiffs have not alleged a particularized injury sufficient to establish standing.”

Back in April, the Times made note of a group of about 40 citizens who went before the Jackson County Board of Commissioners to make similar complaints, in the aftermath of a speaking engagement by a known election denier.

At that time, we pointed out the substantial financial cost and practical improbability of returning to a system that culminated with hand-counting the ballots of the county’s 160,000 registered voters.

Reviewing that editorial after last week’s federal ruling, we realized that we had erred — we were not strong enough in our rejection of the false claims of irregularities and demands to scrap Oregon’s voting system.

We presented logistical and financial reasons believing — naively, as it turns out — that this would be sufficient push back against a stance that has a foundation built upon baseless conspiracies and unsubstantiated claims.

Given a second bite at the apple, we’ll take a different tack and call out such efforts for what they really are: Another example in the national undercurrent by those who would toss aside facts and common sense in the quest to create an “alternative history” — one in which they prevail despite all evidence to the contrary.

We could have let last week’s court ruling stand without comment, but this ongoing attack on a system that — in Jackson County and across the state — has proven itself worthy of our support and confidence requires holding up the mirror of truth.

Even if the true believers would reject what they’d see, should they bother to look.