In Georgia, Trump and his allies are already rejecting the election results with early voting underway – following the Election Denier Playbook. They are trying to delegitimize voting systems in order to make it harder for people to vote, and essentially pick their own voters, laying the groundwork to question election results if they lose by further discrediting election officials. Finally, these election deniers are calling on their MAGA constituents to harass election workers, spread conspiracies about voting irregularities, and even commit violence to protect the election outcomes they want.
Step 1: Undermine Election Results By Amplifying False Allegations of Voting Irregularities, Fraud, and Wild Conspiracy Theories.
Trump and his allies are already trying to convince Georgia voters that any Republican losses are illegitimate or fraudulent by default. The Georgia GOP has continued to embrace blatant lies about elections well into the midterm election cycle, courting dozens of election deniers and casting doubt on state and local administrators. Though few Republican leaders have openly refused to recognize the election results, their continued commitment to Trump’s election conspiracies indicates that they have no plans to stand in the way of his continued efforts to undermine the electoral process in Georgia.
Step 2: Make False Claims About Election Security And Demand Changes That Limit Ballot Access.
Trump-aligned figures are relentlessly targeting Georgia’s voting infrastructure, claiming without evidence that the process is ripe for fraud. They have worked to enact and defend a host of bills and initiatives imposing strict and unconstitutional ballot access restrictions. After the 2020 election, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a restrictive election law inspired by debunked election conspiracy theories lobbied after the 2020 election. Most experts have concluded that SB 202 substantially reduced voting access, and SB 202 has disproportionately hurt voters of color. In spite of these findings, most Republican officials continue to support the ballot access restrictions in the state ahead of the midterm elections in November.
These efforts are designed to damage the credibility of our democratic institutions and undermine trust in the electoral process. By making false claims about absentee ballots, election deniers are pushing changes to the election system that would make it much more difficult to vote in Georgia.
Step 3: Discredit Election Officials, Especially in Areas of High Voter Turnout for Your Opponent.
Trump Republicans are working to delegitimize election processes throughout Georgia, particularly in areas with high turnout against their candidates like Fulton County. In 2020, Trump personally pressed officials in multiple states urging them to interfere with the certification process. He repeatedly placed calls to Governor Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding that they “find” 11,000 votes for him and investigate his baseless allegations of fraud.
This year, Trump and his allies are already working to delegitimize election officials presiding over one of the largest cities in the country. Georgia officials – including Gov. Kemp – have been working to investigate and take over Atlanta-based Fulton County’s elections by placing the county’s election precincts under heavy scrutiny by the GOP-appointed State Election Board, which plans to replace Fulton’s election administrators once their review is complete. These MAGA efforts are part of a larger movement of election deniers working to discredit the state’s electoral processes as early voting surges in Georgia.
Step 4: Train Supporters To Become Election Officials and Call on Supporters to Harass Voters and Election Officials.
In 2020, Trump went so far as to target two front-line election workers in Atlanta-based Fulton County, unleashing a mob of his supporters on them with racist invective and violent threats. This year, Trump and his allies are fueling a wave of harassment and threats of violence directed at poll workers and officials in Georgia.
Following in Trump’s footsteps, MAGA groups are targeting state and local election administrators, pushing for state takeovers, challenging voter registrations, and inundating election offices with waves of identical records requests. Voter registration challenges across Georgia are undermining confidence in election results with early voting in progress. Cobb County also quickly dismissed thousands of challenges, following Gwinnett and DeKalb counties’ dismissal of most voter challenges. Meanwhile, Georgia election officials are investigating a fake ballot discovered at an early voting location in Spalding County as a group of MAGA county officials tasked with protecting election equipment were recently exposed for planning to steal sensitive voting data using taxpayer funds.
Trump and his allies have spent months organizing a well-coordinated network of election deniers to threaten voters and election officials who refuse to go along with their plans – and the threats have only intensified as Election Day nears.
Step 5: Intimidate Voters, Reject the Results, and Spread Lies About Election Fraud During the Election.
For months, Trump and MAGA Republicans in Georgia have been laying the groundwork to declare that unfavorable election results are supposedly rigged. Trump and his allies are already refusing to accept the results, spreading lies about election security, discrediting Georgia election officials, and calling on their supporters to harass election administrators with threats of violence. As we draw closer to Election Day, they will only continue working to undermine the will of American voters.
