By Joe Miller
Certification Delays By Election Deniers Demonstrate Ongoing Threats to Democracy
As state and local election officials worked to certify the midterm election results this week, election deniers attempted to undermine the results of a free and fair contest – following a Trump playbook some voting rights experts are calling a “test run” for future elections.
In Arizona, threats to democracy loomed large this week as election deniers continue to demonize local administrators and fight the will of voters. Over the past week, MAGA Republicans have begun gathering at the state Capitol to demand a “redo election,” citing baseless claims of so-called “Serious Voter Suppression.” They are mounting election challenges aimed at toppling local election officials in county-level and state-level courts. As part of this push, election deniers in GOP-controlled Cochise County voted against certifying the midterm election results, holding the state hostage as all other counties voted to certify even after facing MAGA objections. After the vote, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sued the county to certify the election results, joined by a second lawsuit brought by plaintiffs from a local voting rights advocacy group.
In other states, the certification process has been rife with interruptions, delays, and lawsuits pushed by election deniers. In Pennsylvania, Luzerne County’s board of elections failed to certify the midterm election results. In Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County election board certified the results only after calling sheriffs’ deputies to calm MAGA protests as Doug Mastriano supporters flooded state courts with baseless recount petitions. The Michigan State Canvassing Board, however, unanimously certified the midterm election results in the face of pressure from losing GOP candidates and calls from MAGA supporters to not certify the election. Likewise, North Carolina officials unanimously certified the midterm election results and reported “tremendous turnout.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear North Carolina’s redistricting case Moore v. Harper next week, debating the state GOP’s radical “independent state legislature” theory. The case is a blatant attempt to hijack federal elections and prevent MAGA state legislatures from being held accountable to state courts in election-related lawmaking. If North Carolina lawmakers are successful in what voting rights experts are calling the single-most important case on American democracy, it could introduce “chaos” into elections across the country.
Elsewhere, election deniers are still working to undermine American voters:
In Wisconsin, state election officials are weighing changes to military voting as part of an effort to further constrain absentee voters.
In Minnesota, MAGA conspiracy theorist Rick Weible has joined forces with South Dakota Secretary of State-elect Monae Johnson, one of the only election deniers to win statewide office during the midterm elections. Weible spent months ahead of the midterm elections working to convince local election officials to forgo voting machines and move to hand-counted elections.
In Nevada, voting barriers for native tribes living in rural Nevada were reportedly exacerbated by Nye County’s efforts to hand-count all election results this year.
And finally, as the midterm elections wind down, lawmakers are preparing for a wave of holdover court challenges and rulings on redistricting maps that could significantly alter the shape of Congressional districts across the country – especially in North Carolina, where the court-imposed midterm maps are set to be replaced by the GOP legislature without any input from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
