This week, as midterm election results continue to come in, we know that Americans turned out in record numbers to reject the Trump Republicans who deny election results to overthrow our elections, all so they can seize power. But the fight is not over yet. Now, we must hold Trump Republicans accountable, continue to reject their lies, and expose their extremism.
Here’s what you need to know for the weekend:
Main Points for the Weekend:
1. Across the country, MAGA election deniers were defeated – a win for democracy. In almost every state across the country, election deniers were running for state, local, and federal positions. And in many, election deniers did not prevail.
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- Top point to make: Americans knew democracy was on the ballot, and thanks to them, democracy won.
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- If you read one thing: Vox, 11/9/11: The midterms showed American democracy won’t go down without a fight. “2022 was supposed to be the beginning of a new crisis for American democracy. Republicans seemed poised for a “red tsunami,” one that would sweep election deniers and conspiracy theorists into governor’s mansions and election administration posts in swing states across the country. The worry was that they would then be in position to hand the 2024 election to their patron, Donald Trump, regardless of the will of the voters. But there was no red tsunami — and Republicans who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election seem to have performed particularly poorly. At the state level, where the actual power to disrupt future elections lies, Democrats are very close to running the table… But the fact that high-profile election deniers did poorly in competitive races, often worse than comparable non-denier Republicans, suggests there may be something else going on here: that maybe, just maybe, a significant swath of the American public is punishing the Republican Party for running candidates who sought to turn against democracy itself.”
2. Following Trump’s election-denier playbook, MAGA Republicans continue to spread conspiracy theories about the election. These tactics aim at slowing the vote-counting process, sowing chaos, and setting up to file baseless lawsuits to change the election results.
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- Top point to make: MAGA Republicans will spread lies and conspiracy theories in order to infringe on our right to pick who leads us.
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- If you read one thing: Reuters, 11/9/22: Voting machine problems in Arizona seized on by Trump, election deniers. “Problems with dozens of electronic vote-counting machines in the battleground state of Arizona on Tuesday were seized upon by Republican former President Donald Trump and his followers, who falsely claimed it was evidence of election fraud by Democrats. Just a few hours into Election Day, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told reporters that about 20% of electronic vote tabulation machines in the state’s most populous county were malfunctioning, and technicians were being deployed to fix them. The problem was that ballots were not lining up properly inside the machines and were not being read, Richer said, adding that despite the problems all votes would be counted. Richer called the malfunctions ‘disappointing’ and correctly predicted that election deniers such as Trump would ‘exploit’ the issue.”
3. After months of investigations and a poor showing from the 2022 midterm elections, the Republican party is dealing with a reckoning. After most of his hand-picked candidates have lost their elections, the Republican party is finally realizing they have to move on from Trump’s lead.
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- Top point to make: America is joining together to reject the divisive vision of the country set forth by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans.
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- If you read one thing: The Atlantic, 11/9/22: America Has an Anti-MAGA Majority. “‘When elections are clearly about Trump and MAGA, MAGA will lose,’ Michael Podhorzer, a progressive strategist, told me. ‘What Trump did was make a really large number of Americans say, ‘There’s now something really at stake in elections, and it matters more if I go out and vote.’… With the votes counted, that seems wrong. Not only did election-denying candidates fare poorly, but voters told the Associated Press that the future of democracy was a top issue for them, trailing only inflation in importance. (Democrats actually won voters who said the economy was not doing well, according to AP)… ‘There’s this new group of voters there because of Trump and MAGA,’ Podhorzer said. ‘That’s changed the equation.’ Those voters still had to turn out, though. Democratic messaging around abortion helped, but so did hearings of the House committee investigating January 6 and Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Republicans rolled their eyes at the hearings, arguing that they wouldn’t change anyone’s mind and were drawing underwhelming ratings. More sympathetic observers supported the hearings as a matter of justice and the political record, but they doubted they would have much political impact.”
Expert voices
Norman Eisen, a political law expert who advised the White House on election law when he served as President Barack Obama’s ethics czar, and Taylor Redd, a researcher focusing on national elections: “Major victories in two separate voting rights cases this week stunted efforts to harass early voters in Arizona and overwhelm election offices in Michigan with frivolous challenges…These victories can provide some peace of mind to voters in Arizona, Michigan, and across the nation. They show that – just as they did with challenges during our last election – courts will enforce the law to protect voting rights and the election system…All the same, election denial and voter intimidation efforts are well-organized across the United States. It is critically important to continue to monitor legal developments leading up to the midterm election to preserve a tradition all Americans should be proud of: free, fair, secure and accurate elections.” CNN Op-Ed
Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket: “I wish I could say that we have seen the worst — armed watchers at drop boxes and tens of thousands of frivolous challenges to remove lawful voters from the rolls in states like Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. I fear we have not. The election is still days away. And the counting and certification process will take weeks, if not longer. At each stage, voters and election officials will not only have to contend with overworked staff, aggressive campaigns and a skeptical media, but also with election vigilantes whose only goal is sow doubt in the outcome while threatening the process.The cost of election vigilantism to our democracy is incalculable.” Democracy Docket
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “Even after January 6, [Stewart] Rhodes continued to push for interference with the peaceful transfer of power. Prosecutors offered testimony from Jason Alpers, who had unspecified connections to Trump’s inner circle, and who Rhodes asked to pass on a message urging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to remain in power. Alpers decided to take the message to the FBI instead of Trump. This is powerful evidence that suggests Rhodes and his group were focused on doing precisely what the government is required to prove here: that the defendants made an agreement to engage in sedition. The statute has different options that prosecutors can choose among for what “sedition” involves. In the indictment, DOJ alleged that the defendants agreed to use force to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of a law—specifically, the constitutional and statutory provisions surrounding the transfer of power after a presidential election.” Civil Discourse
Lara Putnam, UCIS Research Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and co-lead of the Southwest PA Civic Resilience Initiative of the Pitt Disinformation Lab at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security: “Everything we know from the breakdown of democracies in other nations underlines this basic fact: to avoid authoritarian cascade, it’s critical that the leaders of all political parties affirm their commitment to shared electoral rules, including the rules regarding who will be the arbiters in cases of dispute. Without that, lawsuits themselves can become a wedge to subvert the rule of law, providing pretext for vigilante action. More than 60 Pennsylvanians faced criminal charges for participating in the violent assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.We cannot allow the threat of vigilante intervention to become a de facto part of the partisan toolkit. Pennsylvanians deserve to have every vote calmly counted.” Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Commentary: Why we need to say no to vigilantism after Election Day too
Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause: “Critics argue that the overall purpose is to separate Republicans and Democrats by method of voting and then to use lawsuits to void mail ballots that are disproportionately Democratic. ‘They’re looking for every advantage they can get, and they’ve calculated that this is a way that they can win more seats,’ said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy organization. ‘Research has shown that absentee ballots are more likely to be discarded if they are voted by young people and people of color, which are not generally seen as the Republican base.’” Washington Post
Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington: “For the United States was not built on a foundation of democracy. And forestalling Republican authoritarianism and reaction, as crucial as it is, will not keep democracy “solidly in place,” for democracy in America has never been solidly in place. And, alas, the version of democracy we are now called upon to defend—and defend it we must!—is in many ways anemic, alienating, and not very democratic at all.” Common Dreams
Joyce Vance, former US attorney (MSNBC Video): “Former federal prosecutor @JoyceWhiteVance previews what to expect from the Department of Justice in the face of Republican attacks on the integrity of election results: ‘DOJ’s marching orders are to lay low this close to an election. … DOJ does not pick winners in elections.’” The Recount Tweet
Susannah Goodman, director of election security for Common Cause, re: problems at polling locations such as those in Maricopa County, Arizona: “‘What we are seeing are things that we usually see on Election Day,’ Susannah Goodman, director of election security for Common Cause, told reporters. ‘There are glitches in the system, but election administrators have learned from the past and they have resiliency built in.’” USA Today
David J. Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research: “David J. Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Election Day had in fact gone remarkably well, with high turnout, manageable lines and few problems. ‘That said, the disinformation network is kicking into high gear, with some candidates and even members of Congress spreading falsehoods seeking to amplify the ordinary glitches we’re seeing or spread lies about the ballot casting and counting process,’ Mr. Becker said.” New York Times
Edward B. Foley, Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State University: “Edward B. Foley, a scholar of election law at Ohio State University, said the success of so many election deniers is worrisome but that much uncertainty remains about how these officeholders will use their power. He noted that some election deniers on the ballot this year have wavered, which leaves unclear how they would act once in office. Foley also suggested deniers’ acceptance of their own victories could, in some ways, strengthen public trust in their states’ elections. ‘The whole goal is that valid victories are authenticated as valid, and none of this perversion prevails,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to unduly soften this. We’re in treacherous waters. It’s going to be more difficult the more denialists are in office. But it’s not inevitable that the ship sinks.’” Washington Post
Joanna Lydgate, Norm Eisen, and Christine Todd Whitman, co-founders of States United Action: “Among the many tragedies of the ‘Big Lie’ — the fiction that Donald Trump was denied victory in 2020 by rampant election fraud — is needless hostility toward our state-based system. Some wonder why we can’t be more like other countries, where elections are centralized and results seem to be immediate. But our federalist patchwork quilt is also a safety mechanism. America’s elections are more secure because they’re decentralized. More than 200,000 polling places were used in the 2018 midterm elections, with reporting rolling up through precincts, counties and states. Such an individualized system is impossible to hack. Of course, there are things we can learn from other countries, and there is always room for some uniform, nationwide processes. But we should also value our state variations.” LA Times Op-Ed: Get ready to wait for the midterm results
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “One caution: down ballot races matter. In far too many cases, supporters of the big lie prevailed in state elections. Some of them will be in positions like Secretaries of State that will give them substantial control over the process and outcomes of future elections. In North Carolina, where state court judges are elected, Republicans won control of the Supreme Court. There are voting rights cases pending, including one that will impact the rights of people with old felony convictions to vote. We are going to have to be vigilant about protecting our elections and every American’s right to vote in the future.” Civil Discourse
Government Accountability Project “releasing a new guide to help election workers navigate the complex path of blowing the whistle safely and effectively in today’s climate of increased threats to the integrity of our elections and proper functioning of our democracy. “On The Front Lines of Democracy: A Guide to Whistleblowing for Election Workers” highlights how election workers—whether poll workers, managers, clerks, inspectors, or a municipal, county or state election officials—may be the best, and possibly the only, people in a position to notice and report illegal election interference by other election workers and officials.” “On The Front Lines of Democracy: A Guide to Whistleblowing for Election Workers” Guide PDF | Press Release
Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “One particularly pernicious culprit in violence is jokes and memes. Jokes are actually far more likely to normalize prejudice than an overtly prejudiced argument, because sharp-edged humor circumvents our brain’s usual pathways for rational thinking. The internet subculture of misogynistic, racist and violent half-jokes against Democrats thus plays a particularly dangerous role in normalizing ideas that many people wouldn’t entertain if forced to speak it in plain language. We need to request that friends and neighbors refrain from such casual harm — and demand it from our leaders. When a key figure on the right can tweet a joke about an 82-year-old man getting hit by a hammer, and thousands of people like it, that is a sign of real danger.” Politico Magazine Op-Ed: How Political Violence Went Mainstream on the Right
Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College:“[Tuesday] was a good day for democracy. Americans turned out to defend our principles from those who denied our right to choose our own leaders. There was little violence, the election appears to have gone smoothly, and there are few claims of ‘fraud.’” Letters from an American
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor at New York University: “Of course, we cannot gloss over the major threats to democracy that remain. We can expect the GOP to double down on its lawlessness and recourse to autocratic methods given the collapse of its imagined red wave.” Lucid
Norm Eisen, senior fellow in governance studies at Brooking Institute: “The Election Denier movement in some states was thwarted by well-informed voters who believe in the power of free, fair & secure elections. But our democracy remains in danger. Stay vigilant. I explain why with @statesunited & @Eagleton_RU.” Tweet | Podcast Audio
Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for Common Cause: “‘Sometimes, with tactics like this [such as partisan election workers], the story is the intimidation,’ Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for the watchdog group Common Cause. ‘It’s about making a movement seem bigger than it is … making a fringe idea feel very mainstream, and like it’s everywhere.’” Washington Post
