By Joe Miller
Trump and His Allies Are Following The Election Denier Playbook Ahead of the Midterm Elections
This week, Trump and his allies continue laying the groundwork to hold our elections hostage, doggedly executing the Election Denier Playbook with Election Day less than one week away – starting with efforts to ban and delegitimize certain voting methods by suggesting likely voter fraud, despite the fact that Americans are motivated to protect democracy and their right to vote. In Arizona, Cochise County officials have reinstated a hand-count of all ballots cast in the midterm elections amid a legal dispute over plans that will result in a significantly more expensive, unnecessarily lengthy, and less-than-credible count by hand-picked teams of MAGA volunteers. In neighboring Nevada, Nye County officials continue to fight for hand-counted, all paper-ballot elections even as the state Supreme Court has ordered them to cease hand-counting election results, calling the unprecedented process illegal.
Second, MAGA Republicans are refusing to commit to election results if they lose. In Pennsylvania, election officials are concerned about candidates dismissing the results, leading to an unprecedented rise in voter distrust in the state’s electoral processes. Trump Republicans are also spreading rampant disinformation in the state, with false tweets circulating and mysterious letters appearing in suburban Philadelphia mailboxes telling residents their votes will not be counted. In the words of one Pennsylvania official, “Republicans are going to a place of only accepting elections when they win, and that’s dangerous as hell.”
Third, election deniers are discrediting state and local election administrators in high-turnout areas. In Wisconsin, Senator Ron Johnson is urging his constituents not to vote early in Milwaukee – casting doubt on Milwaukee’s top election officials, who are already bracing for confrontations with violent poll watchers fueled by so-called stolen election lies.
Now, MAGA figures are rallying their supporters to harass and intimidate voters at the polls. In Arizona, a federal judge rejected an emergency injunction seeking to prevent ballot drop box monitors from gathering outside of voting locations, prompting the Department of Justice to step in with a statement of interest noting that the vigilante ballot watchers pose a significant risk of illegal voter intimidation. The lawsuit comes as masked poll watchers in Phoenix-based Maricopa County are showing up to voting precincts armed with handguns and Kevlar vests. At least three groups, including one led by Trump ally Michael Flynn, are recruiting untrained volunteers (specifically military veterans and current/former law enforcement officers) to engage in the poll watching effort.
Over the weekend, the January 6th Committee obtained eight emails from a judge showing that Donald Trump and lawyers were planning to defraud the courts and deliberately obstruct congressional proceedings on the presidential vote in 2020 – knowing full-well that the challenges were false. As we draw closer to Election Day, Trump and his allies will only continue trying to undermine the will of American voters using the same tactics employed in 2020.
Elsewhere, election deniers are working overtime to subvert the will of voters:
In Nevada, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is asking a state judge to order Las Vegas election officials to hire and recruit more MAGA Republican poll workers.
In Michigan, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit by the RNC and state GOP against local election officials, rejecting an effort to require Detroit-area election officials to specifically hire and recruit additional Republican election workers and inject partisan poll workers into Michigan’s electoral process. Numerous voting rights groups celebrated the order as election workers navigate increasing controversy and scrutiny this year.
In Wisconsin, an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling barring voters from canceling already-submitted absentee ballots and re-submitting corrected versions, further constraining voters in the state.
And finally, in Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Senator Lindsey Graham must testify to the Fulton County grand jury investigating Trump’s 2020 election interference, ending a months-long dispute about the terms of Senator Graham’s subpoena and compelling him to appear by Nov. 17.
