Following the Election Denier Playbook, Trump and his allies are already rejecting the election results before a single vote has been counted. In Pennsylvania, they are trying to discredit voting systems in order to make it harder for people to vote – and essentially, to pick their own voters. Trump Republicans are discrediting election officials in order to lay the groundwork to question election results if they lose. 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 outcome they want.
Step 1: Refuse to Commit to Accepting Election Results Based on False Allegations of Voting Irregularities, Fraud, and Wild Conspiracy Theories.
On November 5, 2020, Trump claimed without evidence that the ballot counting process in Philadelphia was rigged. This year, he’s already planning to challenge the 2022 election results again by alleging voter fraud in the Senate results from Philadelphia – and he’s been planning it since September.
Trump and his allies are already looking to convince MAGA Republicans that Democratic election victories in Pennsylvania are illegitimate or fraudulent by default. On Fox News, Trump ally Tucker Carlson claimed it would be “absurd” for voters to accept Pennsylvania election as legitimate if a Republican loses, telling viewers: “They’ll be telling you that John Fetterman got 81 million votes in Pennsylvania, and they’ll threaten you to put you in jail if you don’t believe it.” Former Trump advisor and far-right organizer Steve Bannon has since echoed the same lies, telling his audience, “The only way [Attorney General Josh] Shapiro can win is to cheat, and you’re seeing it right here.”
Step 2: Make False Claims About Election Security And Demand Changes That Limit Ballot Access.
Trump-aligned figures are relentlessly targeting mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that the process is ripe for fraud. A group of MAGA plaintiffs known as “Audit the Vote PA,” led by Jan. 6 conspirators and high-ranking former Trump staffers Stephen Miller and Mark Meadows, is suing several counties over ballot drop boxes for mail-in ballots in a thinly-veiled attempt to reduce absentee turnout. State and national Republicans are also suing the state in an effort to exclude undated absentee ballots in the November election’s final ballot count. By targeting absentee ballots, election deniers are pushing changes to the election system that would make it more difficult to vote in Pennsylvania.
Step 3: Discredit Election Officials, Especially in Areas of High Voter Turnout for Your Opponent.
Trump Republicans are working to delegitimize election processes throughout Pennsylvania, particularly in areas with high turnout against their candidates. In response to a warning from state election officials that the preliminary results could take several days to tally, Senator Ted Cruz tweeted: “Why is it only Democrat blue cities that take ‘days’ to count their votes? The rest of the country manages to get it done on election night.” State Senator Doug Mastriano even voiced a conspiracy theory suggesting that state officials were supposedly rigging the election results, stating, “That’s an attempt to have the fix in.” These MAGA figures represent a larger movement of election deniers working to discredit the entire state’s electoral process before a single vote has been cast or counted.
Step 4: Train Supporters To Become Election Officials and Call on Supporters to Harass Voters and Threaten Election Officials with Violence.
MAGA Republicans are fueling a wave of harassment and threats of violence directed at poll workers and officials in the weeks ahead of the midterms. Pennsylvania officials have seen a spike in interest about secure internal election administration practices from these groups – straining local administrators who are working to prepare ballots and precincts for Election Day. Simultaneously, Trump and his allies are urging election deniers to inundate county elections offices with records requests seeking confidential voting records in at least 37 counties throughout the commonwealth.
Step 5: Reject the Results and Spread Lies About Election Fraud After the Election.
For months, Trump and MAGA Republicans in Pennsylvania have been laying the groundwork to declare that unfavorable election results are supposedly rigged. They are already refusing to accept the results, spreading lies about election security, discrediting Pennsylvania election officials, and calling on their supporters to harass election administrators with threats of violence. As we draw closer to Election Day, Trump and his allies will only continue working to undermine the will of American voters.
