Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to undermine election legitimacy and the integrity of the election, particularly in key battleground states. His words and actions indicate a total disregard of current election systems, which have worked well for decades, as well as a blatant disregard of American democracy.
When asked about whether or not if he would peacefully transfer power should he lose the election, he said that “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens.” That is a very dangerous comment and threatens to destroy American democracy. Every four years since 1792, there have been elections to determine the next President of the United States, and not a single sitting president has threatened to delegitimize election results or refuse to transfer power, peacefully, to the newly elected power. Many analysts have likened this behavior to fascism.
The Trump campaign’s efforts to delegitimize mail-in voting hasn’t stopped, either. As previously mentioned, mail-in ballot fraud is almost nonexistent, with the going rate being 0.0025 percent. That is an insanely small number of fraudulent ballots. Anyone who is okay with not wearing a mask because the pandemic “only has a one percent fatality rate” should, therefore, not find this an issue.
In a live interview, Trump said, “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.” That is blatantly refusing to accept millions of ballots. He is literally saying that ballots should not be counted.
The only reason why Trump could possibly be so against mail-in voting is that far more Democratic voters than Republican voters have requested a mail-in ballot. This would mean, by dismissing these ballots as “fraudulent,” it could possibly allow the GOP, and by extension Donald Trump, to steal this election.
The data is in line with the fact that Democrats tend to take the COVID-19 pandemic more seriously than Republicans. In addition, Trump’s attack on the U.S. Postal Service is one step in his efforts to make mail-in ballots not count.
Voter suppression efforts by the GOP have also ramped up dramatically. In 2018, Floridian voters voted to allow over a million former felons to vote, except those imprisoned for murder or sex offenses. However, Republicans passed a law that required all former felons to pay all their outstanding debts in order to have voting rights. This has resulted in Democratic millionaire Michael Bloomberg raising, and spending, over $16 million in Florida to help pay the fines for over 30,000 Black and Latino voters in Florida so they can vote. Republicans retaliated by asking the FBI and the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement to investigate Bloomberg’s efforts.
Other voter suppression efforts employed by the GOP include trying to reduce the amount mail-in voting in some states by refusing to accept fear of COVID-19 as a reason for requesting a mail ballot. Take a look at the map below:
Despite a global pandemic causing 200,000 deaths in the U.S. already, five states (Ind., Tenn., Texas, La., and Miss.), all of them Republican-controlled, have refused to allow COVID-19 as a reason for requesting a mail-in ballot. This is especially a problem in Texas, a swing state which shows the race within a few percentage points. Evidently, this is a GOP-led effort to reduce turnout in the state, thus increasing the likelihood of Republicans winning. The states in purple will automatically mail ballots to all voters. With the exception of Utah (which had already been doing this for many years previously), none of these are Republican states.
Another oft-used tactic by the GOP to reduce turnout is the strategic closing of polling places, especially in predominantly Black or minority neighborhoods in places like Texas, Kentucky (in the primaries, the number of polling stations reduced from 3,700 to just over 170), Arizona, Georgia, and more. By stopping minorities from voting, the election may sway in the GOP’s favor, as minority voters tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
Fights are also occurring in state legislative chambers over whether to allow counting of absentee ballots before Election Day. In Michigan, there has been a major scuffle in the GOP-controlled legislature over whether to allow this or not. In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign sued (unsuccessfully) to try and reduce the number of ballot drop boxes for absentee ballots. In Ohio, the GOP-controlled budget board refused to allow the state to pre-pay for return postage of absentee ballots, even though the Ohio Secretary of State, the person who requested the funds, is a Republican. These problems are made even more intense as deadlocks occur in state legislatures, as the two chambers and the governorship may be controlled by the opposing party, refusing to allow any measures by the opposing party to pass.
Democrats, obviously, have filed lawsuits across the country, to allow more ballots to be counted and “cured” if any information is missing. For instance, in North Carolina, a key swing state, Democrats have filed suit to allow ballots that are received after Election Day to be counted as long as it is postmarked by Election Day. Other anti-suppression efforts by the Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have also won in court, like the aforementioned Trump lawsuit which attempted to reduce ballot dropboxes in Pennsylvania.
Both Biden and Trump’s campaign have also threatened to send a large number of poll watchers to polling stations to ensure the votes are counted fairly, potentially leading to conflict and clashes among opposing political groups. Also, both parties are dramatically ramping up efforts to prepare for a post-election legal battle in the courts, which could happen if Trump refuses to accept the results of the election.
What is already a drawn-out election season could get even longer. To ensure that there won’t be a repeat of Bush v. Gore in 2000, make sure to treasure your vote. An overwhelming victory would mean any attempts to delegitimize results in court would fail. Vote in-person if you can. If you choose to request an absentee ballot, return it directly to your county’s election board or use a secure dropbox. Avoid using the Postal Service to return your ballot if possible, and if you have no other choice, mail your ballot in advance to ensure it gets there by Nov. 3. If you haven’t already, register to vote now.
This election is one in which everything is at stake. Health care, abortion, climate change, voting rights, Dreamers, a Supreme Court seat, campaign finance, civil rights, preexisting conditions, American democracy… are all on the ballot this year.
Your vote matters. Treasure it.
Use it wisely.
Don’t disappoint America.
(Stay tuned for a Senate prediction coming next week). Check out my presidential prediction for mid-September too.
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