Trump and his backers have made clear their intent to denigrate and then defy the popular will.
As Donald Trump’s COVID bout proceeds, so does his cultish march toward a stolen election. Trump and his backers have made clear their intent to denigrate and then defy the popular will in the November 3 vote count. Because the election will be run at the state and county levels, the threats are innumerable and complex. Let’s investigate 12 of the most dangerous: The federal Election Assistance Commission, established in 2002 to help state and local election officials with various voting issues, has estimated that up to 16 million citizens were stripped from voter rolls around the U.S. between 2014 and 2016 alone, and the problem continues. Many would-be voters are likely unaware that they’ve been disenfranchised and could show up to vote on November 3 or earlier, after waiting in long lines, only to be denied a ballot. A voter’s registration status can be often be checked online at state-run websites. But according to a Pew Foundation Study, more than 30 million Americans do not have internet access. Activist organizations such as People Demanding Action and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law are among the many groups focused (among other things) on preserving the voting rights of citizens who have been stripped from the voter rolls. The Constitution may give state legislatures the right to override a popular choice for president and award its Electoral College delegation to whomever it wants. But the law is unclear, and thus far, no state has done that. Because of gerrymandering,29 states with 300 Electoral College votes (including swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida) have extreme right-wing legislatures. Over an angry Democratic outcry, Pennsylvania’s GOP majority is now establishing a partisan commission to investigate “election fraud,” by which it means any outcome that might not favor Donald Trump. Given Trump’s very loud assertions that any vote count he loses must by definition be fraudulent, there is widespread fear that this commission could declare this key swing state’s tally invalid and order its electors to vote for Trump. Given Pennsylvania’s critical spot in the Electoral College, and the possibility that other right-wing swing state legislatures could follow suit, this move alone threatens the integrity of the entire election. On the other hand, Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor, as do Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Kansas, Montana and Kentucky. Their legal ability to block a legislative nullification of the popular vote count in choosing an Electoral College delegation is untested. Such a case would clearly go the Supreme Court, which would have to render a decision that has no precedent (thus the paramount importance of the battle over the Supreme Court’s ninth and potentially deciding seat). All election boards have a spot in their process where an election official (probably not a volunteer or temporarily hired poll worker) inspects mailed-in ballots and decides whether to invalidate them. In many states, this can be done based on mismatched signatures, though Pennsylvania and North Carolina have now reacted to popular outcry by downgrading or eliminating this hard-to-meet criterion. Other trivialities such as an omitted middle initial or address number, a missed box, a missing “privacy” envelope or a misstated birth date could still result in an invalidated ballot. This screening process is generally done by election board staff. But state laws generally allow “observers” to sit next to the screeners. Rightist Republicans have infamously lobbied hard to get as many suspected Democrat ballots pitched as possible. If Democrats this year hope to have a chance to counteract their influence, they had best plan to have balancing observers of their own in those slots. Reports from North Carolina and elsewhere indicate far more ballots from Black Americans have been invalidated as opposed to those from white voters. Key swing states Wisconsin and North Carolina require a witness to sign mailing envelopes or a statement to accompany a mailed-in ballot. The requirement is a deliberate impediment. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), who lives alone, says she had to go out into the street to recruit a stranger for a signature. The added hurdle provides hostile screeners within an election board with an additional excuse to pitch ballots.
