America, the most litigious society in the history of Western civilization, may be headed for a train wreck of an election. If a political party can file suit demanding votes be counted because writing down the date is an “unnecessary hurdle” to voting, anything can be litigated — and will be.
In the aftermath of this election, there will be lawsuits challenging signatures that don’t match on absentee ballots. There will be lawsuits claiming fraud. There will be lawsuits challenging the results based on arcane language in obscure laws. There will be lawsuits contesting lawsuits that barred individuals from voting.
It’s going to be a clusterf**k. But the lawyers will be in heaven.
“All the elements of a perfect storm are present: a rise in threats against election administrators and poll workers; outdated and overstrained election infrastructure; a brain drain of officials experienced with the complexities of administering elections; external cyber threats; and an abundance of close races that could extend long past Election Day as mail-in and provisional ballots are counted, recounted and litigated.” writes Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian.
There’s another element that will contribute to the sense that this election is out of control: the hysteria deliberately churned up by writers like Mahtesian and the Democratic Party to cast a pall over the entire electoral process and make any challenge of the results akin to attempting to “destroy democracy.” They will sue and sue and count and count until they get the results they want.
Democracy is not on the ballot in this election. But the very concept of a “free and fair election” is.
Well-aware of the fraught environment in which they’re operating, election administrators across the country have worked diligently to increase transparency and restore public faith in the integrity of election results.
Those efforts — and a one-sided election — might be enough to avoid widespread meltdowns this year. But that will only kick the can down the road. A Republican rout Tuesday could sweep in a collection of election-denying candidates who will have authority over approving vote tallies and certifying results — including in the battleground states that will decide the 2024 presidential election.
Why is it the de facto assumption that “election deniers” won’t do their jobs and certify elections properly? Where did this smear come from?
Election Day never goes entirely smoothly across the nation — there have long been isolated cases of voter intimidation or suppression, reports of voting irregularities, precincts that run out of ballots, long lines and accusations of fraud, among other potholes. But we’ve never seen anything like these conditions, all swirling against the backdrop of a sprawling election denial industrial complex that looks to be a permanent feature of American politics.
“A sprawling election denial industrial complex”? Really? This is the real election conspiracy theory. Believing that public officials, sworn to uphold the law, are part of an “election denial complex” that will somehow be able to bypass all the safeguards — safeguards we’re told are foolproof when Democrats are in charge — is the kind of hysteria that is causing Americans from both sides to lose faith in free and fair elections.
There is absolutely no evidence that election officials in any state will attempt to fix the results of any election for any office. It’s a partisan lie being spread by partisan media in an attempt to cast a shadow of suspicion on the election results.
But it’s Republicans who are “threatening democracy”?
