Democratic Party Naturally, I feel full of happiness. On what’s happening in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democrat) The atmosphere has changed It has whetted the appetite for the upcoming elections and for the politics of joy.
That’s all well and good, but it shouldn’t distract them, or any of us, from what will happen if the Democrats win on November 5th.
If we need a wake-up call, Donald Trump He gave it to us at the Atlanta rally. “There are two things we need to do now: vote and stop them from cheating,” the Republican candidate told the crowd, repeating a familiar refrain.
But he didn’t stop there.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Georgia State Election Commission is very proactive, very enthusiastic. They’re doing a great job,” the former president said.
Trump specifically singled out three Republican board members, Janice Johnston, Janelle King and Rick Jefferies, calling them “pit bulls who fight for honesty, transparency and to win.”
Victory? It’s odd to focus such partisan attention on three unknown election officials.
Strange but thought-provoking — Trump’s use of the word “victory” suggests that post-election work by election officials in Georgia and other states is a key part of his campaign strategy.
This strategy was designed to create chaos and confusion if Trump were to lose the popular vote. But that chaos and confusion is what Trump will do. Hope It would create a situation in which state election officials would either declare him the winner or the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would decide who should be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025.
Democrats and everyone who cares about the survival of American democracy need to prepare now for what happens after the votes are counted in November. Much work must be done to ensure that the way the vote is certified reflects the will of the people.
Earlier this month, the American Bar Association’s Task Force on American Democracy He warned about threats to the integrity of elections. The committee called on lawyers and state bar associations to “follow local election board procedures to understand the proposed rule changes and how they may or may not support election integrity.”[and] Learn how elections are run and use that knowledge to defend the process and refute misinformation.”
In addition, Axios Reports The Democratic National Committee has already “invested tens of millions of dollars and deployed robust voter protection efforts to defend against MAGA Republican attacks on voting rights.” Other groups, such as the Election Reformers Network, have said: We are working to ensure “Transparency across each stage of the election, the recounts, audits and other procedures used to verify the results, and the principles governing how courts will rule on election challenges.”
The rest of us must brace ourselves for the battle to come and support these and other efforts, financially and otherwise.
Certifying an election is supposed to be a tedious bureaucratic process, not a forum for partisan fighting. As Bulwark’s AB Stoddard put it: Observed Last week, “Across the country, November election results must be certified in more than 3,000 counties, and all state results must be final by the time their electors count on Dec. 17. County election board members are not tasked with resolving election issues; certification is mandatory and ‘administrative,’ not discretionary. Disputes over voting issues are separate from the certification process.”
But this year’s certification won’t be boring. Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias Warned “What we’re seeing in this election is that the other side is better organized, more ruthless and better prepared. We’re going to see mass refusals to certify the election in November.”
Most Americans are unhappy with the election results. Not official The outcome is not final until the votes have been counted and the results certified. In a presidential election, the certification process is crucial to ensure that it is clear which candidate should receive the electoral college votes from states’ representatives.
Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 need “Each State shall certify to Congress before Election Day a single and final slate of electors selected in accordance with the laws of that State.” States must do so “no later than 36 days after the election.”
This is reminiscent of what Trump did in Atlanta last week.
He highlighted Georgia’s election board members, sending a signal to similar board members across the country that he hopes they will certify a slate of electors loyal to him, regardless of the outcome of the popular vote.
In such cases, the authentication process becomes a confusing nightmare.
As Democrats are busy celebrating their new nominees and preparing for their upcoming national convention, the Georgia State Board of Elections is reporting that, according to a report from The Washington Post, Reported“This week they began the process of approving a set of new rules that critics say could invalidate valid votes, place heavy burdens on overworked election workers and delay the certification of results.”
“The most concerning aspect of the new rules is the standard that allows county-level election boards to request a ‘reasonable investigation’ when they have questions about the election results,” the Post said. “The rules do not specify what constitutes a reasonable investigation, and there are no limits on the duration of the investigation or the documents the boards can request.”
Georgia isn’t the only state where Republicans are preparing to use the certification process to ensure their candidate wins anyway.
Last month, Rolling Stone Reported “In the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania…” [there are] “At least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracy theorists are currently serving as county election officials and are calling into question the legitimacy of the election or delaying or refusing to certify the results,” the report noted. Of those 70, 22 have already “refusal to certify or delayed certification” in recent elections. Nationwide, Republicans have refused to certify election results at least 25 times in eight states since 2020, with Georgia the most.
“In retrospect, these efforts seem like preliminary investigations, the way a bank robber would scout the store, learning the locations of the guards and cameras, and then planning the actual robbery,” Stoddard wrote in The Bulwark.
Trump is hopeful that these investigations will bear fruit, and he has thanked his aides for planning the heist this fall, which is why he singled out three Georgia election officials specifically at his rally, Particular attention was paid to Janice Johnston has played a more prominent role in pushing for rule changes and challenges to certification.
When she stood up to respond to his praise, Trump said“Thank you! Thank you! Awesome.”
Thank you very much.
To protect American democracy, voters must listen to those expressions of gratitude and prepare for the trench warfare that the American Bar Association, the Democratic National Committee, and allied organizations will need to fight to prevent the election from being decided solely by people like Janice Johnson.
Austin Surratt He is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law and Political Science at Amherst College. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Amherst College.
