In March 2024, poll workers in North Carolina were faced with an unprecedented incident: a man who had turned up late insisted on voting in a local election, threatening them with “if you don’t count my vote, you will count my bullets.” It could be an isolated incident. But everything shows that it is not. After Donald Trump challenged the 2020 election result, violence and theories of fraud have spread like an epidemic infecting US political life.
It is well known that Trump is officially accused of trying to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. What is perhaps not so well known is that over the past four years his associates have not sat idly by. Instead, they have set the stage to challenge the outcome of the November election in a new court battle.
Their tactics start from the base of the electoral system. In particular, they have called on “Trump” voters to register as election officials in local precincts. In fact leaders of the MAGA movement, like him Stephen Bannonuse the term “recruitment”. The research organization ProPublica found that 8,500 young Republicans have registered to work in this election. However, at the same time there is no increase on the side of the Democrats.
The leak for the polling stations
It must now be considered certain that in November the polling stations will be full of election naysayers. A leaked PowerPoint presentation shows that Republicans have set up a hotline that will connect absentee election officials with lawyers who will guide them through the process of voiding ballots.
This will be done so that any incident of contestation is recorded in the official election records. Of course, it is most likely that these objections will not be accepted. But they will have managed to create a history of recorded events that will be attempted to be presented as evidence in courtrooms. These election-denying officials can indeed create a legal headache that will disrupt the smoothness of the process. However, they cannot overturn the election result. For this reason, for the past four years the Republicans have made sure to elect election deniers to the elected positions at the State level that oversee the election process.
Perhaps the most important post is that of the Minister of the Interior of each State, which until recently was considered to merely validate the election result. Now, under the weight of questioning the electoral system, this particular position has gained increased weight. But the evidence shows that the attempt to break through the entire electoral system was defeated at the polls in the last two years. And that’s because the naysayers may have initially found receptive ears in the hard-line Republican base, but in the general state election for local officials, Americans rejected their extreme message. It is indicative that they failed to be elected even in states such as Arizona and Nevada. Republicans, however, have succeeded in electing negative election officials in 18 states. Of these, however, only Wisconsin has value, given that it is one of the seven bipartisan States.
Gloomy atmosphere and anxiety for the next day
The gloomy climate is reflected in the sharp increase in incidents of violence. Speaking to “Vima”, h Kara Ong Whaleydirector of Issue One, an organization that works closely with election officials, reveals that many employees have decided to quit because they can’t take the harassment anymore.
Just a year ago the window of a polling office in Ohio was shot out. Police calls with false complaints have been made to the homes of election officials in states such as Georgia, Missouri and Michigan. And as if all that weren’t enough, the FBI is investigating suspicious packages sent to election officials in 12 states.
Fearing these threats, local authorities have begun preparing for the worst, equipping polling stations with bulletproof glass and workers with panic buttons. For many, the climate of political violence is directly linked to the delegitimization of the electoral system in the eyes of thousands of Americans.
The statistics are indicative. As Mrs. Whaley explains, “It’s an incredibly scary picture. 22% of the electorate will have no confidence in the outcome if the candidate they support loses. We have also seen an increase in the percentage of those willing to resort to violence if they disagree with the outcome.”.
Nevertheless, such an unprecedented concerted effort to dispute the result is reasonable to create anxiety and questions for the next day. The director of Issue One believes that the November contest will be inconclusive and that we will not know the results of the election on the evening of November 5. As he says, there will be objections that will lead to a lengthy process. “This is something that keeps me up at night, but we have to let the process play out. The electorate must have patience and be cool” he says.
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