Stephen Colbert was right. There are only two parties in the U.S.: the Democratic party and the anti-democratic party. Perhaps that’s why Trump loves to quote Stalin: “Sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate.”
Besides the Arizona and Georgia gubernatorial races where former President Donald Trump endorsed candidates who said they wouldn’t certify a vote he doesn’t like, Trump’s top goal has been to install loyalists for secretary of state. These are typically the top election officials in the state, and Trump didn’t hide why he obsesses over them. There are eight Trump loyalists running whose only goal is to disenfranchise as many Democrats as possible and, if need be, to overthrow the legitimate results of the 2024 election in the likely event that voters reject him again. They even made a name for themselves: “The Coalition of America First Secretary of State Candidates.”
To say democracy is on the ballot is not hyperbole this year. Besides secretary of state, there are plenty of other elected offices being targeted, and sadly, some have already been filled by crackpots. In Pennsylvania alone, a group calling itself Audit the Vote has been campaigning to put election deniers in key election positions. At the very bottom of the ballot are races for judge of elections and inspector of elections, and they are being swamped with Trumpian candidates. One such knucklehead is Stephen Lindemuth, who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally. He already won the judge of elections position in his district to oversee the election.
This is the top priority of Republican election deniers: to install the wrong kind of people in these positions. Steve Bannon even openly admitted this is the new goal for stealing the election next time. These extremists will engage in shady strategies to ensure longer lines in minority areas, selective enforcement of voter ID laws, and forcing provisional ballots on just about everyone they think will vote the “wrong way.” After the election, you can expect false claims of malfeasance if the Democrat wins. It’s not something we should ever have to worry about in a strong democracy, but it’s reality. Thankfully, there are things you and I can do. Just know that we are running low on time.
With voter suppression an expected and apparently accepted political tactic that is only used by one party, Democrats have always had their work cut out for them. Now we have to face a new tactic of voter nullification where Republicans will attempt to disqualify as many votes as needed to win an election. Arizona’s latest attempt is to not only abolish all early and absentee voting, but to have the GOP state legislature hold a special session to “accept or reject the results.” Republican state Rep. John Fillmore's proposal would require the state legislature to hold a special session after each election, and then decide if it wants to disapprove the results. Although unlikely to pass, it proves that Republican legislators have openly embraced the fascist idea that the will of the majority party can veto the results of a fair and free election.
Democrats are running against the clock this year to get something, anything, done. The problem is the historical pattern of a midterm backlash against the president’s party that seems to give Republicans the advantage in 2022. Depending on how Trump’s effort to install loyalists in key state positions goes, Trumpists could be even more empowered in key states in 2024 than they were last time around, particularly if Democrats lose the governorships in these states as well.
But all is not lost. The gerrymandering that the GOP depends on to stay in power has been blunted quite a bit with better district lines in New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Other blatant power grabs have been thwarted by the courts, such as in Ohio and North Carolina. Unfortunately, the districts in Wisconsin and Georgia have been mangled to bleed red.
However, Democrats are fighting back. The Jan. 6 committee is exposing how bad the coup attempt was, and is handing over everything to the Department of Justice—which is prosecuting. Lawsuits have been filed to challenge the voter suppression laws, and Stacey Abrams is teaming up with Michelle Obama to register 1 million voters this year. Yet there is plenty more to do, and this is going to require an effort from all of us. Here’s what you can do.
Join a local election campaign or run for local office
While everyone is focused on Congress, the biggest fights this year are going to be at your local level: county executives, election administration positions, and statehouse elections. If the pro-democracy activists can run and/or support good candidates, that will be the best defense against the GOP’s coordinated subversion campaign.
Keep in mind that seven states last year tried to pass bills to empower partisan officials to overturn election results they don’t like, and although they didn’t pass, they will definitely try again if 2022 is a good year for the Republicans.
Amanda Litman is the director of a liberal group called Run For Something and is trying to field candidates for over 2,000 local races this year. Many of the Trumpers are running in races that are unchallenged, and there is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Election officials across the country are quitting in droves either because of new punishments in GOP-led states for minor infractions, or because they face increasing threats and intimidation from far-right extremists.
Litman is putting money where her mouth is in a multimillion-dollar effort to run against candidates and incumbents promoting overthrowing our democracy. If you are angry and want to do something, this is where you start. MoveOn has partnered with Run for Something to help provide the guidance and resources for a first-time liberal candidate. Your first step is to see the list of state legislative and local offices where you can run based on your current address. This link will also add you to the Run for Something candidate pipeline: Where Can I Run?
If you’ve ever considered doing something, do it now. We need you.
Donate or volunteer to help Democratic secretary of state candidates
We are in trouble here. Major Democratic donors are all but ignoring these critical races and allowing the Republicans to get the advantage—and the GOP frontrunners are all in on the Big Lie. The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State has no limit on the size of donations it can receive, but has only gotten a few small donations from the big players, and only one over $25,000. Democrats have a tendency to ignore smaller but critical races:
It’s a familiar experience for the Democratic Party: A lack of investment in less flashy down-ticket races also helped doom them in state legislatures throughout the Obama and Trump years.
The grassroots seem to understand the importance of these races, and that’s why we need your help.
I’m going to do this in order of importance, by which I mean the ones that need the most attention because they are in the most danger. I need to see Democratic activists write about these candidates as much as they would about upcoming congressional or gubernatorial races. Here we go!
Georgia
Imagine if Brad Raffensperger wasn’t in place in Georgia. He was never a great secretary of state, but he at least had the sense to draw a line over Trump’s demand that he illegally “find” 11,780 votes. Raffensperger will be defeated in the GOP primary, as he is the top target on Trump’s list and his potential replacement has been outraising everyone running for both parties. The frontrunner right now is the Trump-endorsed right-wing conspiracy theorist Jody Hice. Hice not only lied about voting machines and absentee ballot fraud, but has vowed to throw out the state’s new $100 million voting equipment and replace it with new machines.
The worst-case scenario for Georgia would be if Trump gets Perdue and Hice elected. Besides the normal GOP voter suppression tactics, both are supporting an “election police force” to intimidate people at polls. This is all-hands-on-deck bad.
Fortunately, a plethora of good candidates jumped in to fight. This should be a top race to focus on, and the victor on May 24 will get my full attention. Here are several Democrats who have announced:
Although all are good, qualified candidates, Nguyen has definitely gotten the most press and raised the most money. She is a congresswoman who took over Abrams’ seat when Abrams left to run for governor in 2018. Nguyen has solidified herself as leading the fight in the legislature against the GOP’s suppression laws. When Trump dispatched Rudy Giuliani and a shady data analyst, Matt Braynard, to Georgia to testify that thousands of ballots were illegally cast, Nguyen pounded the pavement to track down constituents who were falsely accused and proved they were registered properly. She decimated Braynard in a viral video so badly that angry Trumpers sent her death threats for weeks.
Arizona
Next to Georgia, I would put this state at the top of the list for needing help. Donald Trump’s pick, Mark Fencham, has raised more money than all the Democratic candidates combined. He is one of the biggest proponents of the Big Lie and has made that the sole issue of his campaign. He promises that he wouldn’t have certified the results, and said the sham partisan audit by the now-defunct Cyber Ninjas should have somehow decertified Biden’s win.
There are two Democrats running: Adrian Fontes announced on the six-month anniversary of Jan. 6 and has the experience running elections in the state’s most populous county.
House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding fought against the GOP majority in passing the worst of the voter suppression bills.
Arizona Democrats have two suitable choices for secretary of state. Arizona’s largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, said both men are qualified and suitable, but is clearly pushing more for Bolding since Fontes lost his election as Maricopa County recorder to a first-term Republican.
Michigan
In this case, Democrat Jocelyn Bensen is the incumbent. She became the first Democrat to hold the office since 1995, and is the second-youngest woman in the state's history to be inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, only behind Serena Williams.
She’s an amazing woman who deserves a worthy opponent, but that’s not who she got: Kristina Karamo is Trump’s choice. She is, to put it kindly, a bizarre individual who hosts her own podcast filled with conspiracy rantings (of course) about “government indoctrination camps” and the like. She has a degree in something called “Christian apologetics,” and is a devoted anti-vaxxer.
She claims Jan. 6 was a “false flag” operation with antifa supporters, and gave false testimony as a poll challenger that fraud was rampant. County GOP chairs are being forced to sing her praises because surrendering your dignity to Trump is a prerequisite for GOP leadership these days. She shouldn't have a chance, but the money is pouring in.
Nevada
Jim Marchant is the Trumpy QAnon candidate, a one-term Republican Nevada assemblyman who lost his congressional race in 2020 and tried to sue to overturn the result by making false claims of voter fraud. The current GOP incumbent, Barbara Cegavske, is termed out, but was unlikely to win anyway. She was censured by her own party for claiming that the election had no fraud, and she barely won her general election race in 2018 with the Democrat losing by less than one percentage point.
There are two Democrats running, and we need to win this:
Cisco Aguilar is the former state Athletic Commission chair and onetime Harry Reid staffer.
Ellen Spiegel is a Democratic assemblywoman from Las Vegas. She has a long list of legislative accomplishments.
Both are qualified, although Spiegel has received multiple endorsements from political and community leaders such as the president of Clark County School District board, the Boulder City mayor, and state Sen. Dina Neal from Las Vegas.
Wisconsin
The most common, and arguably the most important, function held by secretaries of state is to serve as the state's chief elections official. For all but 12 states, the secretary of state has the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of elections, including the enforcement of qualifying rules, oversight of financial regulation, and establishment of Election Day procedures. In Wisconsin, the secretary of state does not have this role. In fact, since the 1990s, most duties vested in the secretary of state’s office have gradually been taken away and reassigned to other state agencies or simply eliminated. Currently, the secretary of state position in Wisconsin is primarily just for state recordkeeping.
Nonetheless, Republican Amy Loundenbeck promises if she wins office, she will redefine the secretary of state responsibilities and seize control of the state’s election administration. Assuming the Democrats lose control of the state government—a real possibility—it might happen. Her right-wing opponent, Jim Marchant, isn’t much better, and he called for the state’s electors to be rescinded in 2020.
Longtime candidate Douglas J. La Follette has been in this office since 1974, and had planned to retire at age 81. Yet the threat of the GOP legislature and a newly elected GOP governor to transfer power to someone like Loudenbeck is real enough that he decided to run again this year. It’s honorable that people in their 80s, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Nancy Pelosi, love democracy enough that they are willing to serve until well past retirement age, but also a testimony to the uncertain state of our republic.
And that’s not all
I should mention that Pennsylvania is also important this year, but the governor selects the secretary of state. It’s therefore critical that Democrat Josh Shapiro win the gubernatorial race. Here’s a list of other election doubters and deniers running for secretary of state this year in 13 other states such as Ohio, New Mexico, Arkansas, and California.
Push your lawmaker to pass comprehensive electoral reform
The 19th-century law that former President Donald J. Trump wanted to exploit to overthrow the election nearly succeeded because it was so vaguely written. The authors, who passed it in 1887, didn’t foresee a major political party candidate who didn’t respect democracy or the rule of law. Although the voter protection acts failed so far, there is a bipartisan appetite to strengthen this law to prevent Trump or someone like him from exploiting it to overturn a presidential election. With full control of the House and Senate, this year is our only chance before 2024.
Currently, there is a bipartisan group of senators working on a proposal that can pass the Senate. The efforts under consideration are preventing interference in election administration, such as barring the removal of nonpartisan election officials without cause, and creating federal penalties for the harassment or intimidation of election officials. University of California Law professor Richard L. Hansen is a nationally recognized expert in election law. He has put forth his five-step prescription for what ideally should be included in electoral reform:
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Paper ballots, chain of custody, and transparency requirements, including risk-limiting audits of election results.
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Rules limiting the discretion of those who certify the votes, including Congress through reform of the Electoral Count Act.
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Rules limiting the over-politicization of election administration, especially by state legislatures.
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Increased criminal penalties imposed on those who tamper with federal elections or commit violence or intimidation of voters, elected officials, or elected candidates.
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Rules countering disinformation about elections, particularly disinformation about when, where, and how people vote.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has taken the position that Congress shouldn’t interfere with the results sent up by states, and that potential fraud from state legislatures isn’t a problem. “Why would any legislature in America want to overturn the counting of votes?'' he recently asked, ignoring the tremendous pressure Trump and his base placed on legislative leaders to do exactly that.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Politico his big concern about the effort to reform the act is a scenario where state legislatures are allowed to rig elections any way they want, and then have Congress be forced to count it as accurate. I’m glad he’s thinking ahead, but I think this can be worked out. It certainly needs to be attempted, and should be the top priority from now until it gets done.
Continue to make noise about prosecutions
Prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters have been ongoing, with 772 people charged so far, making clear there are consequences to such actions.
That’s all well and good, but we need to keep the pressure on the Biden administration and the Department of Justice to go after the big fish behind the insurrection attempt. This includes Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, participating members of Congress, and yes, even Donald Trump.
Randall Eliason, a law professor at George Washington University and a former federal prosecutor, said it would be appropriate for prosecutors to investigate Trump’s role in both the attack on the Capitol and his ongoing efforts to overthrow the election. I can all but guarantee that if there is no legal consequence, it will be open season for the Republicans to try again.
Furthermore, there needs to be strong prosecution of any of these Trumpers who do manage to get elected to refuse to certify the vote, or to engage in any kind of election fraud or intimidation—which they have all pretty much stated is their purpose for running. This used to not be an issue at all, as we could expect judges and justices to apply the law firmly and fairly. Yet with the parade of partisan hacks that were given robes during the McConnell/Trump era, those checks and balances have been significantly eroded.
I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell am not going to sit back and just watch our democracy crumble into a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship. It's time to get angry, and more importantly, time to do something.