Rioting, phoned death threats to election workers, and sham audits didn’t work, so now they want to run elections themselves.
And they have their own ideas about what a “fair election” is.
For example, in Ohio, former GOP legislator John Adams is running for secretary of state, the official who oversees that state’s elections. He’s trying to bump a Republican incumbent from that position, so it’s not about which party controls Ohio’s election process.
It’s about what he sees as a “stolen election” despite “a mountain of evidence to the contrary” (read story here).
I’ve been involved in elections as a voter, pollworker, vote counting observer, and voting rights attorney. I’ve seen the process in action, and know how it works. It’s a well-oiled machine whose moving parts are based on time-tested and proven best practices. Managed by trained professionals, it runs smoothly without derailments or crashes, like a well-run railroad.
As The Hill story linked above says, “The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency said after the election, ‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.’ [But] Adams dismisses that: ‘I don’t care what department it comes from,’ he said, because ‘voters don’t trust their election process currently.'”
First of all, that’s not true. It’s only Trump voters who claim not to trust the process. The rest of us, myself included, would distrust it given evidence there was something wrong with it or it wasn’t working the way it’s supposed to, but there’s no such evidence, and by all appearances it’s working fine.
The portion of our population who put their trust in facts and reason do trust our elections, not because of any specific outcome, but rather because the process itself is trustworthy. But that’s not good enough for the roughly 80% of Republicans who reject facts in favor of fantasies, don’t like democracy in the first place, and won’t take “no” for an answer when their party or candidate loses.
A fair election is one that’s conducted impartially, in compliance with applicable laws and rules, using approved procedures, with appropriate safeguards against mistakes, fraud, and irregularities. An election isn’t unfair, and the process isn’t flawed, just because your side didn’t win. That attitude is a repudiation of fair play and democracy itself. Just because you’re a spoilsport isn’t a reason to cater to you.
This disreputable “we don’t trust the process” trope has become the refrain of GOP legislators across the nation looking for excuses to justify restrictive voting legislation and new (and more onerous) voter suppression laws, such as arresting people and charging them with a felony for giving a water bottle to someone else waiting in line to vote.
It’s Republicans I don’t trust, with ample reason, not least their own words. (And also their actions. All the examples I’ve found of voting fraud in the 2020 election, such as registering and voting in two states, were committed by Trump supporters.)
Their unwillingness to trust a prima facie trustworthy election process isn’t a legitimate basis to challenge an election outcome, impugn the integrity of election workers and equipment suppliers, or mess with time-tested election procedures.
And I certainly wouldn’t put an election denier and conspiracy nut in charge of running elections.
In Colorado, such a person did win a county clerk position, which temporarily put her in charge of that county’s elections. That authority has now been stripped from her, and she’s been indicted for election-related crimes and held in contempt of court (read story here), She’s also charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
Be careful when you vote, and make sure you know who and what you’re voting for.