UPDATE ON VOTING IN AMERICA

 

With primary elections taking place across the country and the important midterm elections scheduled for November, now is an appropriate time to review the status of voting in America. Regrettably, the traditional positive message of urging citizens to exercise their democratic franchise is no longer the principal issue when it comes to voting.

On one hand, almost half of the electorate remains embroiled in challenging the results of the 2020 national election and in passing Republican-sponsored state legislation to limit voting rights. On the other hand, the remainder of the electorate seeks to move past the last election and to preserve the expansion of state voting rights that were adopted by many states during the pandemic.

The “stop the steal” movement has be unmasked by political observers as a forward-looking scheme to guarantee that Republicans are in a position to reverse a Democratic victory in the next presidential election. The new focus has become: to what extent should the voting process be politicized to permit the reversal of an unwanted election result by claiming voter fraud? This would be accomplished by giving partisan state elected officials, rather than nonpartisan civil servants, the power to control the voting process and to alter results.

For the average voter, the misinformation, unresolved court challenges and changing voting procedures make it impossible to stay on top of this year’s election. This is unfortunate because elections have consequences. The results of the midterms could determine the fate of voting in America. This commentary will summarize some of the more important voter related developments at the national, state and local levels.

National Issues. The Bren­nan Center’s seminal report, The Truth About Voter Fraud, conclus­ively demon­strated the most significant alleg­a­tions of voter fraud are base­less. Numer­ous post-election court rulings and studies, even one commis­sioned by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, have reached the same conclu­sion.  Nonetheless, in all the “battleground” states that went for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020, angry Trump supporters and Republican state legislators have continued to demand audits of 2020 election results and taken steps to diminish voting rights.

In Arizona, right-wing lawmakers pushed a bill that would have given the Republican-controlled Legislature the power to unilaterally reject the results of an election and force a new one. This was after the Republican Senate President issued subpoenas to Maricopa County to perform an audit. After six months, the audit, conducted by a rightwing conspiracy theorist, confirmed that Joe Biden won the state's largest county and found that former President Donald Trump received fewer votes than were originally counted.

In Wisconsin, the Republican legislature named a former Republican State Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gableman, as special counsel. He was given a staff and taxpayer-funded budget of $676,000 to audit the 2020 election. After publishing a report that found no fraud, Gableman nonetheless urged a panel of state lawmakers to consider illegally decertifying Wisconsin's 2020 U.S. presidential election.

In Georgia, the Republican state legislature passed a 98-page voting law that limited ballot access and gave more power to Republican lawmakers. Included among the provisions: voters have less time to request absentee ballots; strict new ID requirements were adopted; the bill gave the Republican legislature control over the state election board and the legislature is empowered to suspend local county election officials. In addition, it was made a crime to offer food or drink to a voter standing in line, and it is more difficult to extend voting hours.

Nationally, other battleground states and even those that traditionally vote Republican have adopted similar draconian voting laws. Moreover, Republicans who are in primary contests, across the country, embrace the “stop the steal” mantra in the hope that the former president will endorse them.

Pennsylvania Issues.  As a battleground state with a majority Republican legislature, Pennsylvania has been plagued by all the undemocratic maneuvers discussed above. While the Democratic governor has made it difficult to pass voter suppression laws, by exercising his veto powers, the legislature has threatened constitutional amendments to achieve the same result.

Recently, a Republican Commonwealth Court Judge declared expanded vote by mail invalid under the Pennsylvania Constitution. The PA Supreme Court issued a stay for the primary election.  A final opinion should decide the fate of vote by mail before the November election.

A critical senate and governor’s election are both on tap in 2020. Few of the Republican candidates campaign on policy issues important to conservatives. Instead, each contender backs the stop the steal movement, praises Trump and raises grievances on cultural issues.

Washington County Issues. Even though our county overwhelmingly voted Republican in 2020, the local election process has not been immune from claims of fraud. There has been an ongoing effort to audit the local election results, including the voting machines.

In March, rightwing election guru, Douglas Frank was invited to present his findings to the commissioners, who were not impressed by his data or his methods. Recently the local Washington contingent of “Audit the Vote PA” published county canvassing results which purported to show “phantom registrations” and other discrepancies. None of the conclusions were backed by source data or explanation.

In the final analysis, how we cast our ballots in 2020 will reflect either support or disdain for voter rights and the officials who administer elections. Each of us should become informed on these election related topics before making decisions that will have lasting consequences.