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Election Deniers Already Are Disrupting the Midterm Election
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/resear...s-already-are-disrupting-the-midterm-election
October 27, 2022 By: Matt Vasilogambros
Two years of sustained disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election are causing disruptions and instability as early voting for the midterm election continues in most states.
In Arizona, people who believe the lies of former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen are filming and harassing voters, looking for supposed “mules” stuffing ballot boxes. Some of the self-appointed election watchers there have been armed.
In North Carolina and other states, far-right activists have gone door to door, asking residents to sign legal documents attesting they are registered to vote at their address. Other conspiracy theorists have signed up to be poll workers and election observers, hoping to find cracks in a system they’re convinced is corrupt.
Meanwhile, election-denying candidates are vying for secretary of state, county clerk and other positions of election administrative leadership in multiple states. If they win, they could use false fraud allegations to overturn future election results.
Election officials and experts are increasingly concerned that lies and falsehoods have left the U.S. election system vulnerable to disruptions and a crisis of confidence. But they also emphasize that voters have the power to see through the curtain of misinformation and ensure American democracy survives.
Elections are highly decentralized in the U.S., with 10,000 election offices facilitating voting nationwide, but there are clear procedures in place to ensure elections are accurate, said Daniel Griffith, senior policy director of the Secure Democracy Foundation, which this month published a 14-state look at how elections are tabulated and verified.
“There are checks and rechecks,” he said. “It’s a system to repel chaos. But some of these folks we’re dealing with — a small, but vocal minority — are there to manufacture chaos.”
Trump and other election deniers have taken advantage of many voters’ lack of knowledge about the election process to spin their false narrative that the election was stolen. Public education is critical in countering those lies, said Amber McReynolds, a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, a bipartisan network of election experts.
McReynolds noted that the 2020 election was the most secure, observed, audited and litigated election in American history. The grift and lies that have followed Trump’s defeat are dangerous and heartbreaking, she said.
“Many of us expected drama after the 2020 election,” said McReynolds, who served as an election official in Denver for 13 years and now serves on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. “I don’t think any of us expected what it turned into: this sustained attack on the election process.”
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/resear...s-already-are-disrupting-the-midterm-election
October 27, 2022 By: Matt Vasilogambros
Two years of sustained disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election are causing disruptions and instability as early voting for the midterm election continues in most states.
In Arizona, people who believe the lies of former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen are filming and harassing voters, looking for supposed “mules” stuffing ballot boxes. Some of the self-appointed election watchers there have been armed.
In North Carolina and other states, far-right activists have gone door to door, asking residents to sign legal documents attesting they are registered to vote at their address. Other conspiracy theorists have signed up to be poll workers and election observers, hoping to find cracks in a system they’re convinced is corrupt.
Meanwhile, election-denying candidates are vying for secretary of state, county clerk and other positions of election administrative leadership in multiple states. If they win, they could use false fraud allegations to overturn future election results.
Election officials and experts are increasingly concerned that lies and falsehoods have left the U.S. election system vulnerable to disruptions and a crisis of confidence. But they also emphasize that voters have the power to see through the curtain of misinformation and ensure American democracy survives.
Elections are highly decentralized in the U.S., with 10,000 election offices facilitating voting nationwide, but there are clear procedures in place to ensure elections are accurate, said Daniel Griffith, senior policy director of the Secure Democracy Foundation, which this month published a 14-state look at how elections are tabulated and verified.
“There are checks and rechecks,” he said. “It’s a system to repel chaos. But some of these folks we’re dealing with — a small, but vocal minority — are there to manufacture chaos.”
Trump and other election deniers have taken advantage of many voters’ lack of knowledge about the election process to spin their false narrative that the election was stolen. Public education is critical in countering those lies, said Amber McReynolds, a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, a bipartisan network of election experts.
McReynolds noted that the 2020 election was the most secure, observed, audited and litigated election in American history. The grift and lies that have followed Trump’s defeat are dangerous and heartbreaking, she said.
“Many of us expected drama after the 2020 election,” said McReynolds, who served as an election official in Denver for 13 years and now serves on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. “I don’t think any of us expected what it turned into: this sustained attack on the election process.”
