Author: Matt Vasilogambros
Two years of sustained disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election are causing disruption and instability as early voting in the midterm elections 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 alleged “mules” filling the ballot boxes. Some of the self-proclaimed election observers are armed.
In North Carolina and other states, far-right activists are going door-to-door asking residents to sign documents confirming they are registered to vote at their address. Other conspiracy theorists have signed up as poll workers and election observers in hopes of finding cracks in a system they believe is corrupt.
Meanwhile, election denial candidates are running for secretary of state, county clerk and other election administration leadership positions in many states. If they win, they can operate false claims of fraud to invalidate future election results.
Election officials and experts are increasingly concerned that lies and fraud are exposing the U.S. electoral system to disruption and a crisis of confidence. But they also emphasize that voters have the power to see through the veil of disinformation and ensure the survival of American democracy.
U.S. elections are highly decentralized, with 10,000 election offices making it easier to vote across the country, but there are clear procedures in place to ensure election accuracy, said Daniel Griffith, senior policy director of the Secure Democracy Foundation, which published this month appearance of 14 states method of compiling and verifying elections.
“There are inspections and re-inspections,” he said. “It is a system designed to ward off chaos. But some of these people we’re dealing with – a tiny but vocal minority – are out to cause chaos.
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Trump and other election deniers took advantage of many voters’ lack of knowledge about the electoral process to spin a false narrative that the election was stolen. Public education is key to combating these lies, said Amber McReynolds, a member of the National Election Crises Task Force, a bipartisan network of election experts.
McReynolds noted that the 2020 election was the most secure, observed, audited and contested election in American history. She said the fraud and lies that followed Trump’s defeat were hazardous and heartbreaking.
“Many of us expected drama after the 2020 elections.” said McReynolds, who was an election official in Denver for 13 years and currently serves on the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service. “I don’t think any of us expected what it has turned into: a sustained attack on the electoral process.”
Earlier this month, the Task Force on published the report detailing how election officials can build trust. For example, it recommends that election officials make the electoral process more clear by opening it to authorized poll observers; provide live video from tabulation centers; and prepare the public for continuous updating of vote totals by announcing the expected schedule and format in advance.
It’s likely some close races won’t be called on Election Day night, said Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong, but it could leave an information vacuum if local election officials aren’t clear with voters about procedures and expectations, he added.
“People who want to spread disinformation have weaponized transparency,” he said.
Over 9 million voters have already cast their votes in the November elections
McDonald, a national election expert who recently published a book: From pandemic to insurrection: voting in the 2020 US presidential electionstated that transparency is beneficial to the voting system, but election officials should be careful not to expose voting systems to unnecessary disruptions. This may mean delaying the publication of election results until the counting is completed, he added.
These fears are deepening appeals of election deniers to their supporters to wait until Election Day to vote, which could lead to long lines and delays. Election experts also expect another wave of legal challenges and audit requests. They already were dozens of processes questioning the rules of postal voting even before voting begins.
Moreover, election deniers have filed tens of thousands of voter registration objections, while far-right conspiracy theorists have flooded local election offices with public records. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has insisted that his podcast listeners serve as poll workers and observers so they can challenge the residency and signature verification of countless ballots.
These efforts have distracted underfunded and understaffed local election officials who are trying to ensure the silky voting process, said Tammy Patrick, senior election adviser at the Democracy Fund, a Washington-based foundation that works with local election officials .elections to improve the voting process.
She said she fears that people who bought into election conspiracy theories will begin to profit from the inevitable mistakes. Patrick said county election officials have already abandoned races on ballots, mailed them to voters who never asked for them and included voters from the wrong precincts.
“People believe the electoral system is fraudulent, rife with abuse and criminal activity,” she said. “Any human error will be twisted and pointed to as a manifestation of a rigged system, when in fact it was caused by an error made by a person who was not left to his own devices.”
