Head, I Win - Tails, It’s Voter Fraud

 

The “big lie” – that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election by a wide margin, but voting fraud controlled by Democrats produced a loser as victor – seems to be embedded in GOP policy, one we can expect to continue for every major election that produces a Democratic victory, clearly in red and swing states, but now increasingly even within blue states. This dramatically unsubstantiated claim – rejected by every court (including Trump appointees) that has considered this challenge – is now treated as GOP gospel. 

Elected Republicans, including ultra-conservative Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who even hint that Trump duly lost the election and that those on January 6th who violently invaded the Capitol in support of Trump’s “victory” were anything worse than patriotic Americans exercising their constitutional rights, are labeled as disloyal turncoats, to be ousted from all positions of power and opposed in coming elections. Republican officials, from governors to secretaries of state (those in charge of local election certification), who certified a Biden victory are feeling the rages from both party and GOP voters at this purported violation of their patriotic duty to disavow that Democratic presidential victor.

Indeed, adherence to and a commitment to the “truth” of that “big lie” has become a litmus test to establish Republican bona fides and justification for the red state trend to pass voter restrictions that effectively make it that much more difficult for minorities, typically Democrats, to cast their votes in future elections. Screaming “voter fraud” and “rigged elections” is also the going forward expected reaction to any major election where a Democrat defeats a Republican. Further, we face mass confusion if and when GOP election administrators either refuse to certify a Democratic election victory or simply purge votes and voter rolls to eliminate those likely to or who did vote against a GOP candidate or issue. Indeed, there are elected Republican state officials who have signaled that they will never certify results that place a Democratic candidate as a victor in their jurisdiction. 

With a radical Supreme Court loath to intervene in state redistricting and elections (even for federal offices), and one that seems quite willing to accept voter restrictions that on their face do not specifically disenfranchise voter classes (even if that is the obvious intent), our judicial system just might support the “next big lie.” If that is obvious in the red states that are tripping all over themselves to disenfranchise minority voters, it becomes absolutely shocking in the blue biggest state in the union. California’s voter initiative and recall constitutional provisions provide a reason to be concerned.

While the recall of Governor Gavin Newsome is likely to fail, we still have to note that the recall provisions effectively allow the discharge of an incumbent governor on a majority vote but install his/her successor based on the highest vote tally among the named competing candidates (excluding the removed incumbent who may not run). So, a governor who is recalled based on receiving 45% percent positive votes and 55% negative votes can be replaced by a successor candidate who wins a mere 15% of the ballot if that 15% results in the highest number of votes for a new governor. This is probably not a concern for the upcoming recall election impacting Newsom, but GOP voters are already declaring that anything short of a full recall and the expected replacement election of ultra-radical right-wing talk show host Larry Elder will be yet another example of Democratic election rigging and voter fraud. In bright blue California!

Voters in rural areas, particularly in the extreme northern and eastern districts in California, are redder than some of the reddest states. They continue to rail at “radical leftists” whom they claim run roughshod over their right-wing perceived individual liberties. They delight at Larry Elder’s pledge to turn California into Florida, a state where mask and vaccine mandates have been banned (at least by the Governor, although courts have ruled against him).

The mythology for the “big California lie” is already building. Writing for the September 10th Los Angeles Times, Maura Dolan and Anita Chabria, present the facts: “Though there are few proven instances of wide-scale voter fraud nationwide, the ‘big lie’ of stolen elections is thriving in California, nurtured by tea party conservatives, put on steroids by former President Trump and most recently repeated — without evidence — by Fox News commentators talking about Tuesday’s recall election [9/14]…

Claims of election corruption may spark litigation after Tuesday’s election, especially if Newsom retains office. Yet whether any lawsuits gain traction, experts say that allegations of ballot rigging help Trump-friendly forces build their base, in California and elsewhere… They feed the narrative that California has left people behind, and that American democracy can be protected only through extraordinary means — including the protests that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S Capitol, said Brian Levin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino… ‘That risk isn’t going to end the day after the election, or the day after the vote,’ he said.

“Though [recall advocate Anne Hyde] Dunsmore herself has been at the heart of unsuccessful pushes to root out voter fraud in past elections (and was registered to vote in both California and Florida at one time), she has not seen any signs of fraud this year, she said. [Yet]

A[n LA] Times investigation found that an organization led by Dunsmore, the Institute for Fair Elections, challenged thousands of ballots in past years, claiming they represented potentially illegal votes, though investigations by election officials found most were legitimate ballots or unintended errors… Those kinds of challenges — often searching for dead voters, those who have moved or those suspected of voting more than once — for decades have been at the heart of conservative conspiracies that paint Democrats as stealing elections, often with the help of immigrants in the U.S. illegally…

“Thad Kousser, co-director of the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at UC San Diego, said the ongoing push by some conservatives to claim election fraud before the results are even known is ‘the most damaging trend we’ve seen in our democracy… The miracle of American politics is that we have managed to keep these fights primarily in rallies, elections and debates on the floor… The worry is always that they will move into violence.’

“Fox News host Tucker Carlson has already warned that a Newsom victory will mean there has been election fraud, Trump told a Newsmax host this week that the race is ‘probably rigged,’ and gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder is asking supporters to report ‘anything suspicious when it comes to voting.” Given the degree of conspiracy theories in the ether, the odds of many coming forward with their “proof” of “suspicious activity” is close to virtual certainty. Enough to fuel right-wing skeptics to another round of voting challenges… and perhaps violence. It’s time for the GOP to return to constitutional values, to stop hiding under a policy of sedition with a false claim of “patriotism,” and to stop attempting to destroy the country that has given them a political voice in the first place.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it is time to stop labeling those seeking to undermine bona fide elections as “patriots” and call them what they really are: “seditionists.”