Fraud in the Election or in the Election Fraud Legislation?

[F]raud in elections threatens the stability of a constitutional democracy by undermining public confidence in the legitimacy of public officers chosen by election… Section 1.03(2) of Texas SB 1, an overall law which enables partisan poll watchers and imposes criminal sanctions of election officials who interfere with them Whoever intimidates, threatens, coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia,mor Resident Commissioner, at any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing such candidate, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Federal Criminal Statute; U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 594. Intimidation of voters I think if they win, I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all. Donald Trump pre-election statement on candidates he endorsed It’s bad enough when Russia and China openly engage in election interference in our voting process. But the real threat of election interference, well beyond social media rants and misinformation, may just be in direct, in-person and statutorily encouraged intimidation of voters at official voting sites. Written a day before the elections, Mark Sullivan’s FastCompany.com article, driven by the above-cited Texas statute, was entitled Texas poll watchers emboldened by GOP-backed law raise fears of voter intimidation. He presented tales of the recent threats, but the real concern is now over 2024 when some of those election deniers, now elected to office, will control voting in their states. While the Texas law limits the poll watchers to report only perceived violations where they reasonably believe there is election fraud, “So far, many of these poll watchers have made it clear that they don’t intend to be reasonable. Now, whether that’s going to turn out to be reality, or if that’s just fast talk, we don’t know yet,” according to Dana DeBeauvoir, former veteran elections director of Travis County, Texas. Most of GOP candidates, who ran for offices where they would have political power to challenge or certify elections, were election deniers, and many of those have unsubtlety declared that no Democrat will ever win in their jurisdiction ever again if they are elected. Poll watchers in military fatigues, faces covered and some legally armed, were on station in conservative districts all across the United States. Department of Justice officials were sent to polling stations in 24 states where intimidation complaints from local voters were made. Legislation in many red states went beyond simply allowing partisan poll watchers to “watch polls”; they actually had significant rights to interfere when, in their highly biased opinions, they perceived reasonable evidence of election fraud. What could possibly go wrong? Texas’ recent election legislation is just one example. Some Missouri county officials and the State of Florida denied federal monitors access to polling stations, claiming they would be violating state laws. Nothing like federal preemption over elections for federal office, huh? But then the elections happened… and the system seemed to hold. As we wait and watch for final results, with some losing candidates refusing to concede or call to congratulate the victor, the midterms went off without much in the way of political violence. The Senate is still a toss-up as we await a Georgia runoff on December 6th, and the House went GOP well below the expected massive shift that normally favors the party out of power. That does not augur well for those in the Republican Party who savored heavy effort to investigate Hunter Biden and find enough dirt on Joe Biden to generate an impeachment. Internal threats (e.g., conspiracy vixen, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s telling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who was coming off a major win – to back off challenging Trump in 2024) and the perpetual conversation about election rigging continued, however. Minor technical glitches, quickly solved, instantly got MAGA followers back into conspiracy theory mode: “Former President Donald Trump and some other Republicans are twisting minor voting problems in U.S. midterm elections into conspiracy theories and false claims to sow doubt about Democratic victories, continuing efforts since 2020 to undermine Americans’ confidence in voting. “Election Day unfolded without major or widespread voting snags, yet some GOP candidates sought to distort the severity of the few hitches that occurred, such as voting machines temporarily malfunctioning in Arizona’s largest county and some Detroit voters wrongly being told they had already cast ballots… ‘The most concerning thing is the way those isolated incidents are being used to spread mis- and disinformation and lies around the election in an attempt to undermine people’s confidence and faith in the election,’ said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the nonpartisan group Common Cause.” Associated Press, November 9th. Indeed, while some election deniers were elected, the red wave and the MAGA certainty that Trump-endorsed candidates would easily be elected just did not come to pass. Sure a few Trump-endorsed candidates (e.g., JD Vance in Ohio) won, but other key races (e.g., Pennsylvania’s Senate and gubernatorial races) placed Dems as victors. There was a growing feeling that Trump’s confrontational style, his willingness to blame, embrace conspiracy theories and outright lie for personal gain, were beginning to exhaust all but his most diehard followers. 2024 will be most interesting, even as a few election denying states (and their election officials) promise unequivocal GOP/MAGA victory. So, all eyes are on Georgia and that runoff… a battle between a morally corrupt former football star and a Protestant ministers. How much money will pour into that key Senate race? I am sure the amounts will be staggering. And how contentious will the efforts of losing candidates in outlier Arizona be? Questions where the answers just might determine whether or not we remain a democracy. I’m Peter Dekom, and at least for now, democracy just might muddle through… very awkwardly.