With momentum and enthusiasm on our side, Democrats are feeling more confident that we can defeat Trump at the polls. Feeling cornered, he is amping up the rhetoric, tearing down trust in the integrity of our elections. So let’s look at the current protections we have from another MAGA coup attempt.
1. FEDERAL LEVEL PROTECTIONS: We did pass the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 to clarify some of the procedures exploited by Trump in his first coup attempt. This bipartisan bill standardized and clarified who in each state is responsible to certify the vote and the electors in the Certificate of Ascertainment. It standardizes in what courts and how quickly claims made by candidates will be heard by the judicial system. The law explicitly states that the Vice Presidential role is “solely ministerial,” requires any disputes to be in writing and limited to two circumstances: One, that the electors of a state were not lawfully certified, and two, that an elector’s vote was not “regularly given.” These objections must be signed by one-fifth of the House AND one-fifth of the Senate. (previously, only one person’s signature was required.) Finally, the law clarifies how candidates will receive transition funding in the event of a contested election.
2. STATE-LEVEL PROTECTIONS: Both MAGA and Democrats are amassing legal teams in the states, regardless of whether or not they are a swing state. In red states, we expect lawsuits and collusion by Red state governors and judges to create a wedge of attack for the larger election. In swing states, we expect MAGA to exploit small margins into attacks on the integrity of the elections. We can expect attacks in Blue states too, because of the radicalization of MAGA Republicans in those states.
Other organizations are working on protecting the count at the state level – we don’t have to depend just on the Department of Justice. This June, the ACLU rolled out an impressive voting and abortion rights Program, investing 25 million dollars in voter education and litigation preparation. Since 2020, Marc Elias’ organization Democracy Docket has fought election lawsuits in most states regarding gerrymandering, purging voters, certifying elections, voter intimidation and ballot initiatives. The Harris team has embraced this strong approach by hiring Marc Elias mid-August. (Biden’s team had disagreed, preferring a more selective defense.) His hiring is a long overdue acknowledgement that institutionalism and norms are not strong enough to defeat aggressive MAGA legal attacks. Elias is not afraid of taking these issues to the public, whose awareness is limited due to our fragmented and compromised news media. For more information, see his website, or subscribe to his free newsletter. You can also donate to support his work.
3. Government Protections. There has been a lot of speculation regarding Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s possible actions. He was a leader in the 2020 attempt to overthrow the election, so he deserves watching. However, there will be two important differences in 2024: We will have a Democratic President in control of the military and it is likely that the election will flip the House to Democratic control, turning him into a minority leader. House members are sworn in on January 4th, before the January 6th certification. The timing is close, I’m sure Indivisible and others will plan rallies to make sure the rules are followed.
4. Grassroots Protections: One of our best protections against a second Trump coup attempt is to win elections by larger margins. The larger the margin, the harder it is for MAGA to blame their losses on illegitimate voting or tampering. Remember, even though the facts are on our side, MAGA will use fearmongering and lies to activate their base. It’s especially easy for them to do this in tight races, where the counting of mail-in ballots causes the results to take a few days to tabulate. We will keep working through election day. Postcarding will likely end mid to late October and we will pivot to canvassing, phonebanking, and textbanking.
I am working on voter outreach, but what else can I do?
- Make sure your relatives in other states are still registered MAGA organizations have been busily purging the rolls by the tens of thousands, submitting lists of intermittent voters to like minded MAGA Governors and Secretary of States (See Ohio and Georgia). Often people do not find out that they have been purged until they try to cast a ballot. The easiest way to fight this is to simply re-register, but people need to check their registration status now. Arizona has a particularly sneaky way to disenfranchise registered voters. In Arizona, a person is not required to submit proof of citizenship with the voter registration form to vote in Arizona, but failure to do so means the person will only be eligible to vote in federal elections (known as a “federal only” voter). Federal Only voters can vote for President, US Senate and US House, but nothing else….including abortion rights initiatives and statewide races. An estimated 35,000 people in Arizona are Federal Only voters. The Democratic winning margin for the 2020 Arizona gubernatorial race was just 17,117. See what they did there?
- Make sure your relatives in other states know how to vote There are too many regulations to list here, but questions to ask are:
- Is ID required and what can I use? Many states will not accept Student ID for voting.
- Do I need to sign up to vote by mail for every election? This is a common way for MAGA to prevent voting. People think they are signed up to vote by mail, but they never receive anything because they are supposed to sign up again, every election, or year, or some other arbitrary time.
- What kind of drop boxes are available, or when do I have to mail my ballot in order for it to get counted? Republicans have pulled out all the stops to limit drop boxes and not allow ballots that arrive after election day, regardless of the postmark. Do not wait until the last minute to return your vote-by-mail ballot.
- Will early voting be more convenient for me? We often ask people to “make a plan to vote.” Early voting can be very helpful, but it requires advance planning. The polling locations and hours are often different from election day. Ask your friends and relatives to put voting on their list!
Democrats have the momentum now. We must continue to convert enthusiasm to Democratic votes up and down the ballot. We also know that MAGA Republicans will not hesitate to fight dirty and they will cause disruptions in as many states as they can. That is why our goal is to win by bigger margins, and why we will be working right up to election day (and curing ballots in the week after). When we fight, we win!