5 Ways Trump’s Big Lie Is Setting The Stage To Rig & Steal Future Elections
FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | December 2, 2021
We need to be clear-eyed about what former President Trump, his acolytes, and state and congressional Republican officeholders are doing.
Trump is a habitual liar who repeatedly claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, without a shred of credible evidence to back that up.
Since the election, Trump’s incessantly repeated Big Lie has been used to justify numerous actions by Republican officeholders and Trump followers to set the stage for Republicans to rig or steal future federal elections.
At stake in this frontal attack by Republicans on the integrity and legitimacy of our elections is whether the heart and soul of our democracy will survive.
These anti-democratic forces must be fought every step of the way.
Here are just five ways Trump’s Big Lie is being used to set the stage to rig and steal future federal elections:
➡️ Election Rigging 1
This year, Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed a wave of voter suppression laws around the country. These laws are based on Trump’s Big Lie and are aimed primarily at taking away the ability of Black, brown, and other minorities to vote, who are – not coincidentally – voters who generally vote Democratic.
➡️ Election Rigging 2
This year, Republican-controlled state legislatures also have enacted laws and supported other changes designed to place the administration of elections under partisan Republican control. These efforts are replacing the longstanding system of administering elections with independent officials who fairly count votes with partisan Republicans, setting the stage for partisan election officials to falsely tabulate election results and otherwise rig elections.
➡️ Election Rigging 3
On Capitol Hill, Republican Senators have used the filibuster to block all efforts in the Senate to override these voter suppression laws and election-rigging schemes, thereby leaving these laws and schemes in place.
➡️ Election Rigging 4
Currently serving state and local election officials are being threatened and harassed by Trump supporters. As a result, many are leaving their positions. Trump followers who believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen are moving to take over these positions and assume responsibility for overseeing the elections in their states. These Trump acolytes are moving in to rig the elections for Republicans.
➡️ Election Rigging 5
State legislatures are now aware they can appoint their own slate of presidential electors after Election Day, in order to replace electors chosen by the voters on the claim of fraudulent voting.
The Constitution gives state legislatures the power to determine how presidential electors are chosen and in modern times all state legislatures have empowered voters on Election Day to choose the electors. State legislatures could rig a presidential election if, after Election Day, they took away this power from the voters and gave it to themselves on false grounds, such as claiming voter fraud. This problem can be addressed by enacting new federal legislation to revise the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
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These are just some examples of the attempts to rig federal elections that lie ahead. These efforts, however, can be stopped in their tracks by enacting the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and by revising the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
The stakes for our democracy in enacting these new laws could not be higher. These measures must be enacted.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter here. Or, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
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