Politics

Our Election System is Falling Apart

Republican state legislatures are changing election laws so that they, not the voters, determine who wins elections in their states

81 million people were vastly relieved when Biden won the 2020 election. Further down the ballot, the Republicans picked up some House seats but not enough to topple the Democratic majority while in the Senate, the Democrats picked up enough seats to earn a very slim majority.

All was well with the world.

But not quite. Because what we all neglected to do was to look even further down the ballot to see that Trump’s coattails had a very long reach in state elections. Republicans did better in state races, winning another governorship in Montana making it 27 Republican governors and 23 Democratic governors.

State legislatures are similar with 29 now controlled by Republicans and 18 controlled by Democrats.

The reason that I am boring you with all of these statistics is because all of this Republican control of state legislatures means that Republicans control the elections in those states because the Constitution grants the states the power to determine the “Times, Places, and Manner” of elections. Subject, of course, to Congressional approval.

Congressional approval these days is problematical with the slim Democratic majority in the senate and the notorious filibuster. So the states can pretty much do what they want.

I know that you were hoping that I wasn’t going to mention Trump, but in this case he is central to the problem of our elections becoming truly rigged.

Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen from him or fraudulent or rigged or whatever his complaint du jour is, combined with his immense popularity among Republicans has resulted in state legislators passing laws to make sure that it can’t happen again.

Let me repeat that. The belief that Biden stole the election and is a fraudulent president is so entrenched among Republicans, that Republican governors and state legislatures are introducing laws that will enable them to determine who wins elections.

Voters in those states will no longer have any say in who gets elected.

I don’t know about you, but I find that terrifying. This is not America. This is not the same country it was in 2016 before Trump was elected. His single term has changed our country from a democracy with free and fair elections to a fascist state where elections are complete shams.

This is happening in a few different ways.

Gerrymander

States are taking advantage of the 2020 census to redraw districts to favor Republicans. Who am I kidding? They’re redrawing them so that it is impossible for Democrats to win.

Stephen Stepanek, the Republican state chair in New Hampshire, said “Elections have consequences,” as his party is redrawing their two Congressional districts so that the state will send at least one Republican to Congress.

Chris Croft of Kansas gets my vote for most egregious use of the gerrymander. He is the chair of the committee in charge of redrawing districts. He is also interested in running for Congress from one of those redrawn districts that will be overwhelmingly Republican.

Voter Restrictions

47 states have proposed or passed 361 bills restricting access to the polls. The bills restrict or eliminate absentee ballots, early voting, placement of drop boxes, automatic voter registration and my all-time favorite, it is now illegal in Georgia to provide water or snacks to voters waiting in line to vote.

Control of Vote Outcome

Also in Georgia, a law has been passed that if the state legislature is unhappy with the outcome of an election in a locality, the state legislature can fire the local election board and take over its function, i.e. change the outcome of the election.

An Arizona Republican state lawmaker has proposed legislation that would allow the legislature to ignore the results of a presidential election and decide for themselves which candidate will be awarded Arizona’s electoral votes.

In Iowa, the Republican controlled legislature has proposed that local election administrators be prevented from making any changes to their counties’ voting rules. Changes could only be made by the state legislature.

And we are all wondering what the hell is going on in Arizona?

They are doing a recount of votes from the November election. In April. By a firm called, I kid you not, Cyber Ninjas. It sounds more like an after-school club than a firm that can be trusted with an audit of ballots.

But it makes sense why they were hired. The head of Cyber Ninjas claims that Trump actually won the state by 200,000 votes. That’s pretty specific. So will anyone be surprised if they “find” 200,000 votes for Trump?

And then there is the blue ink controversy. Seriously. It appears that Cyber Ninjas has provided pens with blue ink to the workers who are counting the ballots. The correct ink color should be red. Blue ink can be read by the tabulation machines so there is the possibility of ballots being altered. Red ink cannot be read by the tabulation machines which is why only pens with red ink should be used when re-counting ballots.

But what concerns me far more than the ink color or political leanings of a firm hired to count ballots was what happened when the re-count was first proposed in December 2020 by Republican senators in the state legislature.

Initially, the Board of Supervisors who oversees elections resisted saying that there had been no fraud. All five supervisors, including four Republicans, were deluged with thousands of death threats from Trump supporters all over the country.

Death threats.

Since when did our elections, disputed or not, include death threats? Since when did the officials in charge of our elections have to go into hiding or require police guards because they and their families were being threatened?

Since Trump. He has made it okay for his supporters to give in to their basest instincts and use violence or the threat of violence to get the results that they want in elections.

That’s not democracy.

Democracy is accepting the outcome of an election and getting on with your life even if your candidate lost.

Instead, Trump has encouraged his supporters to used violence against anyone who disagrees with them. He urged attendees at his rallies to beat up protestors and media personnel. He urged the crowd on January 6 to invade the Capitol to stop the Electoral vote count and execute Mike Pence for disobeying an order from Trump.

That is unheard of in our country.

I know that everyone has their hopes pinned on H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which is supposed to reform the voting process but this new voting rights act will only apply to federal elections. Congress has no power over state and local elections. And that is where the problem is festering. On the state and local level.

When I read what Republicans are doing to grab power, I get a “Fall of the Roman Empire” feeling. That we are descending into chaos and darkness.

What’s happening to our country is how empires start their decline.