With the 2024 presidential election only a month away, Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies are hard at work – but not for the American people. They are focused on one thing only: spreading lies and sowing doubt in our election processes. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and MAGA Republicans across the country are whipping up supporters and employing the same dangerous tactics they did before, during, and after the 2020 election, in an attempt to do the same if things don’t go his way this November.
Reuters: Election Officials Backing Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ Stir Unease In U.S.
- “Four years after Trump tried to overturn his election loss, his false conspiracy theories about voter fraud have become an article of faith among many Republican members of local election boards that certify results. Their rise increases the chances that pro-Trump officials in multiple jurisdictions will be able to delay or sow doubt over the Nov. 5 presidential election if Trump loses.”
- “Reuters examined election boards in the five largest counties in each of the seven battleground states that are likely to determine the election’s outcome. It found that nearly half — or 16 of the 35 county election boards — had at least one member who has expressed pro-Trump skepticism about the electoral process, including theories that Trump won the 2020 election, doubts about the integrity of voting machines or beliefs about widespread fraud in mail ballots.”
CNN: Trump-Allied Georgia Election Board Wants 2020 Election Deniers To Monitor Atlanta-Area Voting.
- “The Donald Trump-allied Georgia State Election Board is pushing to install people who deny the result of the 2020 presidential election as part of a monitoring team in Fulton County, the biggest Democratic-leaning county in the state and one that was consequential for Joe Biden’s victory four years ago. The board has no legal authority to install its own recommended monitors, but that did not stop the GOP majority from voting on Tuesday to repeat its effort to include its own suggested monitoring team in Fulton County. The move, coming less than 30 days before Election Day, is the latest example of what critics say is the board acting in a way that may create chaos next month.”
CBS News: Arizona Election Officials Subjected To Violent Threats.
- “With just weeks to go until Election Day, election officials continue to face threats in Maricopa County, Arizona: a county that’s been a hotbed of voter fraud misinformation since former President Donald Trump lost to President Biden in 2020. Trump lost Maricopa County to Mr. Biden in 2020 by 45,109 votes. The former president falsely claimed the election was stolen. Republican Stephen Richer was elected as Maricopa County recorder in 2020. In 2021, he took over the office, which records voter registration and handles ballots by mail in the county. He explains no widespread fraud has been found in the county’s 2020 election, which he believes is the ‘most scrutinized election in human history.’ Still, allegations of fraud persist.”
Las Vegas Sun News: Nevada Officials On Alert As Federal Agencies Warn Of Election-Related Threats.
- “Federal agencies issued a warning late last week to state elections officials about domestic threats from extremists with ‘election-related grievances’ targeting election workers, political candidates and lawmakers in the coming weeks with Election Day just 28 days away. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said the caution in a joint letter from the Department of Homeland Security and FBI did not come as a surprise, noting there had been collaboration between his office and the FBI ahead of the Nov. 5 election.”
- “The extremist action the bulletin warns about was most profound Jan. 6, 2021, when a group of loyalists to then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol looking to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. Hundreds of rioters were convicted of federal crimes — misdemeanors for trespassing, and more serious felony charges for assaulting police officers and conspiracy —for their actions culminating in the storming of the Capitol. More than 1,265 people have been charged, according to the Department of Justice, in the largest criminal investigation in American history. Trump remains in legal battles for his role in the scheme.”
The Assembly: Election Turmoil Comes to a Rural County.
- “State and local elections officials once kept a low profile, but that’s changed since Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump still makes that claim regularly, as do many of his followers, who have dialed up the pressure on elections officials. Eighty-five percent of North Carolina’s county elections directors said threats against elections workers have increased since 2020, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Election Lab survey found. A quarter said they’ve personally been threatened. The intense scrutiny is driving some out of elections altogether. Two-thirds of county directors have left their positions since 2019, data from the State Board of Elections show.”
The Washington Post: Republicans Challenge Legitimacy Of Overseas Votes, Including Military.
- “Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania have filed a federal lawsuit seeking stricter scrutiny of votes cast by U.S. citizens living abroad, reflecting a new GOP strategy to challenge the eligibility of a group of voters that includes overseas military personnel.
- “The six congressmen who brought the Pennsylvania case are: Guy Reschenthaler, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly and Scott Perry. All voted not to accept Pennsylvania’s electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud. Perry’s phone was seized by the FBI during the Justice Department’s investigation into the attempt to activate Trump’s presidential electors in states that Biden won to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”