Today in Maricopa County, Arizona, there’s a bogus election “audit” under way by an unqualified organization known as Cyber Ninjas, ostensibly to review the validity of ballots cast for president in the 2020 election. The so-called audit was initiated by Republican members of the state Senate to look for evidence of massive voter fraud—a claim that has been debunked repeatedly and was proven to be false by three official recounts of the votes.
The real reason for this effort is not to validate the actual votes but to throw out the official results and declare that Donald J. Trump was the true winner of Arizona’s 11 electoral votes and is the rightful president of the United States … and that he would be president now had the election not been stolen by radical Democrats.
None of this is true, of course, but truth no longer exists in the land of Trump … and hasn’t for several years. He has already declared that Arizona will be “the first domino to fall,” while similar “audits” are already being demanded in other swing states including Michigan and Wisconsin, with Pennsylvania and Georgia soon to follow if they haven’t already by the time this is read.
When all is said and done, conspiracy theorists will no doubt find the “evidence” they seek to prove that Trump won the 2020 election “by a landslide,” and start looking for ways to evict Joe Biden from the White House. They have already shown, on January 6, 2021, that they are not afraid to use violence to attack American Democracy, so there is no reason to believe we won’t see similar demonstrations somewhere down the road.
Are you frightened yet?
You should be, because Democracy is teetering on the edge of a cliff in this country and Fascism is waiting in the weeds to take its place. (Wait! Let me correct myself. Fascism isn’t even hiding in the weeds any longer. It’s sitting out in the open in Republican governors’ offices, GOP-dominated state legislatures and the halls of the U.S. Congress.)
Following is part of a summary of voter suppression and restriction laws that have been introduced in various states since the election last November. It has been edited for length and clarity by me, but was written by the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize and defend our country’s systems of democracy and justice. The unedited report can be found here:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-march-2021
According to the Brennan Center, “In a backlash to 2020’s historic voter turnout, and under the pretense of responding to baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, state lawmakers have introduced a startling number of bills to curb the vote. As of March 24, legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive provisions in 47 states.”
Five such bills have already been signed into law, at least 55 are moving through legislatures in 24 states where 29 have passed at least one chamber, and another 26 have had some sort of committee hearing, amendment or committee vote.
“Most of these restrictive bills take aim at absentee voting, while nearly a quarter seek stricter voter ID requirements. State lawmakers also aim to make voter registration harder, expand voter roll purges or adopt flawed practices that would risk improper purges, and cut back on early voting. The states that have seen the largest number of restrictive bills introduced are Texas (49), Georgia (25) and Arizona (23). Bills are actively moving in the Texas and Arizona statehouses, and Georgia (has) enacted an omnibus voter suppression bill….”
That’s all bad enough, but the most damaging legislation includes a bevy of bills aimed at undermining the power of local officials to determine and certify the results of a free and fair election. For example:
* Texas has introduced at least six bills that would penalize election officials for various infractions and impose financial penalties for refusing to purge voters.
* A Wisconsin bill would prohibit election clerks from sending absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots to voters who did not request them and create a felony offense for violation.
* A Missouri bill would threaten any local election official with loss of funding if they refuse to purge voters on their rolls that the Secretary of State has called on them to remove.
* And Iowa’s new law allows the state Commissioner of Elections to impose a fine on county election officials for any technical infraction, including failing to purge voters.
Consider this scenario: Voters in your state go to the polls in record numbers and select a Democrat to be president. That means your candidate wins your state’s Electoral College votes. But because of new laws passed this year, the legislature can decide that local election officials are not qualified to determine the winner, so they toss out those results—claiming massive voter fraud or some other reason—and declare the Republican to be the winner instead. The electoral votes go to the candidate that the legislature wants to win, regardless of the actual outcome of voting. The Republican official in charge then certifies the results.
Now apply that scenario to the five critical swing states that pushed Joe Biden to the top, and the Electoral College is transformed from a representative of the will of the people into a tool to establish one-party rule in America. And not just in the next election but in every election from now on. If you don’t think that can happen, look around. It’s happening already.
One way to prevent this nightmare scenario is for Democrats in the U.S. Senate to end the filibuster and pass legislation that reforms the way elections are conducted. Among other provisions, the “For the People Act” expands voter registration and voting access; provides for states to establish independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions; addresses campaign spending, financing and security; revises disclaimer requirements for political advertising; establishes an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices; sets forth provisions related to ethics in all three branches of government; and requires candidates for president and vice president to submit 10 years of tax returns.
The bill, which passed the House as HR1 but languishes in filibuster hell in the Senate, would fix many, if not all, of the nation’s federal election issues … but there’s even a problem with that. According to the Brennan Center, bills have already been introduced in several states to oppose the For the People Act, should it ever pass, and Texas lawmakers have proposed setting up a parallel system with its own rules for state contests if the federal law is enacted. That puts Texas’s 40 electoral votes in a kind of election limbo land.
There is so much more to this story, and I encourage everyone to click the link to Brennan (above) or do your own research to learn what’s really going on in this country. As for me, I just want to make one more point, and you can take it for what it’s worth: If all of these Republican legislatures are able to manipulate the results of future elections, toss out the will of the people and decide which candidate wins, Donald J. Trump will be re-elected president in 2024 regardless of the popular vote or the true Electoral College result … and if that happens, he will stay in office as King of America or Dictator for Life until he dies or until he can hand it off to Ivanka or one of his sons.
If you don’t believe me, I sincerely hope you are right … but if what I said comes true, please remember that you heard it here first.
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