At least 239 election deniers have signed up to Trump’s ‘election integrity’ conspiracy theories, survey finds
Fears are rising that the vote count in November’s presidential election could be disrupted as a result of the proliferation of Donald Trump’s lies about stolen elections and rampant voter fraud in the key swing states where the race for the White House will be decided.
A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories – including the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him – are actively engaged in electoral battles this year. The deniers are standing for congressional or state seats, holding Republican leadership positions, and overseeing elections on state and county election boards.
The report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group focusing on special interests distorting US democracy, reveals the extent of denial in the eight critical states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It shows that corrosive efforts to damage public confidence in elections have proliferated there despite the drubbing the election denial movement received in the 2022 midterms.
Solution seems simple to me: get rid of the freakin’ electoral college.
That way, if there was massive voter fraud (spoiler: there’s not), it would have to be carried out nationwide (and be heavily diluted in the process) rather than focused on 8 well-known weak points we call ‘swing states’
The electoral college is ass but getting rid of it would actually make the specific problem you’re describing worse. If the election were decided by popular vote then the margins change but so do the attack vectors. Now instead of being forced to successfully change votes in multiple locations in multiple swing states you can potentially alter the outcome by changing the tallies in one highly populated county. Doing something like that once is a lot easier than doing it 8 times simultaneously.
I still think getting rid of the EC is a good idea but we should make sure we fully understand what that means.
If most counties are like 53-47, 55-45, maybe even 65-35, having one county where it is like 90-10 will be dead obvious manipulation.
If I’ve learned anything from the Trump years it’s that it does not matter what is obvious, it only matters what the courts will act on. Once those votes are tallied and the final results are submitted the outcome isn’t changing, especially if the manipulation benefits conservatives. And let’s be real, that’s the only scenario in which this has a realistic chance of happening.
I am worried about Texas already