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On Monday, President Trump pardoned Rudy Giuliani and dozens of others who participated in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. It’s worth remembering exactly what they tried to do: Among those pardoned are the orchestrators of the so-called “fake electors” scheme — the attempt to replace certain states’ representatives in the Electoral College with Trump allies to certify false election results. If successful, it would have ended the United States’ history of free and fair elections.
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Although people can still face state prosecution, these acts of clemency — like the pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists — send a clear message: If you try to steal an election for his team, Donald Trump will have your back.
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In the states that voted last week, turnout was high and largely without incident, showing the resilience of our election system even at a moment of high tension. Next come the midterm elections a year from now, with control of Congress and many statehouses in the balance.
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Trump’s pardons remind us that those elections will face an extraordinary new source of pressure: the federal government itself. Prepare for an intense, yearlong struggle to protect the vote.
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We have written about the Trump administration’s unfolding strategy to mess with the elections. This campaign includes very public steps and quietly whispered orders. There was the executive order purporting to require citizens to produce a passport or similar document to register to vote. (The Brennan Center, with others, sued the Trump administration and scored a decisive victory in
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It also includes all the administration’s attempts to access state voter rolls, now through lawsuits against states that refuse to comply with these unlawful requests. And there was the purge of federal election security experts who had worked with state and local governments to protect voting. |
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The president continues his intense personal focus on election rules. After Democrats prevailed in major elections in New Jersey, Virginia, New York City, and across the country last week, Trump demanded that senators end the filibuster so a majority could pass laws to end voting by mail and mandate strict national voter ID rules. “Pass Voter Reform, Voter ID, No Mail-In Ballots. Save our Supreme Court from ‘Packing,’ No Two State addition, etc. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!!!” he blared on social media.
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(By the way, Trump has a point about the filibuster. We’ve long argued that it is an antidemocratic practice. But as long as it exists, thank goodness it’s being used to block attacks on the freedom to vote.) |
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Much of the fight will unfold in the courts. This past week, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear a case questioning whether states are allowed to follow their own laws and count ballots postmarked by Election Day but delivered after. A bad decision by the Roberts Court could overrule similar laws across the country, leading to the potential silencing of thousands of voters. According to Mississippi election officials, “The stakes are high: ballots cast by — but received after — election day can swing close races and change the course of the country.”
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It’s a novel way to disenfranchise voters. And like other tactics, this scheme would create chaos, confusion, and fuel for election deniers in the middle of election season. Hopefully, the Supreme Court sees it for what it is.
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All this conflict over voting rules can be numbing and dispiriting. But voters seem to be waking up to what’s going on. They get mad when someone tries to tilt the system.
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Over the summer, Texas’s brazen gerrymander added a possible five new Republican seats, setting off a partisan brawl that tumbled across the country. Last week, California voters overwhelmingly approved a new congressional map that matched Texas’s, gerrymandered seat for gerrymandered seat. When all the dust settles, Democrats may have fought Republicans to a draw.
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The manipulation is not over, however. The Supreme Court led by John Roberts has reshaped American politics, demolishing campaign finance rules in Citizens United v. FEC, gutting the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, and refusing to police partisan gerrymandering.
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Now the justices seem poised to destroy the effectiveness of a key remaining tool in the Voting Rights Act. Depending on how they rule in Louisiana v. Callais, many districts now held by Black and Latino members of Congress could be erased. That would be an egregious intervention in elections at a time when the stakes could not be higher.
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So, get ready for a rough-and-tumble year. We will all have a role to play in defending the institutions that govern us and protecting the freedom to vote.
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We will need to back up the state and local election officials who face new pressure. We’ll need to go to court to defend against manipulation, and judges will need to step up — as they usually have been — to ensure fair rules. Congress will need to continue to resist proposals to restrict the franchise. The media will need to cover the effort to undermine the election, treating it not just as a partisan tactic but as an un-American threat.
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And voters? Yes, we will need to go to the polls in large numbers. But just as important, we will need to demand that candidates tell us what they will do to strengthen our democratic institutions so they cannot be assaulted again. Flowery speeches about democracy are nice, but will candidates commit to making anticorruption legislation a top priority?
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If you don’t like gerrymandering and the polarized politics it produces, then demand national legislation to ensure fair maps everywhere. National redistricting standards would apply in red states and blue states alike. If you don’t like a loophole-ridden tax code that lets the wealthy manipulate the rules, then pass legislation to end secretive “dark money” that pays for campaigns. And so on.
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Our promise at the Brennan Center: Over the coming year, we will keep you informed about what’s going on. We will work with law enforcement, cyber experts, and state and local election officials. We’ll fight fiercely to protect free and fair elections. And we’ll fight just as hard to insist that reform follows scandal, and that politicians treat the health of our democracy as the central issue it is and should be.
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