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November 15, 2022  | by Fredreka Schouten

ELECTION DENIALISM DENIED

Whew!

For two years, election officials have endured threats and harassment and fretted aloud about the potential for violence at the polls.

The midterms, however, were largely unmarred by voting malfunctions or protests, and, in state after state, politicians who lost their elections conceded their defeats.

Granted, the results still aren’t certified and the midterms technically are not over, with a December 6 runoff looming in Georgia. But election officials my colleagues and I have interviewed in recent days say they are more optimistic than they’ve been in quite a while about the state of our democracy.

This quote from my interview with Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, sums it up neatly: “We’re seeing everybody being adults.”

This edition of the newsletter recaps where we are on the voting-rights front a week after Election Day. You can catch up on all the midterm results here at CNN’s elections center.

ELECTION DENIALISM LOST IN KEY BATTLEGROUNDS

One of the big storylines of the election results is that voters in crucial battleground states rejected secretary of state candidates who have denied the 2020 election results and had pledged to overhaul voting procedures in their states ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Here’s a recap of several of those races:

• In Nevada, Las Vegas Democratic attorney Cisco Aguilar defeated former state lawmaker Jim Marchant to become the first Latino election chief in the Silver State, according to CNN’s projection Saturday night. Marchant, the Republican nominee, had called for doing away with vote-tallying machines and organized a coalition of like-minded “America First” candidates. Their goals include ending most mail-in voting, expanding voter identification and promoting the “aggressive” cleanup of voter rolls.

• In Arizona, CNN projects that Democrat Adrian Fontes, the former top election official in Maricopa County, defeated the Republican nominee, state Rep. Mark Finchem, who lobbied to toss out the results of the 2020 election results in some of state’s largest counties and co-sponsored legislation that would have allowed legislators to set aside election results.

• In Michigan, the Democratic incumbent Jocelyn Benson -- a leading national voice defending the legitimacy of the 2020 election -- defeated Kristina Karamo, CNN projects. Karamo, a member of Marchant’s “America First” slate of candidates, has falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won two years ago and signed on to an unsuccessful Supreme Court lawsuit that challenged President Joe Biden’s victory.

• In Minnesota, Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon won a third term, CNN projects, beating Republican lawyer Kim Crockett. Crockett has cast the 2020 election as “illegitimate” because of pandemic-related changes to voting procedures that year.

One secretary of state candidate in the "America First" coalition did succeed. CNN projects that Republican Diego Morales has won the race for election chief in Indiana. During the GOP primary, he disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election. And other candidates who denied or expressed skepticism about the legitimacy of the 2020 election did succeed in other races. The full breakdown from CNN’s Daniel Dale on how election deniers fared can be found here.

BALLOT INITIATIVES ON VOTING RULES

We don’t have projections on all the ballot initiatives voters weighed in this election, but here are some of the results we know:

-- Connecticut voters said “yes” to amending the state constitution to permit the legislature to allow early voting, CNN projects.

-- Voters in the battleground state of Michigan approved sweeping changes to election procedures, CNN projects. They include requiring nine days of in-person early voting, and state-funded ballot drop boxes. The measure also makes clear that canvassing boards must certify results based only on the official records of votes cast.

-- In another crucial battleground state, Nevada voters approved an open primary and ranked-choice voting system, CNN projects. The measure must be passed again in 2024 to take effect.

YOU NEED TO READ

• With a December 6 runoff ahead in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, this explainer by CNN’s Paul LeBanc on how exactly the runoff will work.

• This look by CNN’s Brandon Tensley at how the runoff evokes our segregationist history.

• This New York Times story about the inroads Democrats made in state legislatures.

• This look at the history made in Georgia with the first Muslim woman elected to the state House of Representatives.

Last week, CNN's Dan Merica spoke with reporter Daniella Diaz and chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny about the midterm elections, the races that are still too close to call, civic engagement and journalism. Click here to watch.

WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DO HERE

Our goal is to help guide conversations about the battle for voting rights in a critical year for American democracy. We’re sharing the latest developments in the battle for ballot access, hearing from experts, answering your questions and providing practical information about how to vote this year. Conversations about the battle for voting rights in a critical year for American democracy. Look for it in your inbox every Tuesday – along with a way to sign up for the free weekly CITIZEN BY CNN events. And, please, drop us a line to let us know what you think: [email protected]. And get your friends to subscribe here.