Stealing from Shakespeare, the midterm elections were “much ado about nothing”—if we’re talking about unlawful voting. Despite cries of voter fraud from the right, no one has reported any unlawful voter activity in the midterms.
But the Trump administration sure was concerned and threatened to intervene and sent monitors to polling sites.
We begin with the threats. Mark Mullins, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, may not have expressly threatened to send ICE agents to the polls, but his statements were enough to cause voters concern. FBI Director Kash Patel refused to commit to not sending agents to the polls.
For the first time in history, the Department of Justice sent 1000 election monitors across the 50 states in order to protect election integrity, as if it were needed. The DOJ also went to court—and failed. The suit filed in Alaska failed for lack of legal authority, and the ballots and election records the DOJ seized in Georgia failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing.
House Republicans deployed staffers across the nation to observe elections. “The balance of power in the United States House of Representatives is at stake,” said Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) “and we wanna make sure that we have eyes and ears on the ground in close races across the country.”
U.S. Senators also got involved. At the Thompson Recreation Center polling site in Columbus, I met a staffer from Senator Mike Crapo’s (R-Idaho) office. She was there to observe, and her itinerary included some 12 other polling locations.
In turn, Democratic U.S. Senators sent their staffers to certain polls to watch for “any malfeasance from Donald Trump and the far-right.”
And what happened? What always happens during our elections: nothing. That is, nothing other than an orderly system of voting.
Did the fraudsters fail to show up and do their dirty work, or does the system work? Hint: it’s the latter.
Take a look at the volunteers who work the polling stations. They’re the people next door. They’re Republicans and Democrats, and they all have one thing in common: they believe in and want to protect the system.
Some have worked the polls for several elections. The manager at the Thompson Recreation Center site told me she estimates having worked at some 18 to 20 elections.
Strangely, we have heard nary a peep from President Donald Trump, the man who has regularly bellowed about our election system being “dangerously” susceptible to “levels never thought possible, to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference.”
Has Trump come to his senses? Not likely. More likely, he doesn’t want to get involved in elections where his name wasn’t on the ballot or, perhaps, the voter turnout and the breadth of GOP losses were a bridge too far, even for him.
Voter turnout in Ohio was 58 percent, which surpasses the last two midterm elections, and Ohioans were eager to vote. This year, 1,730,111 Ohioans voted prior to election day, either in person or by mail-in ballot; the prior midterm election record was 1,461,578. Nationwide, voter turnout was 49.42 percent, the second-highest in a midterm election since 1914, exceeded only by the 2018 midterms.
The number of seats flipped in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and the number of Democratic governors elected exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Trump stated he is “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the midterms. What a concession. Next he’ll announce he’s accepting Newton’s law of gravity.
The fiction about voter fraud began with Trump’s complaining about being at risk of losing the 2016 presidential race to Hillary Clinton because of voter fraud. Though Trump was unable to produce any supporting evidence, his followers were quick to follow his lead and have continue to chant the fiction of voting fraud.
After the midterms, it’s hard to see how the voter fraud conspiracy can continue, but the human condition is such that steadfast beliefs, even when grounded in fiction, are seldom dislodged.
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Jack D’Aurora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com
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