Terrible Washington Post opinion column on mail in voting

It’s pro-Trump trash. I still subscribe to the Post but it’s getting hard to justify it.

My comment on the Post site:

Why is Newsom pushing a “wildly aggressive new gerrymander” in California? It’s in response to a comparable gerrymander in Texas. Republicans started this, not Newsom, but you are too biased to say so. Pennsylvania doesn’t count mail-in votes until election day which could cause public concerns about the results. Why is that? Republicans wouldn’t agree to counting them earlier unless Democrats made concessions.

Posts on Trump’s unwarranted attacks on voting by mail

He lies all the time about voting by mail. There is no fraud. He is just setting a basis for interfering in upcoming elections. This will wind up in the courts like the rest of his illegal actions.

More tweets on Republican efforts to sabotage elections in Georgia

NEW: The Democratic Party has filed a powerful new lawsuit to challenge the election subversion rules passed by the Trump-endorsed members of the Georgia State Elections Board.

Paige and I break it down and explain. https://t.co/y3ddfBkqSM
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) August 29, 2024

NEW: The DNC and Georgia Democratic Party sue the Georgia State Election Board over new rules that could delay election certification this fall. Democrats ask the court to rule that certification is mandatory and officials cannot delay or refuse to certify.https://t.co/qjERwl2sov
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 26, 2024

.@BrianKempGA, what’s uncertain? https://t.co/1YNleiKdwl pic.twitter.com/8US639jdlc
— Max Flugrath🗳️ (@MaxFlugrath) August 26, 2024

A former Fulton County election official who submitted an initial draft of the rule told ProPublica she had done so at the behest of a regional leader of a right-wing organization involved in challenging the legitimacy of American election systems. https://t.co/cFYUPTTnUu
— ProPublica (@propublica) August 29, 2024

NEW: Two right-wing activists — who have challenged the status of thousands of voters in Georgia — sue Fulton County election officials, claiming they are not properly maintaining the county’s voter rolls and are failing to respond to voter challenges. https://t.co/P68SCEuWQU
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 29, 2024

Trumpism’s route to the White House is paved with bricks of election theft in the battleground state

Source: the Guardian https://t.co/MjDE1Lgyof
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) August 29, 2024

Tweets on threats to election workers by the right wing

Over the past few years, election workers and officials across the country have faced harassment and violent threats. So far, the Justice Department has charged roughly 20 people.

(via @PerryStein and @yvonnewingett)https://t.co/pSVSQNkIHm
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) March 26, 2024

Election workers should not be a target for threats and intimidation. We are carrying out our job — letting Americans make their voices heard.https://t.co/gxiE8PeN5Q
— Jena Griswold (@JenaGriswold) March 27, 2024

The Department of Justice is investigating dozens of threats made to election workers and has charged 20 individuals so far. https://t.co/miW9Npsh6B
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 26, 2024

As a crucial general election nears, Democracy Docket spoke with extremism experts to discuss threats to election workers and how officials have worked to ensure the voting process continues to be secure and safe. https://t.co/jyVVErh5j6
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) March 27, 2024

Right-wing threats against election officials

One reason I don’t think either side will accept a loss in the upcoming presidential election.

An election official in Arizona, who spread 2020 voter fraud conspiracies, quit his job after facing blowback from angry election deniers https://t.co/yaXASnoAme
— CNN (@CNN) January 12, 2024

NV's largest county is down 100 poll workers and one of the reddest is down half its numbers. People are afraid to take these jobs, and many are walking away. This is a not-frequently-enough-told story about the hostility toward good citizens fomented by election deniers. https://t.co/GvNsy0ENvv
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) January 10, 2024

Election workers are on the frontline of safeguarding our democracy, but ever since far-right, MAGA Republicans began spreading the 2020 election lie, they’ve been bombarded by threats.https://t.co/4yQ33cp46d
— Let America Vote (@LetAmericaVote) November 29, 2023

The lasting harms of the big lie: "Seven months after election conspiracy theories consumed the community here and drove the entire election staff to quit, Buckingham County struggled to report its results in Tuesday's elections," @janestreet reports https://t.co/3rQnjnCLp9
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 8, 2023

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1721266432183312743?s=43&t=rIYxMSgaBTiASp7yrXMpjA

Government employees are being bombarded with threats even in normally quiet periods between elections, officials warn

Experts fear the 2024 election could be worse and want the federal government to do more to protect election workers. https://t.co/YENqOsqY9N
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) September 1, 2023

Driven by former President Trump's lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, threats against election workers have exploded, with one in six reporting threats against them and many election administrators leaving the job or considering it. https://t.co/jZXgBoHg1c
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) August 13, 2023

“Pinal County Elections Director…abruptly quit Tues, citing county management's reluctance to stand up 4 her amid partisan personal attacks [by Republicans] as the county now looks for the 4th person to fill the position in less than a year.” 6/27/23
1/ https://t.co/hdqMPgD6SC
— jennycohn@toad.social ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) June 28, 2023

.@bcrodriguez talked to elections workers about the impact of having CNN air Trump’s lies about the election https://t.co/ZJ2tIl5Ait
— Terri Rupar (@terri_rupar) May 12, 2023

NBC: Amid baseless voter fraud claims, an entire county election staff quits https://t.co/BGtoYrUj95
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) April 10, 2023

#ELB: “The federal agency dedicated to elections is, once again, in turmoil ahead of the 2024 elections” https://t.co/Oohnsdv5ZT
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) January 19, 2024

Right-wing threats against election officials

Election officials and workers have felt threatened since the 2020 presidential election and the false claims that it was stolen from former President Donald Trump. https://t.co/ANxaGmARpE
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) July 8, 2022

Election officials worry about their safety ahead of the midterms https://t.co/M92zwlcijD
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 17, 2022

A Nebraska man pleaded guilty on charges that he threatened an election official over social media last year, marking the first conviction for a Justice Dept. task force charged with protecting poll workers. https://t.co/xwJKfHaxB8
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) June 16, 2022

Pretty interesting detail here:

Michigan officials won't currently say how many voting machines have been taken out of service because of unauthorized access.

The primary is less than 50 days away. https://t.co/PweGlk5zdm
— Craig Mauger (@CraigDMauger) June 15, 2022

Sadly, this is not an isolated problem, since 2020, the @BrennanCenter has documented an unprecedented spike in threats against election officials and their families. More than 1 in 6 experienced threats. And it is continuing! https://t.co/tx5XVNJTMX
— Wendy Weiser (@WendyRWeiser) June 13, 2022

New column: Dozens of 2020 election deniers are running for state offices that control elections, and the GOP that tried to block Biden's win could take over Congress. Will the Jan. 6 hearings jolt voters? And what if they don't?https://t.co/JuXX3SwUOZ @usatoday @usatodayopinion
— Jill Lawrence (@JillDLawrence) June 7, 2022

"It's an entire architecture."@HeidiReports got tapes this week detailing GOP plans to challenge future elections. It is organized, and coordinated to make "MAGA loyalists to become the worker bees of the election system." #Velshi https://t.co/T2ldV3WjMj
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) June 4, 2022

Two Arizona elections officials have resigned over threats that began after the 2020 election. https://t.co/oF4oEhzSLG
— Axios (@axios) July 3, 2022

Republican plans to subvert future elections

FLAG. Video recordings of Republican Party operatives meeting with activists reveal a multi-pronged strategy to target and overturn votes in Democratic precincts: Install trained recruits as poll workers and put them in direct contact with party attorneys. https://t.co/aQ1cH0orZ4
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 1, 2022

New reporting from Politico details efforts by the Republican party on the local level to challenge and potentially overturn elections in the future.
@WmBrangham spoke with @rickhasen to better understand this strategy and what it means. https://t.co/x2wbLMyl6O pic.twitter.com/cAwDOuBotV
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) June 1, 2022

Amazingly detailed NYT piece on yet another disturbingly organized move by conservative activists to make sure the next election results only in a GOP victory. What are Democrats doing to respond? We are heading for a democratic disaster. https://t.co/9EstceUdlg
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 30, 2022

The news that Cleta Mitchell (of Trump-trying-to-steal-the-election fame) is putting together a program of GOP-friendly election monitors made me think of a guy in Scranton who volunteered to do that for the 2020 election. https://t.co/SkWiIKqpoq
— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 31, 2022

True the Vote, the group behind the debunked election conspiracy film “2000 Mules,” is even controversial in GOP circles.

“I would not give her a penny,” John Fund told donors at a Council for National Policy event.

"It's true," Cleta Mitchell agreed. https://t.co/pLXVZxyYZd
— Brendan Fischer (@brendan_fischer) June 1, 2022

Architect of Trump election theft attempt is recruiting an army of conspiracy-fueled poll workers: reporthttps://t.co/UXuQrsGuT4
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 30, 2022

The GOP is reportedly preparing to sow chaos in the 2022 election by creating an “army” of poll workers and Republican lawyers to challenge voters in Democratic precincts. https://t.co/TNj3ptV8Wm
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 1, 2022

Listen to the tape. It's worse than you think. They are talking about using relationships with local police, lawyers, and judges to undermine ballot counting and elections in key Democratic cities. This is the road map of a coup. https://t.co/cMY1Bejfbj
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) June 2, 2022

FWIW there’s a gigantic voter protection infrastructure in Democratic politics (as well as voter & civic groups) that mobilizes the largely left leaning legal community all over the country every year https://t.co/wNkZuJfbUO
— Jonathan Robinson (@jon_m_rob) June 2, 2022

“Eastman advised that a state legislature should concoct a fig leaf justification for declaring the correct Biden electors certified by the governor invalid and certifying Trump electors instead.” This is key to their plans for 2024:https://t.co/T6FDtJQcpk
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 11, 2022

At least 357 sitting GOP state legislators in battleground states have tried to discredit or overturn the 2020 election. That’s 44% of GOP state legislators in 9 states where the presidential race was closest.https://t.co/xs82k09Igr
— Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (@DLCC) May 29, 2022

Opinion | South Dakota's attack on ballot initiatives shows how the GOP subverts voters' will – The Washington Post https://t.co/gIgrmV79PS
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 3, 2022

The Trump cult wants election subversion

“some top Democrats are expressing public concern, worried that moves by Republican state officials — like making election overseers more beholden to political leaders — could set back their party for a generation.” https://t.co/3LTGWsYBGA
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) October 16, 2021

A little scoop with @daithaigilbert:

At this weekend's QAnon conference, a Nevada secretary of state candidate announced he & three Trump-endorsed candidates have formed a coalition to "control the election system."

Mike Lindell is involved.https://t.co/Yp71NBFdMf
— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) October 27, 2021

The GOP and its acolytes are engaged in a two-prong, systematic effort to takeover election administration:

1. Intimidate non-partisan election officials into resigning;

2. Get MAGA “Big Lie” candidates to replace them.

This is a huge authoritarian threat to US democracy.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 27, 2021

It's a bad sign that elections officials are feeling endangered by threats of violence to the point that some are leaving. Add in that Trumpists are unshackling themselves from any obligation to respect future election outcomes, and it's a combustible mix:https://t.co/cTzSzdw8j8
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 26, 2021

Pretty much every day another story emerges about threats of violence from Trump supporters- @ election officials, school boards, Congress, local govt. GOP (& conserv columnists) determined to ignore, but it's clear Trump has ignited an ongoing threat changing US landscape https://t.co/wgtgbwpd4h
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) October 26, 2021

In three critical battleground states, Democratic governors have blocked efforts by Republican-controlled legislatures to restrict voting rights and undermine the 2020 election. From The New York Times: https://t.co/Rbik1qFyao
— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) October 9, 2021

Washington Monthly's Bill Scher on the precise, stripped-down electoral reform bill that just might get 10 Senate GOP votes and just might save American democracy. https://t.co/2EMs8XhNSt @monthly
— Paul Glastris (@glastris) October 8, 2021

Elections are super-important, particularly right now. But I tried to explain why they can't be the only or dominant factor in our political discourse. https://t.co/aKRixiqtrb
— Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) October 8, 2021

Nearly a dozen states enacted laws this year that could subvert the results of future elections, analysis finds

Election subversion could be real and dangerous

My new one in @washingtonpost on whether Democrats in Congress should try to go it alone on fighting election subversion risk. https://t.co/vR05mxZVpF
— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) September 29, 2021

Chilling, but telling, to see all this in one place. Voter suppression is only half the story. Subversion efforts accelerating too in red states. https://t.co/FdxaJHwP1E
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) September 29, 2021

Trump has destroyed confidence in elections with his lies

This is a screen from CNN yesterday. Sure, I was upset that Trump beat Clinton but I didn’t think any votes were altered or not counted. Russian meddling helped reduce turnout, not tampering with votes.

This is a very bad sign going forward. The 2024 election is going to be so bad, we’ll be nostalgic for the 2020 mess.