Now that the Save America Act is dead, and the gerrymandering war that Trump has been a bust, those who are concerned about the midterm election are turning their attention toward other ways in which Trump might try to meddle and keep his party in power.
The federal government has no authority over elections. Elections are run at the state and local levels, so any effort that Trump makes to interfere in the election will have to be external.
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Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) spoke about the steps that governors are taking to secure their elections against Trump’s meddling on MS NOW.
Pritzker said:
I think we all need to recognize we cannot capitulate. Every day that you let an authoritarian have their way is another day that we’re losing rights. And the more rights we lose, the less likely it is we’re ever going to restore our democracy, our republic, the way that it was before Donald Trump took his second term. So that’s the first part.
How are we gonna protect the vote?
And I’ve talked to a number of governors. I have an organization that I started with Governor Polis called Governors Safeguarding Democracy. That’s at the beginning of this administration, and we’ve been talking with other governors about how we’re going to protect the vote.
Well, one of the ways that we are looking at doing that is making sure that, first of all, that we’re taking them to court ahead of time to keep those troops, those ICE, and CBP agents away from the voting booth.
Second, we’ve gotta communicate to the public about their rights. You have every right to go vote, even if you see somebody wearing a uniform and an automatic weapon with a, you know, with a mask on. Those people cannot prevent you from voting, and I know it’s scary, but this moment is the moment in which you need to get over your fear and go into the ballot box and show America that we are going to restore our democracy. We need everybody to go vote. That communication needs to happen.
And then finally, you know, many of us have talked about organizing to have people at the polling places, to escort people in to make sure they don’t feel intimidated by these people who have no right to be there. Their only purpose, ICE and CBP and National Guard. Their only purpose will be to scare people away. And we don’t want that. And by the way, all we want is for eligible voters, US citizens who are eligible voters to go in and vote.
And we just don’t want people to be afraid to go vote. So the more communication we can have, the more escorts that we can have. and the more we can keep National Guard off our streets and away from these polling places. The better off we are, but there are a lot of strategies that are gonna be employed. I don’t want to give away what everybody’s thinking about how they would do it. It’ll be state by state individually decided by those governors.
Video of Pritzker:
Each state will differ in how it protects its election, but governors are assuming that Trump will try something and are being proactive, not reactive.
Trump doesn’t have enough ICE agents and National Guard troops to launch immigration actions in all of the swing and blue states to mess with the election. The military is already stretched thin by Trump’s overseas follies.
The reality is that Trump may not physically try to disrupt the midterm election, but he may pull various stunts, like court cases, to try to create the perception that the election was stolen after he loses.
People are worried about what Trump might do, so it is important to understand that governors are planning to protect democracy and keep the midterm election safe.
What do you think about Pritzker’s comments? Do they reassure you? Let me know in the comments below.