As election deniers ramp up their attacks, the system remains resilient.
This article was originally published in the Brennan Center‘s “The Briefing,” Michael Waldman’s weekly newsletter.
We are hurtling toward Election Day, when 160 million people will choose our leaders, each of us with an equal vote. That this system works, election after election, is a modern miracle.
So we should never lose our outrage over the way that democracy has come under cynical assault by partisans, armed with nothing but false rumors. But we should take heart that it is now increasingly clear that despite the clamor, in 2024 voters can cast their ballots in an election that is free and fair.
Two trends lately have come into sharp focus.
One is this: Election deniers have intensified their efforts. In 2020, they were disorganized and improvisational. Now their efforts are well-funded, strategic and focused. They have filed dozens of anti-voter lawsuits, many more than in previous elections. Some aim to flood election officials with bogus work. Others are little more than press releases with a legal caption, aiming to sow doubt about the system.
In Pennsylvania, six Republican state lawmakers (all men) challenged the state’s procedures for handling ballots cast by American citizens living overseas. Those voters—nearly 3 million in all—have had special protections under federal law since at least the 1940s. The system has been in place since President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. The lawsuit seeks to disenfranchise thousands of active-duty military members, many of them deployed in dangerous zones. They have a right to vote, and it is unpatriotic to try to stop them from exercising the franchise.
“These laws have been on the books for a long time,” Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat of the U.S. Vote Foundation said. “It’s a bit rich to think you could change it a few weeks before the election. There’s obviously intent there to disenfranchise these voters and to disqualify their votes entirely.”
Last month, the Brennan Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief representing Blue Star Families, the U.S. Vote Foundation, American Citizens Abroad, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas, and seven Pennsylvanians living abroad who want their votes counted in the upcoming election.
Just this week, a federal judge dismissed the claims—a baseless challenge to the federal law allowing eligible voters overseas to cast ballots, including members of the military. Fortunately, courts in other states have already blocked this last-minute effort, including last month in Michigan and North Carolina.
Which illuminates the other big trend: The election system is stronger this year, even better able to resist attempts to undermine the vote. Already in 2020, despite the pandemic, we had the highest turnout since 1900—and Donald Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it was the most secure election ever. Since then, the system has gotten even stronger.
Case in point: Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act. Ninety-eight percent of voters use paper ballots, which can be used for recounts. Law enforcement has stepped up and now works with election officials through the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections formed by the Brennan Center and other groups. The Justice Department has challenged practices such as efforts to purge legitimate voters in Virginia.
And courts have begun to swat down the most outrageous efforts to rig voting rules. Remember the MAGA-dominated state election board in Georgia, the one whose members Trump hailed at an August rally as “pit bulls” for “victory”? The board began issuing increasingly unhinged edicts, such as a command that local officials count the number of ballots by hand. Now, a Georgia judge has struck down those moves. (The judgment has since been appealed.)
So many of these bids to subvert elections are flatly illegal. The same goes for threats to refuse to certify results: Officials don’t have a choice. That’s the law, across the country.
All of which adds up to this: Citizens can vote in 2024 with confidence. Despite the noise and lies and melodrama, voting will likely be uneventful for the vast majority of Americans.
But even as we grow more confident about Election Day, it is increasingly clear that partisans plan to disrupt the counting and undermine trust after the votes are cast. That’s the ultimate purpose of the lie being peddled that noncitizens are voting in large numbers. It won’t stop the voting and can’t plausibly be the basis for legitimate court challenges (the kinds that happen after many elections and which judges are capable of handling).
These conspiracy theories are not being pushed to win in a court of law. They are being advanced to tilt the court of public opinion. It’s hard to see how this could lead to a legitimate result being overturned—but we have every reason to think that if their candidates are rejected by voters, the election deniers will try.
And the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that gave lawbreaking presidents wide immunity doesn’t bolster confidence that the current justices will be able to resist acting as partisans should the opportunity arise.
The bottom line: Vote with confidence. And know that it will be up to all of us to protect the democracy we love, a defining fight for years to come.
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