Trickster Trump

With the elimination of judges who are adverse to him and greater control of the judicial apparatus, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, intends to take advantage of all possible tricks so that his Republican Party maintains the legislative majority in both chambers in the so-called midterm elections that will take place next November.

Democrats maintain that they have reasons to plan for apocalyptic scenarios. During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to reverse the result, but was challenged by career officials and Republicans more aligned with the establishment.

After returning to power, Trump has filled his government with people who helped his 2020 efforts, used the federal government to attack his political enemies, and pardoned more than a thousand people prosecuted for the assault on the Capitol whose goal was to stop the certification of Biden's victory.

The parties of sitting presidents typically lose ground in midterm elections, but Trump has done everything he can to prevent that from happening this time. He has demanded that Republicans redraw maps to create more favorable seats, held an unusual mid-term convention, and attempted to alter election rules even as states begin sending out ballots.

The guidance for judges asked to approve search warrants, for instance, was inspired by the Trump administration's seizure of 2020 ballots and other election records in Georgia’s Fulton County—a move based on false conspiracy theories.

Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor and director of the university’s Safeguarding Democracy Project—who helped draft the guide on responding to the seizure of voting machines—told Microsoft News that Trump has expressed regret for not taking more aggressive action to overturn the 2020 results, such as ordering the seizure of voting machines.

“All of that makes what was once far-fetched entirely possible today,” Hasen said. He added that while it’s important not to unduly alarm voters, it’s “hard to find a middle ground between alarmism and complacency.”

FAILED ATTEMPTS

The stakes are much higher in the midterm elections, which will determine whether Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress. So far, Trump has been unable to alter voting procedures ahead of the election.

Courts blocked Trump’s initial attempt to reshape election rules via executive order. He backed a congressional bill to introduce even broader changes, but it remains stalled in the Senate due to opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.

Trump subsequently tried to limit mail-in voting through an executive order, but courts blocked that move as well, ruling that the changes could not be implemented before the midterms. That case is now before the Supreme Court. Election officials warn that it would be impossible to implement the president's requirements in time for this election. The dispute over election rules has become so intense that the National Bar Association announced an initiative last week to help voters from both parties understand last-minute changes to election rules and to establish a hotline for those encountering problems while casting their ballots.

However, it has not been possible to reverse the Trump-aligned decision to station federal agents at polling places to prevent alleged signs of fraud, ballot tampering, compromised ballot boxes, and the like—an unprecedented move in that pseudo-democracy.

In every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations involving lawyers, staff, and volunteers to monitor polling stations and the vote count. The Republican National Committee highlighted that it has already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“The Republican National Committee has spent this entire cycle preparing not only to defy history in November but to protect it,” stated spokesperson Ally Triolo, who sought to convey that they have built “the largest election integrity operation in the history of the Republican Party because our mission is simple: to secure every legal vote and ensure that Americans can trust the outcome of our elections.”

Democrats have also expanded their operations, and the Association of State Democratic Committees is bolstering that effort with its recruitment project. This will also include a network for sharing information regarding online threats and manipulation, noted Jane Kleeb, chair of the group and of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

State Democratic parties announced on Monday that they are launching a midterm election operation aimed at recruiting 10,000 volunteers to monitor polling stations in the event that armed federal agents appear.

Activists are planning mass protests should the Trump administration attempt to interfere with voting or the vote count. Meanwhile, legal experts are distributing technical documents with recommendations to guide judges on how to proceed if the government attempts to seize ballots.

COUNTERING COLORADO'S IMPOSITIONS

These unprecedented efforts are a response to Trump’s equally unprecedented measures to interfere in the midterm elections—including attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements and force the Postal Service to play a central role in determining who can vote by mail, moves that have so far been rejected.

This planning has become an indicator of just how strained "democracy" has become in the country that sought to set itself up as an example to the world, amplified, yet fundamentally false, given that having more money and the backing of entities that benefit either party has become the main example of falsehood.

“We have never prepared for electoral sabotage like we are doing now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-wing group Indivisible.

In the past year there have been isolated cases of federal agents at polling places, usually claiming they were pursuing or investigating a specific person. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this month that it's possible that could happen again in November.

As an indication of distrust of government guarantees, civil rights groups and the city of Denver filed a lawsuit last week asking a federal judge to formally ban the agency's presence at voting centers. They cited a law dating back to the Civil War era that prohibits the presence of armed federal agents at election sites.

“This administration is basically using rhetoric that undocumented citizens are voting and that they are going to have the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the voting centers to try to intimidate and suppress the Latino vote,” said Juan Proaño, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the plaintiffs.

A common element of election preparation is a series of simulation exercises in which each side rehearses hypothetical scenarios to practice its response. As part of that, Democrats and civil rights groups are rehearsing the possible deployment of agents from that agency or the National Guard at voting centers.

The No Kings network, which has led large anti-Trump protests during the president's second term and includes Indivisible, is launching a campaign to encourage early voting that will peak with rallies on October 17.

Others are organizing in both left-wing groups and more traditional organizations to respond if the government acts aggressively in November. Some look to the protests against that body in Minneapolis as a model.

Two activists were murdered by agents of that organization during those January demonstrations, and the government finally backed down on the repressive offensive that the president had launched against the city, recalled the Los Angeles Times.

“We recognize that there could be a similar moment in November, where Trump tries to do that again, where ordinary workers and students need to come together and say, 'You can't; this is our country, you don't decide who gets elected or who gets to take office,'” said Kidus Girma of the left-wing Sunrise Movement.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff