'Unlike anything we've seen': unprecedented risks facing US democracy

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/16/unprecedented-risks-facing-us-democracy



Hello, and Happy Thursday,

For some year-end reporting, I’ve been talking with folks about how 2021 exploded as the year American democracy came under siege. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” David Becker, an election administration expert and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation, told me.

For our last Fight to Vote newsletter of the year (don’t worry – we’ll be back in January), I wanted to highlight the most dangerous threats to America’s electoral system.

Efforts to inject partisanship into under-the-radar election jobs

Each state in the US oversees its own elections. And within each state different counties, and in some places even smaller townships and municipalities, are responsible for running those elections. At each level, there are under-the-radar officials, appointed in some cases and elected in others, who are responsible for enforcing the rules.

These are positions that many people have never heard of – their job isn’t to be political, but rather to ensure that the person with the most votes is seated as the winner of the election. Over the last year, however, there’s been an effort to weaponize these offices.

*snip*

[CrispyQ]

1. Our side isn't taking the threat seriously enough.

There's too much "it can't happen here" & "the guardrails of democracy held" thinking. The guardrails barely held!

Back in 2004, I was an election judge with a woman who was supposedly one of the democratic judges, but she told me she was really a republican, but she registered as a dem to vote in the dem primary & to act as a dem judge. There's going to be a shit ton more of that kind of devious crap & I don't think our side is ready for it. These people have no shame. They are full of the self-righteous belief that only they are true Americans. The rest of us don't deserve to cast a vote. They really believe that.