Whether there is a clear winner in the 2024 Presidential Election on Tuesday or not, Republicans will claim voter fraud. In fact, they’ve already started.
David Froomkin is an assistant professor of law at the University of Houston, and he is very disturbed by the attack on election integrity used by Republicans since 2016. In his opinion, the public campaign to paint democracy as corrupt and rife with fraud is getting worse, not better.
He cited a recent lawsuit filed by Republicans Steven Hotze, Joseph Trahan, and Caroline Kane against Harris County, the state’s largest stronghold of Democratic voters. The allege that Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett failed to purge ineligible voters ahead of the election. According to Froomkin, there’s no danger that the suit itself will have any impact, but the way it colors the process could have dire consequences.
“The way I see it, this challenge is not really intended to change the count of the vote totals because its baseless; it’s illegal to remove anyone from the voter rolls 90 days before the election,” he says. “It is intended to cast doubt, which is disturbing.”
Ever since former president Donald Trump (himself currently indicted for election interference in Georgia) became a candidate in 2016, he has stated that Democrats across the nation are stealing elections. None of his accusations or those of his followers have ever stood up in court, and some of his inner circle like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, have received professional and legal rebukes for claiming election fraud without evidence.
The Big Lie, as it has come to be called, led to Republican-controlled legislatures passing laws to further constrict access to voting under the guise of protecting elections. This has been especially prevalent in Texas, which passed voter access restriction laws so egregious in 2021 that Democratic lawmakers fled the state to try and prevent their passage.
That said, Froomkin doesn’t think it’s the state actions that are most concerning.
“It’s part of a broad trend that we’re seeing of Republicans across the country coalescing on strategy of undermining election outcomes,” he says. “They follow three prongs: One, voter suppression by purging rolls; Two, election subversion through intimidation and sometimes violence, such as the burning of ballot boxes on Portland; And three, undermining confidence in vote totals when Democrats win.”
Odds are that Democrats will carry the most populous counties in the state, which have grown progressively bluer since the end of the Bush Dynasty. Election forecasters still predict Trump will carry the state, though Senator Ted Cruz is in a far more precarious position in his race against Rep. Colin Allred. Should either Allred or Vice President Kamala Harris prevail, there are guaranteed to be accusations of cheating whether there is any evidence or not.
This endless undermining of the democratic process has made many voters worried, afraid, or apathetic about their vote counting. Froomkin has one bit of advice for them; cast a provisional ballot.
“If you vote and they try to turn you away when you think you are properly registered, ask for a provisional ballot, which must be cast,” he says. “Election officials are supposed to offer one to you, but if they don’t, you’re still entitled to one. There may be a fight about it after the election, but the vote gets cast.”
