Fraud claims re-emerge as US democracy tested
The Democratic Party’s hopes of retaining control of the US House of Representatives and Senate hang in the balance after a divisive midterm election that provided the first nationwide voter test of Joe Biden’s presidency.
At the end of a campaign pitting a Republican outcry over inflation, crime and Biden’s agenda against Democratic warnings of extremism on the right, strategists in both parties said they expected Republicans to reclaim the House once all votes were counted.
Democrats were forced on the defensive in deep-blue states and suburban districts held by their party, amid a wave of retirements and redistricting losses.
The battle for the Senate, fought largely on Democratic terrain, is widely seen as more competitive. Many first-time Republican candidates had fought to a virtual draw against more established Democrats with much deeper advertising budgets in states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. Control of the chamber might not be clear for days or even weeks, with the possibility of a December runoff in Georgia.
A Republican takeover in even one chamber of Congress would complicate Biden’s agenda for the next two years. House Republicans have signalled their intent to launch a series of investigations into issues ranging from the US coronavirus response to the business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
If handed the reins of power in the Senate, the Republicans could make confirming Biden cabinet officials and judges more difficult, and wield more leverage in potential showdowns over spending.
As voters decided whether to break Democrats’ grip on power in Washington, Republicans were aiming to increase their hold on governors’ mansions across the country. Republicans clinched statewide victories in Florida, notching early if expected wins in the Senate and governors’ races.
Elsewhere, the future of abortion laws was on the ballot in some states.
Two years after Donald Trump and his allies pushed falsehoods
about the 2020 election, spurring a violent mob to attack the US Capitol, a majority of the Republican nominees for Senate, House and key statewide offices denied or questioned Biden’s 2020 victory. The midterm results could give many of them power over the 2024 elections in battleground states.
Some Democrats remained highly competitive in the final stretch before the vote, sometimes benefiting from polarising or scandal-plagued Republican opponents. At the same time, many struggled in districts and states that Biden once carried by comfortable margins.
Democrats entered the day staring down several possible losses in New York, typically a stronghold for the party – including the House seat of Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Trump strongly hinted this week that he would launch another bid for the White House soon, sending Republicans scrambling to keep him from upending their prospects in the midterms.
Voters around the country
also weighed ballot measures to change election rules and legalise recreational cannabis.
Thousands of local and state election officials were braced for the democracy stress test, in some cases erecting barriers and putting police on standby for when vote counting began.
Election deniers seized on an isolated voting glitch in Arizona and a likely delay in counting in Pennsylvania to spin viral theories of manipulation. Complaints filed by voters showed that efforts by members of far-right groups to insert themselves as poll watchers in some precincts might be causing confrontations.
Officials in Republican-controlled states were chafing at stepped-up federal oversight of the election, with authorities in Florida and Missouri blocking federal monitors from entering polling places to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws.
Florida’s Department of State said allowing federal attorneys into polling places ‘‘could potentially undermine confidence in the election’’. Missouri Secretary of State John R Ashcroft said
federal monitors would ‘‘bully a local election authority’’ and could ‘‘intimidate and suppress the vote’’.
The Justice Department dispatched monitors to 64 jurisdictions, almost 50% more than during the 2020 election.
Susannah Goodman, director of election security at watchdog group Common Cause, which is monitoring polling issues nationwide, said that in some precincts, some machines or scanners had not worked properly, but any problems had not prevented people from voting.
Jesse Littlewood, who analyses disinformation for Common Cause, said social media traffic seemed to be working to amplify reports of routine problems and then use them as ‘‘part of the narrative that says these are somehow intentional . . . to undermine people’s faith in the integrity of the election process’’.
Littlewood said there was a ‘‘bubbling-up’’ of the existing false claim that ‘‘if election results are not counted and confirmed on the night of the election, that it is somehow fraudulent’’.