Georgia on our mind
Eleven-thousand, seven-hundred and seventy-nine is the number of votes by which Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Georgia, and 11,780 is the number of votes then-President Trump pressured the state’s election administrator, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to “find” in an hour-long phone call on Jan. 2, 2021. That enormous offense against democracy — to be detailed by the honorable Raffensperger as he testifies before the Jan. 6 Committee today — may not be seared in the American mind quite as indelibly as the lethal Capitol riot of Jan. 6, but it is likelier to be deemed a crime by those responsible for upholding the law of the land.
What’s especially important about the way Trump attempted to steal the Peach State election is that he and his followers view it not as a cautionary tale but as an inspirational template for 2024.
The Republican nominee for governor in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, was instrumental in efforts to overturn his state’s 2020 election results. According to the States United Democracy Center, at least 35 election deniers are running for governor in 20 states; 15 for attorney general in 13 states; and 23 for secretary of state — the official typically in charge of the mechanics of elections — in 17 states. Unlike Raffensperger, who, even as Trump cajoled, looked at the evidence and saw no there there, these ideologues are eager to bend rules and cling to shaky anecdotal claims of fraud to hand Trump victory. And if Trump allies get their way, they’ll be aided and abetted by a small army of GOP operatives being placed as poll workers.
Such mischief-making is made easier by the vote-counting procedures in too many states, which prevent the timely processing of absentee ballots, creating a dangerous opening for the mainlining of disinformation.
Listen carefully to Raffensperger today. It’s not a story about recent history but a preview for a movie Trump allies hope to produce — with a decidedly different outcome than 2020’s — two years hence.