Donald Trump announced Sunday that Republicans plan to dispense a large “Election Integrity Army” to every single state for the 2026 midterms – invoking his debunked claims that the United States does not have fair elections.
In a message on his Truth Social platform the president appeared to attribute his “Historic Election in 2024” to the fact that the Republican National Committee sent thousands of volunteers across the country to poll watch or assist with election litigation through a volunteer program.
There’s about a dozen states that currently have “no excuse” requirements for absentee ballots, meaning you have to jump through hoops to be able to mail-in instead of vote in person. I’ll let you guess which side of the civil war most of these states were on.
One of my concerns about mail-in ballots, under this administration specifically, is the recent demand for state voter rolls. I’ve lost so much faith in election integrity that I no longer trust that the postal service isn’t an intercept for opposition ballots to get “misplaced”. Ballot tracking exists, but there’s enough bureaucracy that they could do anything from deliberately postmark it too late to acknowledge they received it but create some other excuse as to why it was invalid. Then it’s on you to fight to make it count but the system is stacked against you.
As for what I actually think poll harassment will look like? Less armed militia and more like thugs camped in front of a Planned Parenthood or the flag-waving goons who roll coal up and down the side streets when a protest is happening. They’ll make their presence known while tip-toeing interference but even if they cross the line your local PD knows which side they’re on and allows it but would swoop if leftists showed up to put themselves in-between the bullies and the people voting.
I think we should be planning how we can support our most vulnerable community members when it’s time to vote. It’s understandable if not everyone has the courage to potentially run a gauntlet of intimidation alone, and they shouldn’t have to to exercise their right. But this is currently the state of the US, and if people would feel safer with a group we should find ways to support and be there for them. Plus we should be watching for attempts to hide polling places, last minute relocations, and deliberate bureaucratic delay at the polls designed to turn what should be an in and out into a half day marathon people abandon because their lunch break is ending.
I agree with most of what you say, but we should still avail ourselves of whatever voting options we have, just to keep them alive, and to ease stress on the polling places on Election Day.
I agree about the potential for USPS to interfere with mail-in voting but that hurts MAGA more than anyone else. Older people, one of MAGAs most reliable demographics, use mail-in votes more than any other. Get rid of mail-ins, and you cut off a significant portion of the vote.
All of their suppression tactics are meant to have a single digit impact on voting, sometimes less, and they count on the cumulative effect of all their disparate strategies to give them the edge they need. They can’t afford to surrender any strategy that works in their favor.
As for Y’all Qaedas cruising past with giant Trump flags hanging off their tiny dick compensating trucks, who cares? Let them have their fun, it’s already falling apart, and it’s all going to come crashing down soon. Even if Dems can’t be courageous enough to destroy MAGA, MAGA will eventually destroy itself through it’s virtuosic incompetence.
My only challenge to your thoughts on the attitude about not giving a fuck about the hicks in their trucks trying to intimidate others. You are correct that a lot of them are blowhards, cowards, bullies, and don’t actually want confrontation unless they know they have an advantage. As a white, middle aged dude, I know I have the benefit of centuries of white male privilege and that I’m the kind of person most of these chumps aren’t going to do jack shit towards unless they have numbers. Unless I wear my “Nazi Lives Don’t Matter” shirt or some other leftist signaling attire, a lot of them probably assume I’m one of them.
What I don’t know however, is what it’s like to be a woman, a minority, a special needs person, an immigrant, or a trans person. I can listen to their experiences and concerns, try and put myself in their shoes, but I’ll never really know. Sometimes our ability to be able to ignore the bullies comes from the benefit of having the same privileges as the bullies. The goal should be to avoid slipping into white, male saviorism, but for lefties in America that have the privilege the system has built, use it to support those who don’t when we can while we work towards tearing it down together.
Extremely valid. Good post.