In July, a poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that two-thirds of Republicans still believe Biden was not legitimately elected. Polls show most Republican voters continue to believe Trump’s lie that he won the election. “2020 was a preview of what is likely to be darker times to come, if we continue down this path away from democracy.”īig lie fuels threats against election workers “It’s all designed to make it easier to raise the doubt and uncertainty to allow a close election to be overturned,” said Ben Berwick, an attorney at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that works to keep elections and election administration from being politicized. They dispatched attorneys to file nearly 60 lawsuits across the country all but one minor case were dropped or dismissed – some by Trump-appointed judges.īut while those efforts were stymied by a thin line of civil servants, a concerted push in myriad states to set the stage for a future power grab is finding more success. He and his allies browbeat local officials in multiple states and tried in vain to coerce the Department of Justice to open a bogus investigation. “I think it’s a huge danger because it’s the first time that I’ve seen it being undermined – our democracy being undermined from within.”ĬNN spoke to about a dozen state and county officials involved in elections for this story all of them expressed concern that the widespread and unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election could take a lasting toll on American democracy.įor weeks after the election, Trump tried to sabotage the will of American voters in his relentless attempts to overturn the results. “I don’t think we’ve ever been at a point that’s been quite this tenuous for the democracy,” Christine Todd Whitman, a former GOP governor of New Jersey and a founder and co-chair of States United Democracy Center, told CNN. All of which, election experts say, will make it easier the next time to overturn close results, and puts the future of free and fair elections in jeopardy. The state legislative efforts are bolstered by a coordinated, behind-the-scenes push by conservative groups to raise millions to support restrictive voting laws, spread unproven claims about voter fraud and fund sham audits of election results. Greg Abbott signed an election bill into law last week over the fierce objection of the state’s Democrats, who, in hopes of derailing similar restrictions proposed earlier this summer, had fled the state two times en masse. Trump’s efforts to subvert the election began well before Election Day, and have only gained momentum since, with Republicans passing laws to restrict voting or make it easier for partisans to interfere in more than a dozen states, including key battlegrounds. Lisa Deeley, chair of Philadelphia's election commission, speaks at a news conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2020.
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