Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

We need to break the cycle of lying about election results

Kari Lake

Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake refused to tell CNN that she would concede if she loses the election.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Schmidt is a syndicated columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

When it comes to the state of our democracy, I have more questions than answers.

I was recently having a conversation with fellow centrist and attorney William Cooper, who is also the author of “Stress Test: How Donald Trump Threatens American Democracy.” We were discussing the degree of trouble our republic is in. Cooper shared that you first must define democracy before you can diagnose it. Cooper and I agreed that at the heart of any democracy, and part of that definition, is the premise that our elections must reflect the will of the people. Therefore, democracy depends on losing candidates accepting their losses. This is essential. Without it, the foundation of our democracy will fold like a house of cards.


In September, Yahoo News/YouGov published some survey results. After the constant flood of election fraud lies, their data should concern all of us but surprise none of us. When asked whether Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election went so far as to threaten American democracy, only 15 percent of Republicans agreed with that statement. Only 46 percent agreed that candidates should commit in advance to accepting the results; 35 percent were not sure and 19 percent said candidates should not commit in advance to accepting the results.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

When breaking it down further by party identification, 64 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of independents said candidates should commit to accepting the results. Only 36 percent of Republicans agreed. And 81 percent of respondents said they were either very or somewhat worried about the future of U.S. democracy. The results were consistent across party: 83 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of independents are worried to some degree.

As the midterms quickly approach, the worrisome stats continue to roll in. According to a Washington Post analysis, election deniers will be on the ballot in 48 of 50 states in 2022 and they make up more than half of all Republicans running for congressional and state offices. Nearly 300 Republicans seeking those offices have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election.

Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union" last week. Dana Bash twice asked Lake, “If you lose, will you accept that?” Lake responded “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result." Despite Bash's best efforts, Lake would not say that she would concede if she loses.

These stats seem to illustrate something that Cooper wrote in his book back in November 2021. “American politics have been mired in endless controversy during the Trump era, much of which has been inaccurate and hyperbolic. But this problem — that Americans are losing trust in the outcomes of elections — is very real and very fundamental. Donald Trump’s campaign to undermine the American electoral process, if successful, wouldn’t just damage the American body politic; it would weaken the entire Western world of democratic nations. Trust in elections is an essential precondition to democracy.”

I would say the data proves Trump was quite successful in his attempts to undermine the American electoral system as well as erode other American institutions.

Cooper and I came to different conclusions about the path from here. He thinks Trump will fade and institutions which have held so far will continue to do so. The bear in me was much more pessimistic.

My cynicism comes from the realization that Republican voters are just fine with being lied to. If you believe like I do that the inmates are now running the asylum, and all the gatekeepers like Rep. Liz Cheney, who has tried to grab the keys back by telling the truth, have all been thrown out. How does one of our two major political parties ever get control back again? What pro-democracy Republicans will the base voters listen to and actually believe? I don’t see that hero on the horizon.

One step which might increase confidence in the outcome of future presidential elections is the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022. The ECRA has already passed the House and there is a draft in the Senate. The Senate bill is led by Republican Susan Collins and Republican Joe Manchin. The ECRA would update the vague 1887 law governing the procedures for counting and certifying votes in a presidential election. There are currently 10 Republican cosponsors, which indicates there is enough support to pass the bill in the Senate. This would at least make it more difficult for presidential candidates to try to overturn an election. And that is not nothing.

But the greater challenge remains: How do we break the cycle of lies that is destroying us? That is the thing about lies – they break the bonds of trust and can do so quickly. Restoring it can take a very long time. Hopefully our institutions will hold while we figure out how to answer that question. If we can’t, I am afraid this experiment will come to an end.

Read More

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump

Jabin Botsford/Getty Images

Scholars unmask Trump election lawyers’ use of falsified evidence

Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

After 2022’s midterm election, I had an email exchange with Robert Beadles, a combative northern Nevada businessman and Donald Trump devotee. His post-2020 hounding of Reno’s top election official had pushed her to resign. Beadles didn’t trust the midterm results either and offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who’d prove that it was not stolen.

Easy money, right? Beadles’ distrust was tribal. But his reward hinged on refuting a statistical analysis that he waved like the flag. His statistician, Edward Solomon, who lived halfway across the country, found mathematical aberrations in the results that he didn’t like. The men claimed that was proof enough that the announced election results were dishonest.

I, and several experienced analysts — a math PhD, a computer scientist, and an election auditor who had spent years studying election systems, voting data, and procedures — tried to explain why the statistics, alone, did not prove anything. We politely told him what records to obtain, why they mattered, what methodologies to use. Beadles didn’t care and soon lashed out.

Keep ReadingShow less
D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges shakes hands with Rep. Liz Cheney at a hearing

Officer Daniel Hodges of the D.C. police force shakes hands with then-Rep. Liz Cheney at a July 21, 2022, House committee hearing investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Remembering Jan. 6 with an officer injured in the line of duty

To mark the third anniversary of the attacks on the Capitol, the hosts of the “Politics Is Everything” podcast talked with D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who was beaten by rioters that day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Election challengers in Detroit in 2020

Election challengers demand to observe the counting of absentee ballots in Detroirt in 2020. The room had reached capacity.

Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

It's 2024 and the battle for democracy in the U.S. continues

Merloe provides strategic advice on democracy and elections to U.S. and international organizations. He is a former director of election integrity programs at the nonpartisan National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

The U.S. political environment is suffering from toxic polarization, with election deniers constantly spewing noxious vapors to negate belief in the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, the integrity of election administration, and the honorableness of their political opponents. The constant pollution has blinded many from seeing the real state of things and is causing others to close their eyes to avoid the irritation. The resulting diminished public confidence and perhaps participation in elections creates more precarious conditions in 2024 than it faced in 2020 and 2022.

I’ve learned an important lesson from observing elections in more than 50 countries: Even when elections are credible, if a large segment of the population is made to believe otherwise their outcome and the fate of democracy can easily be placed in jeopardy. Unfortunately, that is a central feature of the present electoral circumstance, and concerted action is needed to mitigate that damage and prevent it from worsening.

Keep ReadingShow less
Americans wrapped in a flag

"We must reaffirm the principles under which our country will function," writes Goodrich.

SeventyFour/Getty Images

Together, we can save our democracy

Goodrich is the president and CEO of The Center for Organizational Excellence.

Our democracy is being challenged and, if lost, will impact our way of life in more ways than most may realize. I have given a lot of thought as to why our country’s political environment is in such chaos, facing significant turmoil that challenges our present and our future.

It is important to note that I am truly politically independent. I do not carry the water of any political party and always attempt to consider what is in the best interest of our country. I can have both conservative and liberal tendencies, depending on the issue being addressed, and believe at times each party goes to unhelpful extremes. Occasionally they get it right, but perhaps it’s time to rethink our two-party model.

The foundation of our democracy is the Constitution. I believe it is an imperfect document but provides a strong foundation for the democracy it established. I am in awe that the Founding Fathers thought so much through that it is still applicable today. Every American should read it, and there are “plain language” versions online if it helps. While still strong, it perhaps needs some updating, expanded explanation and more precise language.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump

On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump exhorted followers to object to the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Why 14th Amendment bars Trump from office

Graber is the University System of Maryland Regents Professor of Law at the University of Maryland.

In 2024, former President Donald Trump will face some of his greatest challenges: criminal court cases, primary opponents and constitutional challenges to his eligibility to hold the office of president again. The Colorado Supreme Court has pushed that latter piece to the forefront, ruling on Dec. 19, 2023, that Trump cannot appear on Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Keep ReadingShow less