Beware The Coming Shenanigans

We’ve been here before. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was in position to beat Donald Trump. The polls looked good. Then, James Comey announced that the FBI was re-opening an investigation into her (which proved fruitless) just ten days before the election.

And with Trump’s campaign chair, Paul Manafort, funneling polling data to Russian operative Konstantin Kilimmnik, Trump managed to get an electoral college win, despite Clinton winning the popular vote by nearly 3 million.

We all know what happened next.

Now, the momentum is for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket. As of this writing, the race has dramatically tightened. Harris is winning key endorsements as Trump and JD Vance flail. It seems like a lock. But there are things quietly happening in MAGA World that could result in the same shenanigans that gave Trump his 2016 victory.

Rolling Stone just reported that at least 70 pro-Trump “election denialists” from the 2020 campaign are currently working as election officials in swing states including Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. During the contentious aftermath of Biden’s victory, these officials refused to certify election results. It looks like they’re setting themselves up to do the same, should Harris win.

On top of that, a number of those who allegedly attempted to submit a slate of “fake electors” in their states in order to overturn the 2020 results, are still overseeing local elections. In some cases, they’re continuing in these roles despite having been indicted.

This is setting us up for chaos, which could either drive the final decision to the GOP-controlled House of Representatives (and we know how THAT will go), or to the Supreme Court itself, in a replay of Bush v Gore.

Another entry into the Department of Shenanigans is the huge purge of voter rolls. Rolls are typically cleaned up to reflect voters who’ve died or moved. Using arcane rules, these purges are targeting Democrats or communities of color. Between 2020 and 2022, 19 million voters were purged, a 21 percent jump from 2014-2016. It’s a quiet form of voter suppression.

It’s absolutely vital to be informed and prepared for these sketchy moves. As he did in 2016 and 2020, Trump is already softening the ground, claiming that Democrats will “cheat” to win; his MAGA minions in charge of the election apparatus will be doing their level best to challenge legitimate Democrat votes and hand him a win, earned or not.

The good news is that local officials and legal experts are preparing to avoid a repeat of the 2020 chaos. Word about voter purges allows you time to check, double-check, even triple-check your registration.  If you show up on Election Day and discover you’ve still been removed from the rolls, some states will allow you to re-register that same day. Or you can demand a provisional ballot. This is a federal protection, allowing you to cast a vote while clearing up any eligibility issues. Don’t leave your polling place without requesting one.

On that long Election Night in 2016, many of us went to bed confident of a Clinton victory; waking up to the news that Trump had (somehow) prevailed caused trauma that a lot of us have yet to fully recover from. So, let’s not get complacent. Continue to volunteer, talk to friends and family about voting, and most importantly, cast your own ballot. We’ve seen how this movie went before; let’s make it a happier ending.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.