Some Good News About Midterms

An election security expert breaks down why Trump's latest maneuvers will not impact midterms

I know a lot of folks have been worried about Trump’s desperate actions to interfere in the November midterms. This week social media has been running wild with rumors and conspiracies about what he may have in store.

I happened to be listening to CNN while walking my dogs on Saturday, and heard an expert discussing this topic. It brought my temperature way down!

I shared what I heard on Facebook, and the post went viral, with nearly half a million views. Since then, I have been able to get a replay of the interview, and wanted to share with you all what I heard.

Background

I’m taking the unusual step of front-running some not normal stories that will be in the upcoming weekly list for Week 88:

On Thursday, Trump fired the two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent federal commission, and the one Republican appointed member resigned, after members resisted his efforts to require documenting U.S. citizenship before registering.

The fourth member of the commission, Republican commissioner Donald Palmer, resigned earlier in the year. The firings marked the first test of the Supreme Court ruling on independent agency boards. The move was not likely to have a major impact on November midterms.

This story, combined with recent stories we have covered in The Weekly List about threats to cut funding and other threats to states, AND another broken norm this week about Trump installing a fence around Lafayette Square had the conspiracy theories running wild!

The Interview

First, I want to thank Aaron Rupar (@atrupar on X) for downloading the video of this interview for us. I couldn’t find it anywhere - which makes sense, it was at 6:19 p.m. on a Saturday night - I’m likely among the few needing to be listening to the news on a Saturday in the summer. 😩

The person being interviewed is David Becker, the Executive Director and Founder of the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Election Innovation & Research.

I’ll bury the lede (apologies for the caps, that’s how the transcript came out):

WHAT THAT MEANS IS WHILE THIS IS TROUBLING FROM A PRESIDENTIAL POWER PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS GOING TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT ON THE 2026 ELECTION. ZERO. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE NOTICED BY VOTERS. ELECTION OFFICIALS IN THE STATES HAVE ALREADY COMPENSATED FOR THE GAP THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS, UH, HAS CEASED TO PROVIDE, UH, WHERE IT'S CEASED TO PROVIDE SUPPORT. AND SO WHEN I'VE TALKED TO ELECTION OFFICIALS SINCE THIS HAS HAPPENED, UH, THEY'RE NOT CONCERNED AT ALL. I DON'T THINK THIS IS GOING TO HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE ELECTION ITSELF.

Here’s the segment in full.

What’s Next?

Trump is planning to make a speech on Thursday night, allegedly about the so-called interference in the 2020 election. He’ll continue to air his grievances about losing, and try to sow mistrust about the election. But he is running out of time and tricks.

Feel free to share with in your circles. I’m making it free for all to enjoy!

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