Preparing for the midterm elections

Election lawyer Marc Elias has said the more that lawyers, politicians, activists and we citizens examine the possible threats to the November midterm elections, the more we’ll be able to calmly do our part at the time.

He knows something about that, having won 64 of the 65 cases he worked on in response to President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and consequently living as a named target for retribution in Trump’s second term.

Elias has removed the paywall for this article on what he and other lawyers are doing and what we citizens can do in the run up to November.

Here are some highlights:

“The GOP is not acting like a party trying to persuade voters to support its candidates — because it isn’t. Instead, the Republican Party’s entire strategy boils down to this:

— Change the rules and misuse government resources to make it harder for Democratic voters to cast ballots.

— Control and manipulate voter registration databases to disqualify enough Democrats from voting.

— If all else fails, make false claims of fraud as an excuse to subvert the results.

“There are no heroes in the GOP. No one is going to stop them but us.

“That is not a reason for despair — it is a reason to act.”

What citizens can do:

“Check your registration status. Vote early if you can, and make a plan for how, when and where you’ll cast your ballot.

“If you can, volunteer as a poll worker or poll watcher. And if you see something that looks like intimidation, an illegal purge, or a refusal to certify, report it immediately to a voter protection hotline or your state’s election officials.

“The fight ahead will be hard, and none of this guarantees the outcome we desire.

“But the last decade shows that when lawyers litigate aggressively, and citizens stay engaged and informed, we can protect voting rights and the ballot box. The GOP is counting on exhaustion and resignation to do what persuasion cannot. We cannot give them either one.”

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