When 2020 Election Deniers Become Elections Officials

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As much attention as we are paying to the Senate, House, and gubernatorial races, we need to pay more attention to the usually-overlooked post of secretary of state:

When an election denier becomes an election chief
Trump-aligned secretary of state hopefuls are campaigning against ballot counting machines and could complicate mail voting, among other changes.

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Thank the Seven:

Democrats Pour Millions Into Key Secretary of State Races

Democrats are pouring millions of dollars into races for secretary of state, buoyed by the nature of their Republican opponents and the stakes for American democracy.

According to an analysis by my colleague Alyce McFadden, Democrats in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada have outraised their Republican opponents as of the most recent campaign finance reports. And overall, Democratic-aligned groups working on secretary of state races in those four states have outspent Republicans by nearly $18 million in this election cycle, according to the ad analytics firm AdImpact, with more spending on the way.

The role of a secretary of state varies, but in those four states, as well as Arizona and Pennsylvania (where the governor appoints the secretary), they play a critical role in overseeing the mechanics of elections. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, for example, they often had to make judgment calls about how to ensure that voters had access to the polls when vaccines were not yet available, making elderly and immunocompromised Americans concerned about showing up in person.

Hopefully it isn't too late.

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2020 election deniers who advocated putting on an alternate slate of electors for Trump are leading in their respective secretary of state races in Nevada and Arizona:

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1578802671103840256

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These races arguably matter more than who wins control of Congress:

In Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden beat then president Trump in 2020, several Republican candidates who have loudly echoed Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen are trying to win jobs as secretary of state, attorney general or governor in November.

The distinct prospect of some winning top state posts has triggered alarms from election watchdogs, Democrats and some GOP officials, who also worry about what could happen during the 2024 presidential election – especially if Trump is the nominee.

Prominent election deniers Kari Lake, a former Fox News anchor, and Mark Finchem, a state legislator, are vying to become Arizona’s next governor and secretary of state respectively. Lesser known is Abraham Hamadeh, the GOP candidate for attorney general, who reportedly boasted about committing voter fraud in 2008.

Michigan’s conspiracy-pushing candidates include the far-right lawyer Matthew DePerno for attorney general, and part-time community college instructor Kristina Karamo for secretary of state. Trump-backed Tudor Dixon is vying for the governor’s seat.

And in Pennsylvania, state Senator Doug Mastriano who was a key Trump ally scheming to block Biden’s win hopes to become governor, an office that, unlike certain states, has special power to name the secretary of state.

Election officials and watchdogs see these election deniers as part of a larger national phenomenon of about 290 candidates running for state and federal positions who have denied the 2020 presidential election results, as the Washington Post reported.

The secretary of state positions, which twelve election deniers are seeking, pose particular concern. If Karamo, Finchem or Mastriano – who can choose his secretary of state – triumph – at least one prominent purveyor of Trump’s falsehoods would play crucial roles overseeing election procedures for a state that could be pivotal in determining the outcome of the next presidential contest.

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Nevada is the greater concern given Marchant is still leading there:

Election deniers go down in key secretary of state races
Democrats won in Michigan and Minnesota, but Arizona and Nevada remain too close to call as Republicans who dispute the 2020 outcome move to control the election machinery there.

Edit: and to a lesser extent, Wisconsin.  That race is as much of a nail-biter as Nevada, but I am somewhat confident that LaFollette will pull through in the end. 

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With a more than 14,000 vote lead, I am reasonably confident that Aguilar will be the Nevada Secretary of State.  It is just a matter of mainstream news networks calling the race now.

Ditto for Wisconsin with nearly all the votes in, LaFollette has now grown his lead over election denier Loudenbeck with a margin of more than 7,600 votes. 

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Finally:

Democrat Cisco Aguilar defeats Trump-backed election denier Jim Marchant in Nevada secretary of state race
Aguilar will make history as Nevada’s first Latino secretary of state.

Now call LaFollette in Wisconsin.