As the lull before the storm continues prior to election day, the takes continue to get dumber. Republicans have begun a new round of dooming based on what can only be called a late vibe shift (i.e. not backed by real data), but Democrats aren’t exactly exhibiting confidence either.
Enter Politico, which decided it’d be a great idea to drop an article about election fraud on the eve of voters going to the polls. Guess which party they think is going to try to “steal” the election this time and then try not to break your ribs from laughing so hard.
The midterms face a bevy of digital threats, from stolen Twitter accounts to hacked election websites, that could spark chaos, confusion and unrest that last long after the polls close.
The 2020 presidential election was rife with allegations of voting machine hacks that were later debunked. Yet there are real risks that hackers could tunnel into voting equipment and other election infrastructure to try to undermine Tuesday’s vote…
…But as CISA Director Jen Easterly, whose agency leads federal election security efforts, told reporters recently, “The current election threat environment is more complex than it has ever been.” She cited the ways that multiple different threats, from cyberattacks to disinformation to the harassment of election officials, are overlapping.
Politico goes on to frame six different “threats” to watch out for, all of which are suggested to be a drag on Democrat vote totals. Those include “disinformation,” cyberattacks on voter registration databases, and hacking voting machines. You really can’t this stuff up. The very same people who preached about the “most secure election in history” regarding 2020 in response to questions about election integrity now want to suggest things are on a knife’s edge the moment Democrats are projected to lose.
I believe most people have caught onto the game at this point. When Republicans notice something sketchy and point it out, they are shouted down and silenced. When Democrats start ranting about Russian bots and voter suppression, though, they get CNN hits and pats on the head. Politico is just priming the pump for what’s to come, which will be a deluge of baseless claims that Republicans only won the night because the election was “stolen” in some form or another. They may not use that word because of the stigma they’ve attached to it, but the effect will be the same.
I’ll go further, though, and say that the way Democrats undermine elections is worse. At least Republicans, when they allege voter fraud, attempt to come to some data-driven conclusion with audits. That end game allows people to say “okay, this happened or it didn’t.” By contrast, what Democrats do is leave everything so nebulous that they can claim the election was stolen from them without ever even attempting to prove their case. That’s where the whole “voter suppression” lie comes in, with it being alleged even when black voter turnout breaks records. Democrats use an unfalsifiable claim on purpose.
With all due respect, and there is none due, that’s not how this is going to work. Those that crapped all over people with even the most mundane concerns about 2020 don’t get to push the “voter suppression” and “election interference” canards in 2022. The new rules are in effect, and any Democrat that questions the results of the election in any way is going to be labeled an “election denier.”