Even as votes continue to be tallied in a handful of battleground states, Republican Donald Trump is projected to win the presidential race against Vice President Kamala Harris. The GOP is also projected to win a slim majority in the Senate. The House remains up for grabs as counting continues, but Republicans are hoping for a federal trifecta that could set the nation on a radically reactionary course.
Voting rights attorneys and election officials contended with a variety of challenges preceding and during the vote, including a flurry of right-wing challenges to voter eligibility, reports of rampant online disinformation, non-credible bomb threats at critical polling sites, and scattered reports of racist voter intimidation fueled by anti-immigrant conspiracy theories.
Election officials had been preparing for the worst in the months preceding the vote, especially given the heightened rhetoric from the Trump campaign and its allies. In Georgia’s populous Fulton County, the day began with panic as five polling locations received “non-credible” bomb threats that forced two sites to be evacuated for at least 30 minutes. Election officials extended voting at these locations by one hour, but advocates on the ground said some voters remained confused about the changes as long lines formed in the evening.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, bomb threats were made against four polling locations in Navajo County, home of the Navajo Nation and a high concentration of Indigenous voters.
“If your voice didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be trying to silence it,” said Jenny Guzman, director of Common Cause in Arizona, in a conference call as polls closed on Tuesday evening.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said on Tuesday that the threats were “unsubstantiated” and likely of Russian origin, reminiscent of a claim from the FBI about “non-credible” bomb threats against polling sites in “several states,” which they said appeared connected to Russian email addresses.
Guzman said voters were safe on Tuesday, and that there are “checks and balances” in place to ensure a fair vote tally, but that the process could take days to complete.
Arizona has been a hotbed of misinformation and disinformation since Trump and his far right ally Kari Lake contested the 2020 results. Back in 2020, when Lake lost the state’s gubernatorial race, she and Trump both demanded controversial recounts and audits that did nothing to reverse Democratic victories.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Lake, who ran this year to represent Arizona in the Senate, was trailing a few points behind Democrat Ruben Gallego. Both the Senate and presidential race have yet to be called in the state.
Ahead of the vote, the Trump campaign and election denial groups leveraged an array of frivolous legal challenges to voter registrations and election procedures along with inflammatory, anti-immigrant rhetoric to prime voters for false narratives about the election if Trump were to lose like he did in 2020.
In response, Common Cause and other nonpartisan pro-democracy groups formed sweeping “election protection” coalitions ahead of the vote.........