A Theory Without a Conspiracy

Why did the President of the United States get in front of cameras in the East Room of the White House in primetime and decide to pontificate about foreign interference in the 2020 elections? Why did he choose that topic on that night when so many of us are struggling to afford to pay our bills and canceling vacation plans because of gas prices? When we’re at war? When there have been two murders at the hands of ICE officers on American streets this month?

Well, there are psychological reasons: he was raised not to accept failure, and so he doesn’t, for one. Even though he won – along with the party as a whole – in 2024, which I know some Republican leaders want him to bear in mind and let it all go. But he clearly cannot. But, of course, the larger reason is that all those other issues I listed above are likely to add up to the party losing, and losing large, in November. He was setting the stage for being able to claim the midterm results are fraudulent. I, for one, suspect it’s just an opening volley and we should expect more to come.

So, here is my first ask of all of you: please don’t let the threats – vague or otherwise – about elections dissuade you from voting. I believe the administration would like nothing more than for a lot of ordinary citizens to say, with all this controversy, it’s not worth it, my vote won’t count anyway, and to stay home. That’s a victory we cannot afford to hand them.

You can easily download the documents he referenced from Whitehouse.gov. There is a pop-up box in the middle of the screen as soon as you land on the site that takes you to a simple menu, depending upon which conspiracy theory you’d like to embrace. But here’s the thing: the documents themselves don’t really support anything more than what many of us knew already, which is that China and Russia try to influence American politics. But there’s nothing to indicate that any votes were changed. And nothing that indicates that any of the deceased or ineligible voters in the numbers listed on the one-page “Alien Voter Registration Summary” rose from the dead to try to vote.

One of the chapters in my book deals with the events of January 6, 2021. The focus of the chapter is American political violence, but to understand that, one must understand what motivated the breach on the Capitol in the first place, and that was the same claim of election fraud. I did a lot of research for that chapter, including reading the entire report of the January 6^th Committee. I also read several studies, summaries of lawsuits, and books (it has got to be the most studied election of all time), all to confirm what 2/3’s of us have always known: there was no widespread election fraud. Incredibly enough, there is still a swath of the population who blindly believe what Donald Trump tells them and, to this day, believe that the election in 2020 was rigged to hand Biden the win, and that was his audience the other night. Of course, he also wanted the rest of us to be chilled by his words.

The very fact that each state controls its own election processes makes it challenging for any foreign actor to corrupt a national election, but if you’re worried, investigate your state’s processes. My home state has a website dedicated to the subject: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/vote/elections/election-security.

If you’re still worried, become a poll watcher. As the name suggests, they literally observe the election process. All states’ procedures are a little different, so check with your state to see how it works for you, but there is a national site with links to each state for you: https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/poll-watchers.

Another way to observe elections and get paid for it is to become a poll worker. Again, that all differs all the way down to individual counties, but you can not only learn more about election processes and security in your county, but help with that process while you’re at it. This is one I am applying for myself.

Rather just vote, but are worried about what it will be like in November? I think we all share some concern, which is just an incredulous thing to write sitting here in America, but these are incredulous times to be living in, so I understand and share the worry. Check back in next time for more suggestions on that.