Peter —

The midterm election was widely hailed as a return to democratic order, with a slew of election deniers and other extremists losing their bids for office. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean denialism has been expunged from the system. At least two counties proved it this week by voting to notcertify their respective elections. The unprecedented effort to block certification shouldn’t have an impact on whether the election winners take office, but it does reveal how strong the roots of election denialism remain, and how it only takes a handful of bad actors to muck up the process.

But there’s good news on this front, too. Take Maricopa County, Arizona, which was ground zero for election denialism following the 2020 election. Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who lost to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs, earlier this month, built much of her campaign around elevating unfounded claims of electoral fraud. Unwilling to concede, Lake and others in the GOP have seized on printer malfunctions in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous jurisdiction, which includes Phoenix, to compel the board of supervisors to vote against election certification. In defiance of these objections, however, the Republican-controlled board voted unanimously on Monday to certify the canvass in the county, insisting no voter was disenfranchised.

Turning away election deniers is only the first step. The hard work comes next: building a coalition of leaders committed to strengthening, reforming, and innovating our democracy. It’s not enough to merely reject election denialism, as important as that is. Fortifying our democracy against such threats also requires leaders who will actively protect our elections through new ideas and proven reforms.

• Arizona secretary of state sues Cochise County over refusal to certify election results —NBC News
• Luzerne County election to be certified Wednesday —PA Homepage
• New Mexico election results certified by board —Albuquerque Journal
• When democracy was on the ballot in 2022, voters usually chose it —FiveThirtyEight
• Josh Gohlke: Why an army of deniers of Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat conceded their own election losses —The Sacramento Bee

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

New Jersey still wants fusion voting
If advocates of fusion voting, in which one candidate appears on multiple party lines on a ballot, had their way, it would have helped New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski win a third term earlier this month. Alas, New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way would not allow Malinowski’s name to appear on the ballot as the nominee of both the Democratic and Moderate parties (Malinowski lost). While lawsuits surrounding the issue play out in state courts, fusion voting has already won in the court of public opinion. A new poll conducted by Braun Research on behalf of New America Foundation surveyed 800 New Jersey residents about political polarization, the two-party system, and fusion voting. Eighty-one percent of respondents indicated they believe the two-party system is not working as it should, and 68% said fusion voting can better express citizens’ views. —New Jersey Monitor

All eyes on Georgia
“Early voting in Georgia’s runoff election between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and GOP hopeful Herschel Walker kicked off over the weekend, marking the final stretch in a race that will determine whether Democrats expand their majority in the upper chamber or Republicans maintain a 50-50 split. After a Georgia Supreme Court ruling allowed early voting to begin on Saturday, turnout is already soaring. As of Monday morning, data from the Georgia secretary of state’s website showed more than 181,000 Georgians had already cast their ballots—and a majority of those voters were Black, a key Democratic voting bloc. The record turnout follows a midterm pattern, where Georgia saw more than 230,000 votes cast on the first day of early voting for the general election.” —The Hill

McMullin: Breaking down walls of division and dysfunction
“America is still a special place, but we’ve been weakened by political division and dysfunction. Fortunately, our shared principles have enormous power to unite us, as the encouraging results of these midterm elections revealed in many places. We cannot rest on our laurels now. We must continue to take the steps necessary to break down the walls of division, find common ground, and advance solutions to the major challenges we face.” —Evan McMullin in The Topline

At Forward, we’re tired of politicians who do the bare minimum, paying lip service to our democracy while failing to take the steps so clearly needed to make it thrive in the 21st century. That’s why we’re cultivating the next generation of leaders, who are committed to strengthening the American system against election denialism and other partisan forces that undermine it.

All the best,
The Forward Party Team

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