August | 2024 | Chosen Words

Making sure–NOW–that you’re registered to vote, and voting in November has never been more crucial. Donald Trump has even gone so far as to claim that we “won’t have to vote anymore…” if he’s put into power.

So, it’s not hyperbole to say that democracy is under threat. There are 84 days left until November 5th, 2024.

It’s important to remember that if voting didn’t matter, Trump’s party wouldn’t be working so hard to make sure you can’t. The litigious radical right means to gerrymander, purge/disenfranchise and litigate itself into power. They have been at it for years.

The Shelby County v. Holder decision saw the Supreme Court erode years of settled Voting Rights Act’s settled law. The overturning of key Voting Rights Act areas like Section 5 resulted in quick, anti-democratic laws. Within 24 hours of the ruling, Texas announced that it would implement a strict voter-ID law. Georgia and other states began closing polling places, resulting in . The list goes on. And on.

Democracy Docket does a nice job of keeping track of this misfeasance. The foes of democracy have deep pockets, (some) pliant judges, and a blistering sense of grievance and entitlement. They are laying the foundation–now–to overturn the upcoming election if it doesn’t go their way. Democracy Docket keeps a running scorecard of the lawsuits, judgements and official actions related to voting across the U.S.:

The “scorecard” from the most recent newsletter

Below, is a sample. The states of Georgia and Mississippi remain embattled, but the forces of disenfranchisement are at work in every state. The bullet point topics listed below, copied from the DemDocket newsletter, are the most recent developments.

Deep dive into threats to democracy in Georgia

Since 2020, we’ve seen an uptick in election denialism. And at a Georgia rally last Saturday, Trump and his allies started their plan to subvert the 2024 election by targeting the people responsible for overseeing election rules, Marc wrote in a new piece.
The state of Georgia has created a new online portal that makes it easier to cancel people’s voter registrations. In a new YouTube video, Marc shares his concerns about how the website will likely fuel election vigilantism in the state.
Struggles for voting rights continue in Mississippi
The RNC appealed the dismissal of its lawsuit seeking to reject mail-in ballots in Mississippi that are cast by Election Day and received shortly after. The case is now before the 5th Circuit — the most conservative federal appeals court.
Recently, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Mississippi Constitution’s felony disenfranchisement provision will remain in effect, reversing its previous opinion from August 2023. Democracy Docket talked to individuals working to get their voting rights restored about this ruling’s impact.

Ohio removes hundreds of alleged noncitizens from voter rolls

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced that the state’s county boards of election are removing 499 alleged noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls after purging nearly 155,000 inactive voters last week.

I do not work for Democracy Docket, nor do I have any financial interest in it, but they do important work that shines light on the kinds of things the Party of Trump does in the dark and away from the headlines.

I would urge anyone who wants to keep abreast of what anti-democracy forces are doing across the nation to read and subscribe to Democracy Docket. For those living in Pennsylvania/Philadelphia, The Committee of Seventy is also a wonderful source. While I’m at it, Brookings has its “Issues at Stake 2024” newsletter

But above all, make sure your voter registration is current and active. And make a plan to vote on November 5th!

Anyone who reads this blog must know where my sympathies lie. But first and foremost I care about our democracy. Yes, I’m a life-long Democrat, but I welcome the national argument that is voting–the chance for a free people to decide for itself as an electorate what they want their future to look like. I deplore and will resist any action to rig the game. By any side. And right now, it’s happening all on one side.

# # #

James McCrone is the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network , and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. His novel-in-progress is called Witness Tree, about a conspiracy set in Oregon’s wine coutry, a (pinot) noir tale of murder and corruption.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!

You can also keep up with James and his work on social media:
Mastodon: @JMcCrone
Bluesky: @jmccrone.bsky.social
Facebook: James McCrone author (@FaithlessElector)
and Instagram/Threads “@james.mccrone”

Today we need to discuss the Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. _ (2020) ruling, and its (potential) unintended consequences. The ABA Journal (link above) notes earlier this year that “A 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision on faithless electors appears to allow state legislatures to pursue a dangerous strategy for overturning election results…”

Those who read my posts–and my thrillers–know that I have long regarded the Electoral College as an outmoded, arcane system for electing a president; and one that is ripe for mischief from bad actors that only amplifies the anti-democratic underpinnings of our system. Those who claim to defend the Electoral College often say that they are upholding the Founders’ vision, when in fact they are working to exploit its loopholes and undermine faith in its legitimacy for their own ends.

Chiafalo v Washington was a unanimous Supreme Court decision “that states have the ability to enforce an elector’s pledge in presidential elections.” It is the suit that arose from the Faithless Electors lawsuit after the 2016 presidential election. The ABA article quotes a NY Times op-ed by Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School, and Matthew A. Seligman, a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School.

In their op-ed, Lessig and Seligman’s describe an all-too possible scenario:
“Charges of fraud cloud a recount. Leaders in the state legislature challenge the presumptive result. In response to those challenges, the legislature votes to direct its electors to cast their ballots for the candidate who presumptively lost but whom the legislature prefers. Any elector voting contrary to the legislature’s rule would be removed and replaced with an elector who complied. This is a critical innovation in the science of stealing a presidential election.” [Emphasis mine]

Lessig and Seligman go on to say: “Congress could amend the federal law governing electoral votes by declaring that any post-election change of the results by a state legislature would not count as votes ‘regularly given,’” they wrote. “States could cement the requirement that electors are to follow the people’s will. Neither path is assured, but we are certain of this: It is a rocky road ahead.” As currently constituted, only the Senate would be likely to take this up. The House has a Trump-controlled majority.(And it is Trump-controlled. As we saw in the failure of the bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill after Trump torpedoed it. Brookings has an explainer “for the perplexed,” though in the end, it’s not hard to figure out.)

My first novel, Faithless Elector came out in early 2016 and presaged some of the insanity surrounding the election. But the third book, Emergency Powers may prove to be more on point (which does not make me feel good, somehow).

Voting is our chance to participate and to hold our elected officials to some sort of accountability. Is it perfect? Hardly, but we may get a lesson in just how bad the alternative is if we don’t vote–all of us. Because the last three years or more have seen a coordinated effort to undercut that chance to make outrvoices heard through bad faith laws, official skullduggery and lawsuits. So much so, that the GOP candidate, Donald Trump, can say, as he did on July 28 of this year, that we “won’t have to vote anymore…”

The election is roughly 3 months from now. The forces that seek to steal our votes have been busy for years. Perhaps knowing that a majority does not support their policies, the GOP has undertaken to shrink the number of eligible voters and (potentially) to usurp the role of Electors.

I’ll talk more about the lawsuits and gerrymandering that’s still going on–and the Supreme Court’s role in it–in a follow-up post.

# # #

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

He’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the current president of the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime. He lives in Philadelphia. James has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle. His current, work-in-progress is a mystery-thriller set in Oregon’s wine country…A (pinot) Noir, called Witness Tree.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!