The Choice: Election Protection
Republicans think that the only valid elections are those they win. Nope. Not this time.
Issue #885 The Choice, Tuesday, July 8, 2025
The 2026 midterm elections will be the first major step toward eliminating Trumpism. Because it will be so important for Democrats to retake the majorities in the House and Senate, Trump, MAGA, and the Republicans will be doing everything in their power to cheat and rig the results in their favor.
After the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost fair and square, he and the Republicans did everything legal and illegal to dispute and change the results.
Of course, we are aware of January 6, but even before that, there were numerous lawsuits and disruptive incidents all over the country.
Here in Detroit, a group of MAGA tried to break into the room downtown where the votes were being counted. They thought they were going to discount the Black votes in Detroit, even though Detroit is “only” about 70% Black, and Detroit votes weren’t the only ones being counted in that room.
Wayne County is the largest county in Michigan, and Detroit is the largest city in Wayne County (and in Michigan). Majority-Black Detroit is also the seat of Wayne County.
What people who are not from here do not know is that the ballots from every town, village, and city in Wayne County are sent downtown to be counted. Detroit is not the only city in Wayne County; some of our towns and cities are almost 100% white, and “next door neighbors” Dearborn and Hamtramck are about 65-70% Arab and Muslim. Those ballots were also counted in downtown Detroit. Ballots for all of Wayne County have been counted downtown for decades.
In 2018, Michigan voters approved “no-excuse” absentee ballots. Of course, the Republicans tried unsuccessfully to negate the will of the voters, but we’ve had that absentee voting system ever since 2018.
Absentee ballots aren’t automatically sent out. Early in every election year, registered voters receive a letter with a form that must be signed and returned if they wish to receive absentee ballots for the upcoming primary and general elections. Only after that form is received are absentee ballots sent out to those who requested them.
When hubby and I receive our absentee ballots, we sit at the kitchen table and carefully fill them out. Then we ride our bikes about one mile from our home to the Election Commission Office and put them in the secure drop box in front of that office, which also has security cameras.
We receive a text when our ballots have been received and another text when our ballots have been counted.
There are approximately ten official and secure drop boxes throughout the city where people can return their absentee ballots. The process is fast, safe, and secure, and there are no undocumented immigrants or even unregistered voters who can wrongly take advantage of the system.
Even with all of the illegal and dictatorial things Trump and his administration are doing daily, the most important thing we can do is to ensure that the 2026 elections actually take place, that the results are counted and submitted correctly and legally, vote in huge numbers so that the Dems retake the House and Senate without question, and ensure that the new Congress is seated inJanuary 2027 without incident.
A reminder that elections are run by the States, not by the federal government or Trump.
What can you do locally and in your state to help ensure a fair and incident-free 2026 midterm election?
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I assume that the next election will be preceded and followed by a storm of lawsuits, protests, claims, and counterclaims, and I worry that our compromised legal system won't be up to the job of sorting it out. My one hope is that the hard core of Trump true-believers will be much smaller than it was in 2024, because this administration's policies are already producing cracks in the MAGA base. It's clear to us on the "left" that even Trump doesn't know what his government is doing, and by November of next year, maybe that will be obvious to his own followers. Without Trump, will there be a MAGA movement?