What You Need to Know About Election Threats This Fall

Here’s how crazy things have gotten in America. 

The most significant threat to our elections this fall isn’t Russian interference or terrorism. It’s our own federal government. 

As a candidate, Donald Trump made his lies about a stolen election the focus of his campaign. As president, Trump has made election denialism a cornerstone of his presidency. And in recent weeks, he’s accelerated his efforts to subvert November’s elections. 

On Monday, Trump instructed the Department of Homeland Security to “surge” investigations into voter fraud in crucial swing states, including Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and California, according to CNN. He’s also pursued aggressive efforts to restrict mail-in voting, which could potentially disenfranchise millions while sowing further chaos. Trump has moreover threatened to arrest election officers suspected of wrongdoing and to send ICE agents to the polls. He hasn’t let the unlawfulness of these actions stop him (nor has the Supreme Court stepped in to pump the brakes). 

Yet there’s no need to panic, argues Beau Tremitiere of the nonprofit Protect Democracy. “We have never seen the scope and scale of mobilization that civil society is currently engaged in to take this threat on,” he says. “Folks are not going to be caught off guard because they see what’s coming.” 

I interviewed Beau for the latest episode of the Monthly podcast, which you can watch in this preview in Substack. He offered a wealth of advice about what citizens can do this fall to safeguard the right to vote. Here are his top three tips: 

Vote early in person. Given the potential for disruption at polling places, and the uncertainties around mail-in ballots, the safest way to ensure that your vote is counted this fall is to vote early and in person. If you must vote absentee, use a dropbox, not a mailbox, so the U.S. Postal Service never touches your ballot. Be sure to check your voter registration early as well so you can fix any problems (and ensure that you haven’t been mistakenly purged).  Encourage your friends and neighbors to vote. Help people get to the polls. Remember that the administration’s chief strategy is to suppress the vote through fear and intimidation. Stand with those who may feel hesitant to vote in person. Offer rides and reassurance.  Record and report. “One of the most valuable things we’ve seen happen throughout civil society is people taking advantage of technology and using peaceful and safe filming as a means of accountability,” Beau says. Bear witness on camera to what you see, but resist the urge to use provocative language in the hopes of going viral. Share what you see with nonprofit voter protection organizations and election lawyers so they can use your recordings as evidence in future litigation. 

Beau also cautioned against panic, or about overhyping the potential risk. “It’s important … to be careful about our rhetoric and not inadvertently do the administration’s work for them and intimidate people,” he said. 

If you’re interested in learning more about what you can do, read Protect Democracy’s citizens’ guide on how to spot and prevent federal voter intimidation. But above all, don’t stay home. The only way to ensure that the people prevail is through overwhelming numbers that leave no doubt about the outcome. 

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Don’t miss at the Monthly…

ICYMI, the Washington Monthly’s 2026 College Guide and Rankings launched this week (our #1 ranked school for the second year in a row is Kentucky’s Berea College, while #2 is my law school alma mater, Duke (Go, Blue Devils!)). We also debuted our first-ever rankings for the best colleges for rural America (the University of West Alabama ranks #1), and we continued our rankings for the nation’s best Hispanic-serving colleges (New Jersey’s Pillar College tops this list). 

More from this year’s issue: 

The slow-moving catastrophe of college closures. Hundreds of small colleges are at risk of shutting down, or have already done so—casualties of the so-called “demographic cliff,” as well as cutbacks in funding and overall public hostility toward higher education. These losses aren’t just devastating to the communities that hosted these institutions, writes Fairfield University’s Richard Greenwald: “The closures are not merely an industry problem, but a national political event, as well: They are eliminating the precise institutions that historically translated working-class effort into middle-class status, in precisely the regions that have already been hollowed out.” Read here.  How algorithms screw low-income students. Compared to their wealthier peers, high-performing lower-income students are less likely to attend selective schools. One reason might be the search results they get while researching colleges. Samantha Powers reports on new research finding that “on average, Google returns lower-quality college results for students from lower-income zip codes.” Even if the bias isn’t intentional, the impacts are significant. Read here.

Plus… 

Politics Editor Bill Scher says leftists should look to President Barack Obama on the right way to build a big tent within the Democratic Party (and it doesn’t involve letting Hasan Piker hold one of the tent poles). In his second column for the week, he explains why it’s perfectly okay for Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Amy Acton to refuse to debate Vivek Ramaswamy.  Christoph Irmscher reviews Timothy Ryback’s new book comparing Hitler’s rise to that of Trump’s and argues that, this time, it’s a comparison worth taking seriously. “Historical parallels are indeed nothing but that: two lines that, as we learned in school, never meet,” Christoph writes. “Still, reading Ryback’s 53 Days… is a profoundly dizzying experience. It has a way of making those parallel lines seem like one and the same.” Journalist Tamar Jacoby describes the terrifying new normal in Kyiv, where she has lived since the start of the war: 11 air-raid alerts over a 12-hour period, machine-gun fire, “or, in other cases, a great booming thud as enemy munitions exploded not far away.”  Jonathan Alter has a plan for how to repurpose Trump’s new ballroom once he’s out of power. Author Clara Bingham, who chronicled the impact of the feminist movement in an acclaimed book, pays tribute to the late, great Gloria Steinem, while Publisher Emeritus Markos Kounalakis reveals one thing you may not have known about Steinem: She was a spy for the CIA! Healthy policy expert merrill goozner.com dissects competing health care reform plans and offers his own fix for bringing down costs while ensuring access.

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Coda (strange bedfellows edition)… 

So it turns out that none other than Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) is a fan of the Monthly’s College Guide, which he lauds for its “populist” approach in elevating non-elite schools and regional public universities. 

Now before you hit your mental “cancel” button, consider this: Higher education has lost the faith of the public in part because of its perceived elitism. This benefits no one—not the regional public universities that educate 70 percent of the nation’s college students; not the students who might eschew higher education and the opportunities it could bring; not the communities that depend on a college or university to help sustain their local economies; and certainly not the United States, which depends on educated workers to drive innovation and economic growth. 

Finding common cause with voices on the right about the value of higher education, especially in rural America, can help restore faith in higher education more broadly. For his part, Bannon might be an enemy of the likes of Harvard, but he’s not an enemy of the schools that strive to educate his audience. (The ultra-populist Bannon is also ultra-educated; he’s an alum of Virginia Tech, Georgetown—and Harvard (ranked #137, #42, and #6, respectively)). 

Unconvinced? Watch his interview of Editor-in-Chief Paul Glastris below: 

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As always, thanks for your support. And let us know what you think! Leave a comment or write to us at editors@washingtonmonthly.com

Have a great week!

Anne Kim, Senior Editor

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