{"id":46711,"date":"2026-02-15T11:25:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46711"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:25:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:25:45","slug":"trump-effort-to-rig-our-elections-is-well-underway-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/trump-effort-to-rig-our-elections-is-well-underway-experts-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Effort \u2018To Rig Our Elections Is Well Underway,\u2019 Experts Warn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Trump<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Voters walk in to cast their ballot for the US presidential and congressional elections at Dearborn High School in Dearborn, MIichigan on November 5, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Adam James Dewey\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One expert expressed fear that \u201csomething truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 12, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pair of experts warned this week that President Donald Trump<\/a> is clearly telegraphing his intention to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Richer, former recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, said during an interview<\/a> with The Atlantic<\/em> published Wednesday that he\u2019s grown worried that \u201csomething truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"It<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It Would Be a \u2018Mistake\u2019 for Dems to Assume Trump Won\u2019t Try to Subvert 2026 Elections: Experts<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"RENO,<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Beyond Crazy\u2019: FBI Summons State Election Officials to Secretive Meeting After Trump Threat to \u2018Nationalize\u2019 Midterms<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When asked to flesh out how Trump could potentially rig the upcoming elections, Richer said it was unlikely that he would deploy<\/a> US Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling places across the country, if for no other reason than he lacks the manpower to accomplish such an operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Richer did express concern about the president\u2019s ability to muddy waters in tight races and put pressure on his Republican allies to refuse to seat Democratic winners when he is claiming there are disputes about the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere I think President Trump is most potent is still in the post-election procedures,\u201d he explained, \u201cstill in sowing doubt in the minds of enough Americans that they don\u2019t think the elections are legitimate and, therefore… the Congress doesn\u2019t have to seat its new members. That\u2019s certainly a popular theory that\u2019s floating about: that Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> (R-La.), the outgoing speaker, will choose not to seat the new members, because they\u2019re in allegedly disputed elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richer argued that California could be particularly vulnerable to this, since the state infamously takes so long to finish tallying its votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a New York Times<\/a><\/em> editorial published<\/a> Thursday, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center for Justice\u2019s voting rights<\/a> and elections program, argued that Trump\u2019s \u201ccampaign to rig our elections is well underway,\u201d and he pointed to the president\u2019s mass pardon<\/a> last year of rioters who violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6<\/a>, 2021 as the beginning of his election subversion campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have every reason to expect more actions like these in the coming months,\u201d wrote Morales-Doyle. \u201cA few weeks ago, Mr. Trump reiterated his threats to prosecute election officials who ran the 2020 election. Just days later, FBI<\/a> agents seized ballots and election records from 2020 in Fulton County, Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Morales-Doyle also said there was reason to believe that the American system can withstand the president\u2019s assault on its election integrity, and he gave a nod toward several efforts across the country to fight back, including states resisting Trump\u2019s demands to hand over their voter rolls and Democrats refusing to let new voter suppression legislation pass through Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are already seeing how effective people can be in pushing back,\u201d he concluded, \u201cwhether on the streets of Minneapolis or at town halls hosted by their representatives in Congress. It will be incumbent on all of us\u2014election officials, advocates, state law enforcement, and voters\u2014to see the administration\u2019s efforts for what they are and to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters walk in to cast their ballot for the US presidential and congressional elections at Dearborn High School in Dearborn, MIichigan on November 5, 2024. \u00a0(Photo by Adam James Dewey\/Anadolu via Getty Images) One expert expressed fear that \u201csomething truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46711"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46712,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46711\/revisions\/46712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}