Well, against the low bar set by a federal government that has spent months treating local election offices like suspicious characters outside the nonexistent Winchester McDonald’s, Election Day itself reportedly unfolded with relatively few widespread problems.
The Associated Press reported that weather and machine issues disrupted some voters on Tuesday, but that voting generally proceeded without major systemic failures. The report also documented the broader backdrop: President Donald Trump has tried over the past year to influence how states administer elections and has continued to cast doubt on outcomes that do not go his way. Nothing says confidence in democracy quite like leaning on the scale, then squinting at it suspiciously.
AP also reported that ICE used its X account on Election Day to warn alleged noncitizen voters: “We will track you down, arrest you, and prosecute you.” The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division later said it was closely monitoring reports of alleged misconduct in Alaska and reviewing credible allegations for possible action. That is a lot of federal drama around a process that is, in the ordinary course, supposed to be run by states and local election workers trying to keep the printers working and the lines moving.
The consequential point is not that every polling place melted down—AP found the opposite. It is that election administration is being conducted amid a deliberately overheated federal campaign about noncitizen voting, enforcement, and supposed misconduct. The country’s clerks and poll workers did their jobs; Washington showed up with a CB radio, a Michelob, and a fresh reason for everybody to check the locks.
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Featured image: US Capitol west side.JPG by Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
