Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project Action
“Our democracy is suffering a credibility crisis. Confidence in the outcomes of our elections is in decline. It isn’t hard to see why. Over 20 years, politicians—many of them on the left—are increasingly willing to delegitimize elections that they lose and reward colleagues who refuse to admit defeat. Prominent Democratic politicians cast doubt on election results in 2000, 2004, and 2016, even going so far as objecting to votes in the Electoral College. Stacey Abrams is a prominent example of this trend, becoming a national political celebrity because she refuses to concede her loss in 2018.
“Neither side is guiltless, but even a cursory glance at the facts proves that casting doubt on elections for political gain is not a problem that began in 2020, and it is getting worse. Today, the White House and congressional Democrats are labeling their opponents ‘enemies’ and smearing overwhelmingly popular state election laws as ‘Jim Crow,’ to justify an unpopular and unconstitutional Washington takeover of our elections. That strategy is built on delegitimizing future elections and eroding public trust in our democracy even further. If this cycle continues, the damage to our democracy may become irreparable.”