By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
As Americans head to the voting booth to vote in the contentious 2024 election, concerns still abound surrounding election integrity. One of the biggest concerns for Americans is that election results may not be announced the night of the election itself.
According to a Rasmussen Reports survey published Monday, 70% of likely voters are concerned that “the winner of the presidential election may not be known on Election Night because of some states being late in counting their votes,” including 40% who are “very concerned.” Nearly half (45%) of Americans say that delayed vote count reporting causes them to be “less confident in the accuracy of the final result.” Additionally, 54% of Americans believe that if vote count reporting is delayed, it’s because “officials want to make sure the results are accurate,” while over one third of Americans believe that vote counting delays are an indication of cheating.
The survey results follow Democrats and mainstream media outlets predicting vote counting delays in major battleground states. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s campaign anticipated that Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada in particular may take “many days” to count and report votes. “We believe this race is going to be incredibly close,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters. “So, we may not know the results of this election for several days, but we are very focused on staying calm and confident throughout this period as the process goes through.”
Noting that Nevada may still be counting votes on Saturday and Pennsylvania may still be counting provisional ballots on Friday, she added, “Keep in mind that some ballots will continue to be counted for many days.” No doubt bearing in mind the controversial aftermath of the 2020 election, O’Malley Dillon insisted, “So that just means that we’re going to continue to see new votes being reported for many days after Election Day, and that’s obviously not a sign of fraud, it’s just the way it works.”
On her official X (formerly Twitter) account, Harris posted, “Americans all across the country are casting their votes in record numbers, ready to turn the page. It will take time to count every vote, and there may be swings in the count along the way.” She continued to claim, “Donald Trump falsely claimed victory in 2020, and we expect that he will do it again. We know that he is a liar — but the ballots will tell the truth.”
Analysts with NBC News also predicted delays in reporting vote counting, especially in Nevada. “Nevada will take a week to count all their votes,” NBC News’s Chuck Todd stated. He added, “This is going to be lawyers upon lawyers litigating which ballots can get fixed or cured — is the language you’ll start to see — those provisional ballots.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC), however, is working hard to challenge threats to election integrity and ensure that votes are both cast and counted legally. The RNC enjoyed a major election integrity win in Georgia late Sunday, after Democrat-led Cobb County announced plans to extend the deadline for receiving and counting mail-in ballots until November 8, citing tardiness in sending out an estimated 3,000 absentee ballots. Georgia’s Supreme Court issued an order demanding that the 3,000 “late” absentee ballots be separated and not counted, pending another court’s review and order. RNC chairman Michael Whatley touted the state supreme court’s decision as a “HUGE election integrity victory…” He added, “Election Day is Election Day — not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates.”
The RNC has also been active in ensuring that only legal votes are counted in other states, like Pennsylvania. The Republicans challenged a Pennsylvania state Supreme Court ruling which allowed voters to cast a provisional ballot in addition to a mail-in ballot, even if the mail-in ballot was rejected. A Nevada rule change was also challenged, which would have allowed mail-in ballots to be counted for up to three days after the election, even if those ballots are missing postmarks. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the rule change is unconstitutional, but court proceedings may prevent the ruling from taking effect in time.
The RNC has also sued the Milwaukee Election Commission in Wisconsin, alleging that the organization is illegally limiting the number of Republican poll watchers permitted in precincts across the city. “The RNC has not recruited and trained thousands of volunteers in the Badger State simply to back down from misguided officials who want to prevent a full measure of poll-watching transparency,” Whatley commented.
Election integrity wins were also handed to the RNC concerning early voting. In Bucks Couty, Pennsylvania, voters in line to apply for early voting were dismissed by security guards and election officials hours before the deadline to apply for early voting had expired. The RNC requested a court order to extend the deadline for early voting applications by one day — a Bucks County judge extended the deadline by three days.
On Tuesday morning, reports surfaced that voting machines in rural Cambria County, Pennsylvania, were down and that voters waiting to cast their ballots were told they may not be able to before the polls close. Once again, the RNC acted quickly and secured a court order extending the voting deadline in Cambria County to 10 p.m., according to RNC co-chair Lara Trump. Whatley urged voters, “We need you to stay in line. We need you to fill out your ballot in full and deliver it. Our Pennsylvania lawyers are all over this issue and will ensure fairness and accuracy in the process. Stay in line! Deliver your ballot!”
The RNC chairman also reported that election officials across the Keystone State had attempted to keep Republican poll watchers from entering polling places, but the RNC and its legal team ensured that GOP poll watchers gained entrance. The RNC has also established a website where voters waiting in line can report allegations of election fraud.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last week found that just over a third (35%) of American voters have “a great deal” of confidence that their votes will be counted accurately, 20% have “quite a bit of confidence,” and 22% have a “moderate amount” of confidence, while 9% have “only a little” confidence,” and 8% have “none at all.” Democrats have the highest confidence that their votes will be counted accurately (59% have “a great deal” and 19% have “quite a bit” of confidence), but Republicans and Independent voters have less confidence in election integrity.
However, voters planning to back former President Donald Trump are more enthusiastic than voters planning to back Vice President Kamala Harris. Overall, 52% of self-declared Trump voters identified as “extremely enthusiastic” and 20% identified as “very enthusiastic,” compared to 48% of likely Harris voters who identified as “extremely enthusiastic” and 23% who identified as “very enthusiastic.”
A major concern for American voters is the issue of noncitizens voting illegally. Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an order blocking the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) from its attempts to keep noncitizens on Virginia’s voter rolls, after Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) and his administration moved to clear an estimated 1,600 noncitizens who had illegally registered to vote.
The DOJ has also sued Alabama to keep the state from removing noncitizens from its voter rolls and, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation, the DOJ has allegedly interfered in efforts initiated by Florida, Ohio, and Texas to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. As of Monday, Montana’s Secretary of State, Republican Christi Jacobsen, was also weighing a lawsuit against the federal government — this time the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — for inhibiting the state’s efforts to ensure that noncitizens and illegal immigrants do not vote. Officials in South Carolina were also denied help from the federal government in identifying noncitizens registered to vote prior to the election.
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
