Republican election and elected officials who stood up to Mr. One-fourth of election administrators say that they plan to retire before 2024. Those who administer elections have faced threats of violence and harassment. Let’s begin by reviewing some of the key problems. It won’t be easy, but there is a path forward if we begin acting now, together, to shore up our fragile election ecosystem. We must not succumb to despair or indifference.

Exhausted by four years of the Trump presidency and a lingering pandemic, some Americans appear to have responded to the risks to our democracy by simply tuning out the news and hoping that things will just work out politically by 2024.

Many people who are not dispirited by such findings are uninterested. Political operatives are laying the groundwork for future election sabotage and the federal government has done precious little to minimize the risk. They are more willing to see violence as a means of resolving election disputes. Those who believe the last election was stolen will be more likely to accept a stolen election for their side next time. Trump’s false claim of a stolen election, and 59 percent say that accepting the Big Lie is an important part of what it means to be a Republican today.Īs we all know, the hyperpolarized, social media-driven information environment makes it virtually impossible to persuade those voters that the 2020 election was fairly run. More than 70 percent of Republican voters say that they believe Mr. 6 insurrection and of Donald Trump’s attempt to bully his way into a reversal of his loss in the 2020 presidential election has felt dispiriting. The saturation coverage of the anniversary of the Jan. Read more in a note from Times Opinion’s politics editor Ezekiel Kweku in our Opinion Today newsletter. This article is part of a collection on the events of Jan.

Book no one is coming to save us