As U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval dips across the country, election workers are bracing for a fight that could test their authority if results do not swing in his favour.
Asked last week if he would respect the results of the midterms, Trump said he would, “if they’re honest elections.”
What the president considers an “honest” result remains unclear. But election workers across the U.S. are tasked with making sure every valid vote is counted, regardless of their own political affiliation.
In the U.S., election administration is largely under the purview of states and local officials, each with different laws and procedures.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has been questioning voter eligibility, alleging illegal registrations and demanding hundreds of ballots be set aside.
“We are bound by state law. And state law really does not give us the authority to do what the federal government is asking us to do,” Mary Hall, election auditor in Thurston County, Wash., told Global News.
On Saturday, Alaska’s Republican-led state government asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed at the direction of the Trump administration to stop the certification of a possible narrow Democratic win.
The Department of Justice alleges that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola recruited a nominee with the same name as the incumbent Dan Sullivan to confuse voters on election day.
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The Justice Department has since asked the judge to separate all ballots cast for the second Dan Sullivan until it can be determined whether voters were fooled.
In its Saturday filing, Alaska said this was “both disturbing and impossible,” and that the action could not be taken without violating voter privacy.
Election officials say targeted claims can undermine voter confidence, even if they have no direct reason to doubt the election.
“There’s 50 different ways that elections work. Rhetoric has that type of effect,” Samantha Alfaro from the Loudoun County Elections Office in Leesburg, Va., told Global News. “Not so much people doubt their own results, it’s other results.”
Trump made similar claims during the 2020 election, which he falsely claimed was “rigged and stolen.”
During the fallout, election workers in Georgia faced threats and intimidation as false accusations of fraud took hold.
But recent polling suggests Trump’s newest accusations may not be bringing in the support he wants.
A new poll from Emerson College released Friday showed the president’s approval rating dipped to 37 per cent, an all-time low.
According to the same poll, Democrats lead Republicans by 10 percentage points in a generic congressional ballot.
Despite the results, election workers say they hold themselves to the standards of accountability and transparency.
“We count every valid vote,” Hall said.
– With files from Global News’ Reggie Cecchini and The Associated Press
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