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The threat of violence looms as the race to the White House gains momentum. President Trump was shot by a gunman, the head of the secret service resigned, and the Heritage Foundation declared the General Election illegitimate if Trump does not win. 

“The heightened rhetoric and the environment of political violence that we find ourselves in is the thing that keeps me up at night,”said Jonathan Diaz, director, Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center and Adjunct Professor of Law, Diaz was speaking at the Ethnic News Media briefing on the subject in July 2024. 

According to him, those who were close to the former president are actively working to discredit the electoral process and cast doubt on the veracity of American elections through various forms of political rhetoric and messaging. “If it's close or if he loses he can take advantage of that uncertainty and doubt to try and overturn the results like he did in 2020,” said Diaz. He pointed to the messages by the Heritage Foundation.

“As things stand right now, there’s a zero percent chance of a free and fair election,” Mike Howell, executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project had said. “I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election.”

“Donald Trump certainly believes if he doesn't win an election it was a fraudulent election,” agreed Bill Schneider, professor Emeritus Schar School of Policy and Government. “There's no evidence that anything was fraudulent in 2020. He'll do it again, if he were to lose again.”

A number of swing states have seen lawsuits filed by Donald Trump and his associates challenging voter registration rolls, claiming that these rolls contain thousands upon thousands of non-US citizens who have been registered illegally. This issue of non-citizen voting has been the target of new restrictive legislation that he and his allies on the Hill have been pushing.

“What worries me about this election is we are faced with a candidate and a party apparatus that has no concern for the foundations of American democracy. Who is willing to tear the whole system down in order to win. There has always been election-related litigation. There have always been lawsuits. There have always been hotly contested Presidential elections. The amount of election litigation has continued to skyrocket, but never before have we seen a candidate so willing to completely dismantle the entire system of American Democracy,” said Diaz.

Some speakers at the RNC repeated the unsubstantiated claim that Democrats are rigging the election, specifically about noncitizens voting. That claim is one of many conspiracy theories about the security of America’s election system being spread, said PBS news.

Diaz stated that if it is another close election we will see similar attempts to overturn the results. “This time with the Federal judiciary and a Supreme Court that is much more inclined to take his side.”

“Once Donald Trump was asked if he thinks the electoral system in this country is fair, or is it corrupt? He said. It's fair if I win,” shared Schneider.

Violence at the convention and outside it

Sherry Bebitch Jee, retired professor of the practice of public policy communication at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California who had witnessed violence at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 anticipates violence outside the upcoming DNC on August 7. 

”There will be levels of security inside the Democratic convention site. The Chicago police know the lessons that were learned from the 1968 Convention in Chicago,” she said.

“Voter intimidation and harassment is always a concern from a kind of nonpartisan election protection standpoint. Unfortunately, there is a long history in this country of intimidation at the polls, threats of violence particularly targeting communities of color,” said Diaz. Going back to the KKK roaming the streets, armed bands of self-appointed militias trying to intimidate certain segments of the population, especially black voters to prevent them from voting. 

Measures in place to stop interference to election results 

There have been some steps taken to prevent interference, voter intimidation and attempt to overturn the results of the election.

There is a national nonpartisan election protection network that runs a national, nonpartisan hotline at 866 OUR VOTE in English, Spanish, seven Asian languages and Arabic to gather reports of voter intimidation in real time and respond to them working with election officials and law enforcement. Additionally, people can vote by mail if they feel uncomfortable or threatened standing in line to vote. 

Following January 6, 2021, Congress did enact the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, or ECRA to update the procedures for counting electoral votes, to make clear that the Vice President has no discretion or authority to reject a State's electoral votes and to raise the threshold for objections from members of Congress to counting the States electoral votes, said Diaz. 

He elucidated that one member of the House and one member of the Senate were required to file an objection prior to the ECRA's passage. Subsequently, the State's electoral votes would be subject to a vote in both houses on whether or not to reject them. Currently, the initial objection must be submitted by one-fifth of each chamber. 

Additionally, the ECRA language has been amended to mandate that the States award their electoral votes in accordance with the laws of the state as they were in effect on election day. This is intended to prevent a legislature from entering into a special session after the election and attempting to submit an alternative slate of electors, a tactic that was attempted by Donald Trump and his allies in 2020, according to Diaz.  

“What gives me hope is the amount of public awareness and public concern among regular everyday people over the health of our elections and our democracy. Earlier we didn't really hear the candidates talk much about voting rights and electoral reforms, and the need to preserve democracy. And now they do,” said Diaz.

“Democracy only works if everyone plays their part to not just preserve but advance it,” he asserted.