US midterm elections | End of MAGA addiction

A voter leaves the polling station after casting an early vote at the Summit County elections office in Akron, Ohio, during the U.S. midterm elections. On the right, a poster states that only citizens of the United States may exercise the right to vote. Photo: AFP/David Maxwell Polling stations are the heart chamber of democracy, where democracy lives but can also die. This is now particularly clear in the USA: never before have the local election officials prepared as comprehensively as they do now before the midterms, the midterm elections for the United States Parliament. There are fears of both the unauthorized presence of ICE agents and the possible confiscation of voting documents.

As early as 2024, US polling stations have resorted to extreme methods. In Maricopa County, Arizona, there were snipers on rooftops and others resorted to drone surveillance. At that time there was widespread fear that supporters of the MAGA movement could attack. But today the threat comes from an unprecedented source: the US federal government.

A year ago, the Trump administration tried to take control of the electoral process. All states were ordered to release their voter rolls for inspection so that the lists of non-U.S. citizens could be purged. The aim was to bring the elections into line, in the manner of DOGE, the Trump efficiency agency under Elon Musk, which used federal databases in a similar way last year.

But the attempt largely failed. Around two dozen states have handed out their lists; The federal government recorded around 28,000 allegedly illegitimate voters. The other states refused; 15 have sued the federal government. In court, the federal government lost in all cases because voting in the USA is a strictly local and federal matter. The system is organized in a decentralized manner and is therefore highly heterogeneous and sometimes even scattered, which is often viewed as a shortcoming abroad. But this year it is a true gift.

Donald Trump then gave a televised speech on July 17 this year in which he suggested that a foreign government could gain access to electronic voting machines. Such allegations are difficult for the states to respond to; preparations were intensified. The staff at the polling stations received intensive training on how to deal with federal agents who are in the polling stations without permission - because the federal government is not allowed to simply send officials over. The only exceptions are observers - 1,000 are planned according to the Justice Department in Washington - or agents who have a court subpoena or a search warrant.

The “Vote Safe” initiative will send hundreds of trained citizens to the polling stations, especially in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Georgia, where a particularly large number of African Americans live and who have previously suffered the most discrimination in the polling stations. "Vote Safe" was co-founded by the national teachers' union AFT and Rev. Al Sharpton: Sharpton told the Washington Post: "Anyone who believes that the presence or threat of federal agents could deter our communities from going to the polls is sorely mistaken."

A year ago, the Trump administration tried to take control of the electoral process.

However, the fear of violence is somewhat lower than in the past; also because Maga has an increasingly problematic relationship with Trump. Since 2020, it has been primarily the MAGA movement that has brutally threatened election officials, including Republican ones. Republican and election official Carly Koppes was repeatedly threatened with murder in Colorado because she did not want to cooperate with deniers of Biden's victory. Indiana Republican Senate Majority Leader Rodric Bray also received multiple death threats when he refused to gerrymander Indiana's last Democratic congressional districts. Gerrymandering is the political science term for the shifting of constituency boundaries to favor this or that party.

Deidre Henderson, Utah's lieutenant governor and elections director, was similarly targeted for not releasing voter rolls to the federal government. In general, the gerrymandering imposed by Washington in Republican states this year was often carried out with reluctance and was not approved by the population. There was a deep feeling that voting was a local matter.

Interestingly, this constellation – Maga versus the traditional Republicans – could also be decisive in the future when it comes to election security. According to the Financial Times, Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, expects that a fight between these factions could break out the day after the election - just at the moment when Donald Trump becomes a lame duck. According to Bannon, the party's traditional elite will treat Donald Trump like a temporary "summer storm," and the MAGA movement could become even more nationalistic. Maga is supported by Elon Musk. He has donated $446 million in this election campaign - because the man who most fears a Democratic victory is not Trump, but Musk.

Voters fill out ballots at an early voting polling station in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnesota residents are electing, among others, the successors of Governor Tim Walz and Senator Tina Smith, both of whom are Democrats. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Stephen Maturen --> We did the math This article didn't cost you anything. Us: research, production and technology. We saved on office rent as well as printing and distribution. And we gave up salary. Nevertheless, the calculation doesn't work without you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year. You pay what you can, in return we keep writing.

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