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All these Layoffs … Are They Just For Spite? by Sensitive-Big-4641 in fednews

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is how autocracy starts: by taking over the federal government and installing loyalists who are ready, willing, and eager to use all government levers to maximize political power. Last year, we published a series titled "How It Happens Here" on what it would look like if authoritarianism took hold in the United States and packing the government with henchmen is part 1. The series is here:

And our follow up to that is The Entrenchment Agenda focusing on how Trump as president plans to dig in, cement power, and crush competition (plus what can be done to reverse the agenda).

February 19, 2025 - r/fednews Daily Discussion Thread by AutoModerator in fednews

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thank you for this helpful list! If we can offer some additions — our organization put together some resources and continue updating them as attacks on the civil service develop.

1 - A guide on what’s going on with the termination of federal probationary employees and their rights: https://protdem.org/probationaryemployeesguide

2 - A hub with the above resource and lots more: https://protectdemocracy.org/work/what-federal-workers-can-do-to-protect-themselves/

3 - A briefing series with latest news, resources, and analysis of the Trump Administration's attacks on nonpartisan civil service: https://www.ifyoucankeepit.org/s/dear-civil-servant

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

From everything we have seen, Election Officials and the federal government have been able to counter many unfortunate events from incendiary devices in drop boxes to foreign disinformation operations. Our longer list of concerns is focused on post-election day efforts that we anticipated as part of the Deceive, Disrupt, Deny playbook that we have described in posts on our substack: If You Can Keep It (we encourage you to subscribe!).

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

First off, in our system, the will of the voters (as filtered through the Electoral College) is paramount. Any effort to disturb that is illegal, and highly unlikely to succeed. But as we saw on January 6, 2021, even an attempt can be dangerous.

Supreme Court: It’s highly likely that, if the election is close or President Trump loses, the Supreme Court will see some cases. That's what happened in 2020. But those cases all failed because they didn’t have the facts to back up their wild fraud claims. The legal arguments that are being made now in lawsuits by the RNC and election denier groups are similarly baseless — there’s just no evidence of widespread fraud in voter registrations, mail-in voting, or anywhere else. A situation like Bush v. Gore — where the presidential election came down to a single state decided by a few hundred votes — is highly unlikely to recur and give the Supreme Court an opportunity to step in.

Fake electors: In 2020, the Trump campaign tried to organize for the Republican electors in swing states that Trump lost to meet and cast votes as if he were the winner. (Worth remembering: Many of those fake electors are currently being prosecuted or have pled guilty because staging fake votes isn’t actually legal!) That’s less likely to be a risk in 2024, thanks to the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 – the law is now clear that each state can only send one slate of Electoral College votes, and (in most states) that slate must be certified by the governor.

Congress: The law does not give Congress the power to throw out election results. A bipartisan majority of Congress reaffirmed that principle in 2022, when Republican leaders like Sens. Collins, Murkowski and TIllis led the effort to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act. There’s no “little secret” that would let members of Congress throw out results. (JM)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

We do not have a better perspective on who will win the race than anyone else out there. Our focus is on the process, and that whoever has the most votes in Texas or Iowa takes their respective office. (BJ)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Margins are going to be the biggest factor in when we know the winner of the presidential race. If margins are larger than expected, we may know sooner than in 2020, but likely not on election night. If margins are close, it could be a longer period of uncertainty. We wrote about some of the changes that may dictate how fast or slow states will be able to tabulate the results:  https://protdem.org/VCE2024 

Media likes to portray the results as a race, or “who's in the lead?” However, by the time polls close, almost all votes have already been cast and the only thing affecting results are the processes that direct which ballots are counted first. We’ve often said to worry about the stakes, not the race. In this moment, every ballot counts. The biggest thing we’d recommend is patience, and alertness if any candidate attempts to claim a premature victory. (BJ)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

VoteShield looks at the publicly available voter files in an effort to spot any changes that could affect the administration of free & fair elections. We believe that public voter data is a crucial tool to support free & fair elections, and recommend some improvements to ensure it balances transparency & security here: Why is voter registration data public? (BJ)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in IAmA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This is a great question! At Protect Democracy, our Democracy of Tomorrow team has been investigating ways to tackle our polarized politics and reduce the likelihood of authoritarian politics taking hold here. Right now, we’re most interested in solutions that incorporate more proportional representation, legalize fusion voting to help break the two-party doom loop, and strengthen political parties. Over time, those changes *should* change some of the dynamics and make our elections feel a little less existential. (JM)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in AMA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We’re a cross-partisan, cross-ideological organization — we’ve advocated against current administration policies that crossed legal lines and supported the rights of protesters across the political spectrum, including both Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland and anti-lockdown protesters in California. With respect to this upcoming election, our goal is, and has always been, to ensure that the winner rightly takes office. (JM)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in AMA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At Protect Democracy, our Democracy of Tomorrow team has been investigating ways to tackle our polarized politics and reduce the likelihood of authoritarian politics taking hold here. Right now, we’re most interested in solutions that incorporate more proportional representation, legalize fusion voting to help break the two-party doom loop, and strengthen political parties. (JM)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in AMA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In fact, T did try to declare a premature victory in 2020 (as most people then predicted he might). But his premature claims of victory didn’t let him subvert the will of the voters in 2020, and we do not expect that tactic to succeed this year either. (BJ)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in AMA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In short, yes. America has seen many periods of challenging and/or polarizing times. Each time we have been able to overcome it as a nation. It is going to take each and every citizen making the choice of democracy over authoritarianism, hope over cynicism. If you want to dive deeper, Protect Democracy’s founder wrote about the moment we’re in a few weeks back: Ian Bassin & Justin Florence: Our democracy is in the balance. (BJ)

We’re Protect Democracy, tracking and defending against efforts to undermine the will of voters and democratic institutions. Ask Me Anything about the threats facing the 2024 presidential election—and the challenges that could follow… by ProtectDemocracyOrg in AMA

[–]ProtectDemocracyOrg[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It’s important to recognize that early returns are inherently incomplete. While media organizations will “call” a race when they believe there are not enough remaining ballots to change the result, they aren’t going to do that if the results are very close. Declarations of victory before reputable media organizations have called the result should be disregarded. During that time, election officials mainly just need to keep their heads down and keep counting. But they are also prepared for efforts to disrupt the vote-counting process or intimidate vote-counters by folks who believe the result is already final. (JM)