Midterms have some unique characteristics. The focus is on state and local races, where advertising and coverage of the races depend more on the local coverage than on the national channel TV talkers and reporters. It is expensive and harder for local and state candidates to get their message across and motivate voters to turn out. Coincidentally, the ones who control who votes, what votes are counted, and guard election integrity are the state and local officials, and the importance of their offices most voters can not name is on those ballots. The education of voters cannot rely on fancy ads, but it will take an army of volunteers to compensate for the lack of media coverage.
Let me share some words of wisdom.
I've spent most of my life, at least fifty years, in local government politics in Denver and even some in the county where I now live. I led get-out-the-vote efforts, went door to door to meet voters, and participated in or organized phone banks and door-to-door canvassing on behalf of candidates, and I was a candidate myself, as well. Such efforts are the only way to offset the lack of extensive media coverage given to these local elections. Money for advertising and free media interviews and debates do not focus on these local races and what is left is personal contact and lots of volunteer effort to make those contacts and get out the message. However, the tendency of voters not familiar with the names of candidates or the importance of the mundane sounding office to which they aspire is to simply vote on the basis of party affiliation. Non-presidential years do not give the same sense of urgency to voters to make the effort to vote as in presidential years. Especially likely low turnout voters are those who do not follow political cable and social media. In general elections, unaffiliated voters can also vote, as is the case in the November general elections. If a party can turn out these low information-low interested voters, independents, and unaffiliated registered ones who they identified as likely voters for their side, they can exceed expectations even if they are a minority in party registration, Turnout is the key to success and that, too, will depend on how good are the identification of these swing voters and their dedicated core believers. Identification and getting out the vote both depend on an army of phoners, envelope stuffers, and door-to-door walkers. This technique is no secret. Both political parties know this, and both will be trying to outdo their opponents' campaigns.
The importance of these local elections and state election officials has never been more critical than it is in 2022. I served as Denver's Clerk and Recorder (the equivalent of a county clerk with many more duties in a combined city/county government) and, as one of my responsibilities, election commissioner for nearly 8 years. Never has the administration of elections ever been on the hot seat as it will in 2022. Critical races are those for county clerks, Secretaries of State, and state Attorneys General. If you follow the extensive media coverage of events in Georgia and in Michigan, you may get an idea of the importance of these election officials. There are partisan attempts nationwide to put party loyalists solo in charge of counting votes and the election process. Colorado's unique ballot by mail system was devised and constructed by the Republican-controlled state house and legislature, including extreme measures to thwart fraud. It is a national model of how mail-in balloting can work to provide fair and free elections. We have one of the highest rates of voter participation in the US. GOP theory was then that mail-in ballots benefitted them. There was a long history of absentee ballots that were tilted in the favor of the Republicans. Bi-partisan and non-partisan eyes shadow and administer the process every step of the way. Subsequent Democrats as attorney general and secretary of state have taken pains to follow those carefully laid out rules and laws. All ballots in Colorado are paper ballots, whether mailed or deposited in boxes or in same-day voting venues. They are the way audits and recounts can easily and accurately be made. It is extremely important who has access to them and their storage. The paper ballots are tallied by computers. However, 2020 Colorado was a particular case in point of how county clerks, local to a political leader instead of to the laws and rules governing their actions,.circumvented the process of protecting the integrity of an election. Two county clerks faced discipline (and one was even criminally prosecuted) for violating state laws and rules. What they are accused of doing include giving access codes to voting machines to a non-employee partisan friend and playing keep away with ballots and machines in a locked room because they believed the President told them to do so, even though both acts violated state rules and laws. The earth-shaking spectacle nationwide has been candidates losing elections and then, as a matter of course, before and soon after the election, claiming fraud that elections were stolen as the reason they lost while producing no evidence. Some even won but still claimed there was a fraud. One even claims their fellow party opponent won because of fraud in a party primary. Hey, if it works for the president (sort of), it can work for them, too). They have a great role model n Donald Trump who has had plenty of time. and the opportunity to dig up evidence that the election was stolen, Even if he failed to do so, he kept his hopes open to run again and raise money to do it. This has resulted in shaking the entire faith of voters in the democratic election system. Trust in fair elections are the bedrock of any democracy. County clerks have special tools. They can even increase the turnout or suppress the vote based on the demographics and neighborhoods by increasing or decreasing the numbers and locations of drop boxes and polling places by determining the degree of convenience and access. The adherence of state attorneys general, secretaries of state, and even district attorneys to state laws, have the power to determine if and what laws they choose to enforce, It can no longer be taken for granted they will play it by the book given the antics in 2020. Elections for those positions now take on extra importance in these midterms, and if voters care about fair and honest elections, they need to know their candidates' positions on whether they follow the rules or plan to put one party in charge of a whole untrustworthy process. Given the little attention these positions get from the media, the volunteer boots on the ground spreading the message become even more important in affecting the outcome up and down the ballot and not just in their own county contests.
The second half of this original post has been moved to its own separate post: Democracy is on the ballot this November MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Democracy is on the ballot this November
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