Ex-DHS official delivers 'good news' about election process in key battleground states

25 October 2024

Election law expert Marc Elias has been warning that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the United States' 2024 presidential election, MAGA allies of former President Donald Trump will do everything they can to overturn the election results — only they will be better prepared than they were in 2020. UCLA law professor/legal scholar Rick L. Hasen has been sounding the alarm as well.

But legal expert Paul Rosenzweig, who served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Barack Obama, delivers some "good news" about the 2024 election in an article published by The Atlantic on October 24.

According to Rosenzweig, the "good news" is that in key swing states, the "mechanisms of election administration" are "in the hands of responsible public officials rather than partisan warriors." Those officials, the former DHS official notes, are "mostly Democrats, but a few clearheaded Republicans as well."

"There has never been any suggestion that Democratic officials are likely to systematically disrupt the lawful counting of ballots," Rosenzweig explains. "The risk, such as it is, comes from possible spurious legal challenges raised by Donald Trump supporters, partisan election administration by Republican state officials, and unjustifiably receptive consideration of election lawsuits by Republican-nominated judges. The good news is that in the states most likely to be decisive, that group of people is not in control."

Rosenzweig notes that in Georgia, for example, two prominent conservative Republicans — Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — "both recently opposed the transparently partisan efforts of the state election board to change election rules."

"If the past is prologue," Rosenzweig observes, "we can reasonably expect that the contest in Georgia will be close, but we can also expect that the process by which the votes are counted will be fair and open. The same is true of all the other battleground states. Those states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada — are, of course, led by elected politicians who have partisan views, but none is a leader whose nature suggests a desire to manipulate election administration for partisan advantage."

Rosenzweig adds, "Most of the states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona — are led by Democratic governors who can be counted on to deliver the results fairly.

Read Paul Rosenzweig's full article for The Atlantic at this link (subscription required).

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