Fred Hiatt writes:

Like termites, destructive but largely unseen, anti-democracy forces around the country are gnawing at the foundations of America’s free and fair elections.

State by state, the termites are trying to change the rules to allow Donald Trump or someone like him to succeed in 2024 where Trump tried and failed in 2020: to steal an election that he lost.

In April, a report by three nonprofit organizations documented how Republicans in dozens of state legislatures were pursuing a strategy “to politicize, criminalize, and interfere in election administration.”

Now, less than two months later, this “Democracy in Crisis” report has an update, and it is alarming. The number of bills raising red flags has grown from 148 in 36 states to 216 in 41 states — and 24 of them have become law.

“The commitment of many state legislatures to attacking the foundations of our democracy appears to have deepened,” says the report from Protect Democracy, States United Democracy Center and Law Forward. “The trend toward threatening election administrators with criminal penalties is more pronounced and aggressive, and attempts by legislatures to perform core elections functions has grown more brazen.”

For the past half-century, civil rights groups have focused on the right to vote, a right that is once again under threat in many places. Encouragingly, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that he will double the Justice Department staff dedicated to protecting that right.

But no less crucial, as Garland noted in his speech, is to ensure “that all lawful votes are counted.” We haven’t paid as much attention to that, because until now we haven’t had to. Election administration in America, overseen in many cases by partisan officials and volunteer poll-watchers, may strike foreigners as odd. But it has worked, because those officials have put election integrity first. [Continue reading…]