Republican ‘election audits’ have been used before — by dictators

Republican ‘election audits’ have been used before — by dictators

Opinion by Brian Klaas

Global Opinions contributor

Oct. 18 at 11:29 a.m. EDT

Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that he won the 2020 election, and his supporters in the Republican Party are continuing with kangaroo “audits” in swing states that Trump lost. For Americans, this is a bizarre sideshow. But for those who have had the misfortune of living in an authoritarian country, the GOP’s “audit” charade follows an all-too-familiar script.

Five years ago, Gambia’s dictator unexpectedly lost an election. Yahya Jammeh, who had pledged to rule that little sliver of West Africa for “1 billion years,” had to face facts. His people had rejected him. His opponent had won. But then he had an idea. Perhaps he could stay in power if he performed a careful “audit” of the election results.

Jammeh alleged widespread fraud without evidence to support it. He submitted a formal petition, saying that the electoral commission had “failed to properly collate the results.” He refused to leave power. Similar tactics have recently been tried elsewhere, from Guyana to Zambia.

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Dictators around the world know how it’s done. Never accept defeat. Fight the results, no matter what the evidence says. After all, the electoral commissioner in these countries is often a pliant crony from the same party who might cave to the pressure. (I once interviewed a senior election official in Madagascar who opened an envelope hand-delivered to her home address. Instead of a note, it contained three bullets).

If despots lose power despite their bluster and threats, they are always sure to continue alleging fraud to delegitimize their successor in the eyes of their supporters. It’s a final poisoned parting gift, one last opportunity to damage and divide the country.

Trump’s Republican Party seems to have been taking notes.

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The “audits” — and they should always be described with quotation marks — are authoritarian political theater. But we should have no illusions: they are dangerous. The GOP has moved onto the “audits” as a plan B because plan A failed. If political violence on Jan. 6 and veiled threats to people like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger didn’t lead to a second Trump term, then maybe it’s worth trying to sow doubt in the electoral process itself.

As is the case with authoritarian despots who cry fraud when they lose, the actual “audits” are meaningless for Trump’s purposes. That became obvious after the Arizona “audit” results were announced, which again decisively validated President Biden’s victory and demolished Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud. No matter. Trump went onstage the following day and lied to his to cheering fans that “we won on the Arizona forensic audit yesterday.”

Perhaps Trump could have benefited from the advice given by Adama Barrow, Jammeh’s opponent back in 2016: “The best thing … is to accept the reality — that he has lost the elections.” Instead, Republicans are poised to repeat the cycle in other states.

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But these “audits” aren’t just sinister because they try to sow doubt in a legitimate election process. They’re also being used for other purposes — again, following the same course rehearsed by authoritarians in the past.

First, challenging election results serves as a loyalty test. In the past, it would have been unthinkable to ask a member of Congress or a local politician whether they thought the duly elected president of the United States had actually won. The “audits” force that question to the forefront of U.S. political discourse yet again, even though the election was nearly a year ago. If anyone in the GOP speaks out against the show “audits,” they risk being deemed a turncoat.

Second, the “audits” can be used as pretexts to manipulate future elections. This is one of the great ironies of the entire sham process: as the so-called investigations continue to affirm the validity and accuracy of Biden’s victory, the Trump camp is rhetorically leaning on the existence of the “audits” as proof of Biden’s illegitimacy. It’s a self-fulfilling authoritarian prophecy. Fund the investigation, ignore its findings, but then point to the fact that an investigation exists as proof positive that something funny is going on. And then use it as an excuse to rig the system.

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Jammeh, like Trump, was ousted partly because election officials refused to “find” extra votes in his favor. But as other despots watched Jammeh’s defeat, they surely learned a clear lesson: make sure that key election officials are loyal to you, not the country. Unfortunately, Trump seems to have learned the same lesson. Key election officials are being forced out in swing states, with pro-Trump zealots poised to replace them — all with Trump’s official blessing.

In 2016, Jammeh only left power after regional powers threatened to remove him by force. He faced a choice: stay and get arrested, or flee with the riches he plundered from his people. The defeated dictator cut a deal, left politics and fled into exile. And that, perhaps, is one part of the authoritarian playbook that we should all hope Donald Trump follows next.