How bad could it get? America’s ugly election

Boggling the mind

There is little risk of any hackers, even

those with the support of nation states,

changing a meaningful number of votes on

the national scale. But hacking into a cru-

cial county in a swing state is a much less

onerous task, as is taking a state election

system down for a few hours on election

day, thereby increasing voter wait times

and sapping public confidence. That Amer-

icans are even having such conversations

is, in a sense, a victory for bad actors. As Ms

Schneider explains, “The destructive nar-

rative that our elections are rigged and

someone is going to hack into them is al-

most as bad as actually doing it.”

It is hardly the only such destructive

narrative around. Mr Trump is doing his

best to undermine trust in one of the key

responses on which states and individuals

are relying in order to ease elections at a

time of contagion: voting by mail. 

In 34 states any voter may now request

an absentee ballot for any reason. Nearly

every swing state falls into this category,

and fear of covid may see more voters than

ever take up the opportunity. In a number

of states the opportunity to vote by mail

has been, or is being, widened specifically

to respond to covid (see chart 2). It allows

voters to feel more secure and reduces the

pressures on polling places. Four states,

along with Washington, 

dc

, will swell the