It’s 2024. Trump Backers Won’t Certify the Election. What Next, Legally?
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hand down a decision on December 12, in which it is expected to hear the case of Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona of U.S., Inc., a move that will likely lead to the defeat of Arizona’s controversial “Proposition 200,” which would have allowed for the counting of certain mail-in ballots, such as those from military members overseas.
Just eight months later, however, President Trump tweeted, “The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I always have it loaded and ready, but hidden. Soak it up my friend!” In a subsequent tweet, he said, “We need the votes tomorrow!”
The problem for the Trump team is that the Supreme Court has spoken. On Monday, the court ruled that Proposition 200, which was passed in 2008 and has drawn widespread backlash from voters, was unconstitutional.
Though the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban was a decisive one, it wasn’t the only reason it was so important. There is also a deeper reason why this Supreme Court decision has been so consequential for Arizona. It is because of the work of the Trump administration and its allies in Congress and state government.
Those are the people who, the court noted on Monday, “have spent millions of dollars to promote Proposition 200.”
In reality, the ruling was simply meant to show that voting rights are not a zero-sum game. That is a key point that is often overlooked when talking about one of the most controversial civil rights issues of our time. What was at stake in the Prop 200 decision was not only the right to vote; it was also the right to vote in a manner that is free from bias.
By the same token, with voting rights and especially the right to have your votes counted, we must also ask the question, “What would a fair process look like for the 2020 election?”
One of the key issues facing that question is the impact of the 2020 Census. It is an all-important
