In 2021, Trump gave a speech at his “Save America” Rally, where he repeated false claims of election fraud. Shortly after the rally, a crowd of MAGA supporters broke into the US Capitol and attempted to stop congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential win. In the aftermath of this unprecedented event, Americans and political elites disagreed on whether this was truly an insurrection, and whether Donald Trump incited it. Fortunately, in 2021, Biden was sworn into office, continuing the tradition of a peaceful exchange of power between parties. But Trump’s attempt to undermine the legitimacy of Biden’s election win continues to be a sign that polarization has made our democracy more susceptible than ever. 

Americans should be prepared that tumultuous elections may become the new norm. Four years later, Trump is back in power, and he hasn’t stopped claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Despite a lack of evidence, he claims the existence of a democratic party conspiracy to rig the 2020 election by using fake mail in ballots and allowing illegal immigrants to vote. Although Trump can’t run for another term, this narrative could help to create pushback from his party in the event that Democrats win the next election. 

This past week, the FBI seized the 2020 voting records from the Fulton County board of elections, in Georgia. The FBI opened an investigation, despite the ballots having been thoroughly litigated and re-litigated. The director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was present during the investigation at the direction of Donald Trump. After the search, she held a meeting with FBI agents and put president Trump on speaker phone. He praised the agents for their work, and began asking them questions. This involvement from Gabbard and Trump in what should be an independent investigation is concerning because of their potential to influence the work of the agents. 

Talk of elections tends to die down in the off-season, but Trump is laying the groundwork to sew doubt in our election system. Championed by Trump, the GOP drafted a new election bill, yet to be passed by the Senate, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship. Critics worry that this could be abused to disqualify voters and result in low voter turn-out, especially for low income and people of color. This would also give more power over elections to the executive branch. But even if these new voter laws don’t come to fruition, this move helps to paint a picture that there is something wrong with the elections in some states. There’s no reason to think that Trump wouldn’t falsely deny election results once again.

Trump may be right that our election system needs to be revamped, but not because of fraud–– because of other legal tools that politicians use to manipulate the outcome of elections. One increasingly rampant example is jerrymandering, the redrawing of districts so they’re more likely to swing to a favored side. Outlawing jerrymandering, and discarding the electoral college might result in elections that are a better representation of the American people. When elections become manipulated, democracies erode.