Illegal immigrants sliding onto election roles in crucial battleground states? Check. Warnings that the Postal Service, now revealed to be in Harris’s pocket, won’t be able to handle mail-in ballots? Check. Heavily biased debates and coverups for Harris and Walz? Check. Keep a defunct candidate on ballots in swing states to drain votes from former President Donald Trump? Check.
The pieces of the next “free and fair” election are falling into place, and it’s full steam ahead for Harris.
Dems aren’t worried that they will “lose” the election. They have many checks and balances to assure her “victory,” akin to her boss’s 2020 “victory.” It started mid-summer when President Joe Biden was dumped from the ticket and replaced by VP Kamala Harris without a single vote. After all, a Harris “victory” is just a little more believable than a Biden “victory.”
However, the Democrats fear House Speaker Mike Johnson might spoil their plans. On January 6, 2025, he could overturn their “victory” without framing a single protestor.
The feared scenario would only happen if Harris won the presidency and Republicans maintained control of the House. It’s unlikely, but Johnson could challenge the election results if it happened.
Dems have good reason to fear Johnson. He led House Republicans in asking the Supreme Court to overturn key state election results after the 2020 election. Now, he’s leading the charge against undocumented immigrants voting in 2025. Democrats think this is an attempt to create a bit of pre-election doubt and set the stage for trouble.
Adding to the worry is that Johnson might face a leadership struggle after the election. He might feel pressured to challenge the election results to show his strength to MAGA supporters and Trump.
Republicans waved Democratic concerns away, pointing out that he resisted MAGA pressure about funding for Ukraine. They also said writing a legal document for Congress differs from trying to overturn the election.
A Johnson aide brushed off the Democrats’ worries, saying they were trying to raise money to take control of the House. The aide also said these concerns were another example of the Democratic narrative that led to two assassination attempts against Trump.
Democrats already have fail-safes, such as Harris certifying the vote in her position as Vice President. In 2022, a new change to the 1887 Electoral Count Act made objecting to the vote count more challenging. Instead of just one person, 20 percent of members in each chamber now need to object to the results.
However, Democrats fear that Johnson, with his background in constitutional law and conservative views, will be able to harness some of the Constitution’s vagueness regarding elections. He may devise “new” legal arguments to hold up the certification.
What might that look like? Here are a few scenarios.
House Speaker Johnson could challenge the Electoral Count Act and sue to overturn it. Under this new legal theory, a judge could rule that the current law can’t stop Congress from using its power under the 12th Amendment. This would be an unlikely path forward for Johnson and most likely doomed to fail.
But what if Johnson delayed the certification? Even though the January 6 date is set by law, the speaker must first call the House to order. Democrats worry that Johnson could hit “pause,” similar to how Trump supporters feared Nancy Pelosi would after the 2020 election.
Johnson might get enough Republicans to object to specific groups of electors. If the Republicans also control the Senate, they might get enough votes to reject those electors. If neither candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment could let the House choose the winner.
While the odds are against an election that finds a Democratic President elected alongside a Republican-controlled House, senior lawmakers are taking no chances. They are meeting secretly to plan a response if things could go wrong after the election. They’re also telling donors about their concerns and asking them to increase their donations to help flip the House.
Democrats are famous for starting strong and floundering later in the game. A perfect example is the lawfare strategies employed against Trump. While it seemed the court cases would derail Trump’s campaign, they have fallen apart one by one. Trump’s support is even stronger than before.
Buying votes through student loan forgiveness seemed to work initially, but constant court cases have found these plans as unpopular as they are unconstitutional.
It’s unlikely that Johnson will go against the grain, but Democrats have planned too long and hard to risk it. There’s only so much fraud and interference they can get away with, and they’ve reached their limit.
