Reject the oath-breakers and election-deniers on the ballot tomorrow

Around 250 million Americans are eligible to vote in tomorrow’s midterm elections. By the end of last week, more than 34 million already had. And all the while, President Trump and his allies are doing all they can to meddle in the process.

Voters will find that hundreds of candidates on this year’s ballots are undermining confidence in elections, despite repeated findings that the electoral process is fair. Many participated in Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election . Others have simply bought into his persistent but entirely unsubstantiated claims of election fraud . Either way, voters should reject them.

No responsibility of citizenship is more important than choosing who represents us in government. In democracies, it is a sacred secular ritual. It gives every eligible citizen a measure of political power, including the ability to stand against tyranny and corruption, influence how tax dollars are spent, and help shape the country’s future.

Fair elections allow power to transfer peacefully from one set of leaders to the next. Scholars call this a “ rare and recent practice ” among nations. Its upkeep is one reason every public official in the U.S. must swear to protect and defend the Constitution.

Trump has taken that oath twice, but he has repeatedly violated it as president. He is now openly engaged in a conspiracy to erode voter confidence in elections and interfere with the ability of states to run them honestly . His interference is unpatriotic, unethical and unconstitutional.

Trump has engaged the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in this effort. They are not acting alone. According to an Oct. 5 analysis by the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, voters will find the names of 197 election deniers across 43 states on their midterm ballots. The center defines election denial as candidates who helped spread Trump’s persistent lies about the 2020 election, refused to certify the results on Jan. 6, 2021, or tried to overturn former President Joe Biden’s victory.

States United counts 163 congressional races with election deniers on the ballot. That is significant, because those elected to the House or Senate will participate in certifying the 2028 presidential election, the process that Trump and his co-conspirators tried to sabotage in 2021 by appointing false electors and inciting the riot that delayed Congress’s validation of Joe Biden’s lawful victory.

At least 33 other deniers across 21 states are running for statewide offices, States United says, hoping to become governors, attorneys general or secretaries of state, the chief election officers in most states.

Three Republican gubernatorial candidates on tomorrow’s ballots are departing members of Congress that the center has identified as election deniers: Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla), and Tom Tiffany (R-Wis). They voted to sustain objections to valid electoral votes during the 2021 certification process.

These candidates should be defeated because their involvement affronts the democratic process. Study after study has concluded that claims of significant election irregularities, such as voter fraud, are baseless.

“American elections are quite well-run,” states the American Bar Association. “[E]fforts to cast doubt on their security and accuracy pose a grave systemic threat to our form of government.”

Interestingly, some legal scholars argue the Constitution disqualifies members of the denial movement from holding any public office. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says that any federal or state official who swears to uphold the Constitution (all public officials are obligated to do so) and then participates in or supports a rebellion against it should be disqualified from serving in office again.

But in 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court muddied the waters on how to enforce this. In a 5-4 ruling, the court said only Congress can disqualify federal officials for rebellion. The Constitution doesn’t say that.

Although Trump won’t be on tomorrow’s ballots, voters can hold him accountable by rejecting the midterm candidates who participated in denying the 2020 election outcome and who continue supporting his efforts to rig the electoral process , intimidate state election officials , destroy public confidence in voting, and interfere with states’ constitutional election duties.

Facts are facts. The moneychangers, snake-oil salesmen, charlatans, crooks, capitulators, collaborators and cowards have taken over the temples of democracy. They plan to stay. Tomorrow, we must begin kicking them out.

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and a contributor to “Democracy in a Hotter Time.” He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.