On this Election Day, and in the days to come, get ready to defend your vote

This Election Day is a pivotal moment for millions of people who worry that the American Dream is slipping out of reach as they struggle to pay for gas, groceries, utilities, healthcare and other necessities.

An NBC News poll published in October found that 71 percent of Americans believe our country is on the “wrong track.” Polls also show President Trump’s job approval rating is below 40 percent, with voters opposed to his corruption, incompetence, tariffs, war with Iran and other failed policies.

The president, who has repeatedly urged voters to act as though he is on the ballot, has motivated many Americans to vote for Democrats.

In a desperate bid to preserve Republican control of the House and Senate, regardless of voters’ wishes, Trump may disregard laws and the Constitution to try to overturn legitimate Democratic midterm victories.

If past behavior is any guide, Trump will claim without credible evidence that Democrats “ rigged ” elections, especially close races, and try to use federal power to put defeated Republicans in office. He knows that Democratic majorities would challenge his harmful policies and hold his administration accountable for abuses of power.

If Trump’s favored candidates are defeated at the ballot box, we should expect him to try to bring some of them victories in any way he can, because he is not simply opposed to Democrats; he’s opposed to democracy. He wants Republican candidates to win no matter how much damage he does to our 250-year-old system of representative government.

We saw Trump’s anti-democratic behavior when he refused to admit his loss in the 2020 presidential race to Joe Biden. Trump and his allies filed and lost 76 lawsuits seeking to overturn his defeat. Since he still denies his own loss six years ago, we should expect Trump to order the Justice Department and Republican groups to file lawsuits to challenge Republican losses in the midterms.

Trump has repeatedly ignored laws, the Constitution and ethical standards to corruptly monetize his office and pocket billions of dollars , slap his name on buildings and programs, seek to build a White House ballroom and a 250-foot-tall Triumphal Arch , roll back progress in civil rights and voting rights , cruelly deport hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants and take many other harmful actions.

The president has also ignored the requirement for congressional approval of his senseless trade wars against nations around the world and his shooting war against Iran that he launched Feb. 28 . These wars have cost Americans billions of dollars and have created an affordability crisis that. Trump absurdly calls “a hoax.”

And tragically, members of our military have lost their lives, been wounded and suffered terrible hardships in the war with Iran that Trump told us would last “four to five weeks.”

Trump’s disastrous performance in office has given Democrats realistic hopes of midterm election victories in red states that have not sent Democrats to the House and Senate in many years.

While denouncing the Justice Department and New York state for prosecuting him after his first term, Trump has weaponized the department more than any other president to go after his enemies and try to help Republicans win midterm races.

Already, the Trump administration has challenged election results in Alaska’s Senate race if the Republican candidate loses and has challenged the right of up to 20,000 Californians and hundreds of people in Washington state to vote.

A federal judge in California issued a ruling Wednesday blocking the administration action there, writing that it endangered America’s democracy. A federal appeals court upheld the judge’s ruling Friday, and the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to intervene Monday.

Now we face the frightening possibility of Trump using the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the military and other parts of the U.S. government to confiscate voting machines and take other unprecedented and anti-democratic actions to overturn legitimate election results so Republicans can retain control of the House and Senate and win other races.

I realize these warnings sound alarmist. But if someone had predicted the Jan. 6, 2021 deadly riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat, most of us would have considered that prediction alarmist.

All this makes it vital for Americans who haven’t yet cast ballots during weeks of early and mail voting to vote on Election Day. Voting is a precious right that gives every American citizen the power to make elected officials work for our best interests, rather than their own, as Trump has done.

Continued Republican control of the House and Senate would give Trump the opportunity to amass more unchecked power and further weaken the guardrails of our democracy. The only way to stop him from causing additional harm is to elect a Democratic House and Senate that will impose long-overdue limits on his power grab and hold him accountable for all the harm he has caused our nation.

It’s our solemn duty as citizens to exercise our constitutional and hard-fought freedom to vote and to make our voices known to all, including Trump.

Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of “ Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House .”