How messed up are Trump Supporters?

[Angrboda]

There is deep cynicism in Republicans complaining about the lengthy recounts and, worse, suggesting fraud is the cause: They voted down funds for updated voting equipment for states. Senate Republicans on Aug. 1 blocked Sen. Patrick J. Leahy’s (D-Vt.) plan to send $250 million to states for cybersecurity and “replacing outdated election equipment.” A few weeks later, the bipartisan Secure Elections Act stalled in the Senate, in part because “we didn’t have the level of Republican support we needed,” Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said.

The $380 million Congress has authorized amid the Russian hacking (the first substantial funding since the aftermath of the 2000 election) is but a sliver of the $1 billion to $2 billion it would cost to get states’ voting systems up to date, according to Lawrence Norden of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

Last week’s voting problems — in Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan and New York, as well as Florida — are a direct result of Washington’s neglect. “You can’t have it both ways,” Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos tells me. (He also serves as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State .) “You can’t scream about all the delays we’re having while also not stepping up and providing the resources we need.”

But Republicans prefer to scream “fraud” when the voting systems they starved inevitably break down. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) joined Scott and Trump, saying Democrats are trying “to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate.” McConnell pronounced himself “concerned.”

McConnell continues to rival Trump in the harm he’s doing to the institutions of democracy. He destroyed the campaign-finance system, using legislation and lawsuits to build the current era of unlimited dark money. He destroyed the last vestiges of bipartisan cooperation in the Senate with his year-long stall of Merrick Garland and his use of the “nuclear option” to seat two Supreme Court justices. Now, he is thwarting efforts to sustain the integrity of the nation’s voting systems — and then, when it inevitably fails, exploiting the failure to his advantage.

(Washington Post)