By Luke Edison
The Red Wave of 2024 left Republicans with control of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government; leftists scrambled to find a morale-boosting “win” to rally around. One of the most commonly grasped-at straws was the idea that Republican victories in 2024 disproved right-wing claims that widespread errors and fraud would be present as they were in 2020. Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks was quick to jump on the bandwagon, taking to X to proclaim, “Can I get a concession from Trump supporters that your theory that Democrats were going to cheat and steal this election with voter fraud and undocumented immigrants was totally and completely wrong? I want to see if some of you still live in the reality based world.”
It is entirely possible that the raw emotions drawn out by an overwhelming loss clouded the mental faculties of leftists like Cenk, but since his bold statement received thousands of likes and reposts, it is worth addressing. The reality that multiple attempted illegalities and errors were caught and thwarted by a nationwide Republican team does not negate the fact that multiple attempted illegalities and errors were present. When an NFL game contains 15 penalty flags, nobody argues that rule-breaks and errors were not present merely because the issues were caught and corrected in a timely fashion.
- In the days leading up to November 5th, a ballot box in Washington State was set ablaze in an attempt to disrupt accurate elections. The fire was set by a device that bore the words, “Free Gaza,” per law enforcement officials.
- Republican concerns about election integrity were swept aside in Nevada when mail-in ballots were accepted with degraded or non-existent postmarks up to 72 hours after election day. Mail-in ballots have heavily favored Democrats in recent elections and have also been the subject of bipartisan concern about lacking election security.
- When Bucks County, PA, violated election code under the leadership of Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro, a Republican lawsuit led to a judge forcefully extending voting hours for the residents of the county, which has gone red in 2020 and 2024.
- After Virginia’s Republican governor supported a move to eliminate non-citizens from eligible voter lists, Democrats resisted the election integrity effort. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of lawfulness, secure elections, and the Republican initiative.
- NBC was forced to offer free, prime-time advertising to Donald Trump after they violated FCC guidelines by exclusively inviting Kamala Harris to perform for SNL in the week leading up to presidential elections.
- Multiple counties in PA turned away lawfully qualified Republican poll watchers until RNC attorneys confronted local officials and rectified the situation.
- Voting machine issues seemed to exclusively hit deep-red counties within PA. A Republican-led effort resulted in court-ordered extended voting hours after a set of feverish election-day corrective actions.
- Several hundred fraudulent voter registrations were caught and eliminated in Lancaster County, PA, in the week prior to national elections. Similar issues were suspected by authorities and are under ongoing investigation in York, Monroe, and Berks counties, with the former two counties reporting links to a leftwing, Arizona-based consulting firm named Field+Media Corps.
- Extended confusion and inefficiencies in Nevada and Arizona have led to significant concerns, red-flag reports, and alleged errors in the ongoing elections of each state.
- Republicans won a victory in Pennsylvania during the days leading up to federal elections when the PA Supreme Court affirmed, in accordance with existing laws, that incorrectly filled mail-in ballots could not be counted. It is worth noting that the Republican position could be most simply described as asserting, “We need to follow existing laws and procedures,” while Democrats stood opposed to the suggestion.
Lists of reported concerns, corrected illegalities, and alleged errors span from Georgia and Michigan to Arizona and Nevada, with only several of the most well-established examples being cited in this writing. When we consider that 2020 saw mass changes to election procedures, haphazard mail-in voting implemented as an answer to COVID-19, and conservative voices shadow-banned and silenced after being labeled as “conspiracy theorists,” it is apparent that 2024 does not invalidate the concerns of 2020; rather, it legitimizes them. The RNC of 2024 was prepared to stand their ground, deploy quick and efficient corrective action, and was not silenced due to less restrictive Meta and X rules compared to those of 2020.
Media collusion, mass errors, likely fraud, and unjust censorship caught Republicans off-guard in 2020, but in 2024, a battle-hardened and experienced right-wing coalition was prepared to ensure that the ensuing political clash was truly free and fair.
Why did Democrats so desperately want to allow non-citizens to vote in Virginia and count incomplete ballots in Nevada? Why did the left seem put off by the idea of enforcing lawful and uniform election standards in Pennsylvania? What was the purpose of attempting to block Republican poll watchers in multiple swing state counties? Why did red counties seem to bear the brunt of unfortunate voting errors? Luckily, we may never know—because these cases were largely caught and corrected… But then again, those of us who lived through 2020 can be pretty sure that we know the answer to the questions above.
