vanessa guevara Donald Trump's supporters have given up on questions about the many ways they believe American voters could be rigged against him in next month's presidential election.
But the Saginaw County clerk, who oversees voting in a hotly contested seat in central Michigan, recently faced new questions at meetings called to confirm the censure. Voters.
Questions and answers
Why Saginaw, Michigan?
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In what is expected to be a very close US election, with some voters in key battleground states, The Guardian examines Saginaw, Michigan. It's a swing state in a swing state where voters have more influence than the end of the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Chris McCreal examines the issues that concern voters of all political backgrounds in Saginaw ahead of the November election.
Saginaw voters: tell us what issues the US election will decide
“I gave a presentation last week and, as usual, we had a lot of questions about the validity of the election results. But now they are also wondering: Is it safe to go to the polls on Election Day? Will something happen? “This is the new thing,” Guevara said.
The most consecutive US presidential election in recent history will also be hotly contested, especially if the results are as close as the polls suggest.
Republican officials are preparing to cap the numbers if they go against Trump. Meanwhile, the former US president has warned of a bloody future if he loses again next month, after losing the last election and voters should take him seriously following the attack on the US capital on January 6.
Trump has continued to insist that the 2020 vote was rigged against him (including at a rally in Saginaw earlier this month) and that Democrats are plotting to steal next month's election, leaving their mark.
In Michigan, Trump won by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016 and then lost to Joe Biden four years later. One in five say they don't trust votes will be counted accurately.
Across the United States, only 8% of Trump supporters say they are very confident that the election will be fair, and only 16% are very confident that their votes will be counted accurately, according to YouGov. Kamala Harris' supporters are more confident: 72% say they are very confident the election will be held, although that leaves a large number of Democrats also questioning the process.
Most worrying of all, Harris and most Trump supporters expect massive protests against the decision if their candidate wins. Michigan has increased security at voting centers across the state in 2020 after Trump voters attempted to block a vote counting center in Detroit.
Guevara, like county clerks in other jurisdictions, attempted to counter Trump's claims by holding public sessions to explain the election recount process. He has encouraged skeptics to become election inspectors or poll workers so they can assure themselves and others that the process is fair.
But addressing security concerns is difficult. Guevara, who was elected county clerk as a Democrat but makes clear the nonpartisan requirements of his position, chooses his words carefully.
“I am concerned that he is facilitating the electorate. So, 'Can I go vote on Election Day?' “When I started hearing the concern, I realized people were panicking,” he said.
“No or not, we are always concerned about security here. Donald Trump was there. Elections must be secure and we must be transparent about what we are doing, no matter who is running for office. But the rhetoric that voters are hearing, taking in and wondering about her safety, I see her now and it worries me.
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's Democratic secretary of state, said her office receives threats “every day” related to the election. He has recently been the target of two hits, in which false emergency calls sent armed police to his home.
“Swatting is a brutal, dangerous form of political violence intended to intimidate victims. But hear me clearly: I will not be afraid. She said at that time.
In 2020, dozens of protesters, some armed, showed up at Benson's home to demand that the electoral count in Michigan be overturned.
Guevara said he was not threatened as county clerk while a member of the Michigan Legislature in 2020, and was the target of repeated intimidation, including as armed Trump supporters laid siege to the state Capitol building over the coronavirus shutdown. A dress rehearsal for January 6 in Washington.
Guevara said the growing climate of intimidation, which some fear, has led to a significant increase in absentee voting.
“I've seen a lot more people asking me: Should I vote early or should I be present? Will something happen on election day? she said.
More than a quarter of Saginaw County's registered voters have already requested an absentee ballot. Absentee votes in Michigan and other states are counted after in-person votes and have been the focus of conspiracy theories since Trump repeatedly accused them four years ago of being used to manipulate the count. .
Michigan has changed its election laws since 2020, including allowing absentee votes to be counted before Election Day in response to allegations of fraud and intimidation.
The former president dropped his opposition to voting by mail after realizing that discouraging his supporters from voting would mean they wouldn't vote at all. But in Saginaw, Republican officials continue to dispel doubts.
Debra Ell led the Republican takeover of Saginaw from Trump supporters over allegations that fraudulent mail-in ballots were used to steal the last election for Biden.
“I was on the ground. We left our office around 10 pm in 2020. [Trump] Saginaw County was 75% advanced and we were under a cloud. There is no way to change it. “I think they cheated,” he said.
L did not blame local officials, but said he had no confidence in this year's election process.
“Between drop boxes and mail surveys, the system is broken. Many of these are absentee votes. You can abstain for any reason, and there are a lot of people who abstain because of dead people or people who don't live here, things like that. “They refuse to clean their electoral rolls,” he said.
Saginaw County Republican Andrea Bassall, who established Latino support for Trump, said there is no doubt the last election was rigged, although it is unclear whether fraud occurred in Saginaw.
““I didn't find evidence specifically for Saginaw County, but I saw evidence, I read the documents and I talked to the people who conducted those investigations,” he said.
Bassall said he did not believe the election would be fair this year.
“I have very little hope. There are many ways to cheat the system. “We're trying to find those ways, but the problem is that if everyone doesn't agree that there's a problem, you can't solve the problem,” he said.
Guerrera said there was no evidence for these or other claims that the casting and counting of votes had been manipulated. He said his office has met with local Republican officials, including El, to assure skeptics that nothing untoward is happening in Saginaw County, where he runs elections with 30 local clerks, many of them Republicans.
But Guevara realized that there was much he could do and that the elections would only be undisputed if there was a clear winner.
“I want a big difference between the two leading candidates,” he said.
