This week in Washington will likely shape the lives of millions of Americans for a generation. What is incredible to me is that the Republican holdouts on the ‘big beautiful bill’ are not holding out to save money by reducing the level of the tax giveaway to the top 5%; they are holding out for more cuts on the bottom 90% to fund the tax cuts.
If I were a Republican member of the House or the Senate, I would be very worried about my chances of reelection if I removed healthcare access to hundreds of thousands of my constituents. That’s before we discuss the rising costs they will face from tariff impacts. Republican lawmakers appear to be much more frightened of Trump than they are of their voters, and that got me thinking: What do they know that we don’t?
LOTS of people have approached me to take a look at the conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris won the election due to extensive voter suppression of the non white vote. I’m always reluctant to get involved with this kind of stuff because it is polarising and often leaves the messenger with egg on their face. Many Democrats are still grieving from the loss in November, and it’s very easy to fall into the trap of believing what you want to hear, rather than what might be the uncomfortable reality.
There is no question that. Greg Palast is an accomplished investigative journalist who has done excellent reporting for well-respected news agencies, including The Guardian, The New York Times, and the BBC, among others. His work on voter suppression is extensive and well-respected, so I needed to approach this subject with respect for him and his work.
Let me begin by saying I have no difficulty in accepting that the Republicans embarked upon a systematic campaign to suppress the Democratic vote. They have a long history of such actions, and Georgia consistently appears to be at the forefront. It has long been my belief that Republicans can’t win an election on a level playing field, which is why we see red states enacting voter suppression legislation in plain sight.
Trump and his acolytes want elections to be about politicians picking their voters, not voters picking their politicians. What Trump said on the campaign trail piqued my interest.
I’ve been around the block too many times to expend my energy trying to relitigate the election, not least because of my disappointment with information not shared with the public as to Joe Biden’s fitness to serve another term. At this moment in time, my thoughts are with the former president and his loved ones as he faces a life-limiting battle with cancer. Mr President, you are in my thoughts at this difficult time.
One thing Greg Palast does really well, is explore voter suppression in some detail in his recently released film Vigilantes Inc., which I have linked below. It’s free to watch and is introduced by Martin Sheen. I highly recommend you watch it when you get the time because I think it’s a valuable contribution to the conversation. While it wasn’t a total revelation to me, it did fill in some blanks I had in relation to the insidious, overt nature of its implementation in Georgia.
The crucial question which arises from podcast headlines like ‘Shocking Proof: Trump’s VICTORY WAS RIGGED Through Voter Suppression!’ is, whether there is any real merit to the claims. This particular headline was from a YouTube episode on Thom Hartman’s channel which seems to be an episode based on Greg Palast’s article here on Subsctack. There is no question Greg makes a reasonable case. Having watched the film, it certainly reinforces the assertion that voter suppression could have impacted the 2024 election result. The question is by how much.
As ever with me, I felt I needed to be better informed, because it speaks to my wider suspicions that Trump with the help of the Heritage Foundation, are planning a massive voter suppression campaign for 2026 under the now familiar guise of election integrity. I think it’s important that while we are tied up with the political hand to hand combat every day, we don’t take our eye off the wider threat downstream.
Where Greg’s assertions are a fail for me, are in the lack of citations for the numbers he’s using. Had I invested the time and effort Greg clearly has, I would have buttoned down all the data sources so it left no door open to challenge. As has always been my methodology, I looked for an opposing position in order to test the theory. The most detailed and credible pushback for me, came from Dr. Jenessa Seymour, a voting rights advocate, who works for Disability Rights New York. She was invited to speak on Serious Inquiries Only podcast(click on the link to listen for yourself). She was invited by the host to discuss the claim that the election had been rigged. She like me accepted that voter suppression could have played a part in Trump’s win, but she too had data validation issues. Regardless of your opinion, you should continue to read, because this still ties into a bigger concern I have for 2026.
All evidence shows that election integrity is not an issue in respect of people voting who should not be. There are very few examples of verified voter fraud which have subsequently led to a conviction. In October 2024, The Brookings Institute produced a report which analysed the Heritage Foundation’s own database of election fraud and the conclusion is clear. It’s simply a myth. When it comes to elections, there is a stark difference between Democrats and Republicans with regard to voting. Overwhelmingly, Republicans are invested in STOPPING people from voting because they say people are voting illegally. Yet their own data completely contradicts this assertion.
The only way MAGA were able to sell their false narrative was via the now totally debunked 2000 Mules fantasy film. A film the distributor had to withdraw and apologise for, but not before Trump and his MAGA cult had elevated it to be their truth.
In contrast, Democrats don’t invest time and effort on disqualifying Republican voters, because they accept historic data that proves there is not an issue with voter fraud. It’s impossible to track down how much money the Republican Party spent on attempting to purge voter rolls and enact state legislation that made it more difficult to vote, but my guess is it was not insignificant. The energy the MAGA devotes to stoking up fear around non existent illegal voting is significant, despite their own data proving there is no problem.
Unlike voter integrity, voter suppression is VERY REAL. Indeed, Republican states actively engage in passing legislation to prevent perceived opposition voters from voting. They have normalised the act of voter suppression to the point where it’s expected in black, brown and asian American districts. At the federal level, the Save Act, has recently passed the House, and is now awaiting a Senate vote. This is a law that will make it harder for millions of eligible people to register and vote
As stated by the League of Women Voters:
“Many Americans don't have access to adequate documentation like birth certificates and passports in prove citizenship in person. The SAVE Act's proof of citizenship requirement would create massive barriers for eligible voters - especially married women, naturalized citizens, trans and minority communities and elderly voters - suppressing millions of voters”.
If you would like more information on the act, you can read this article by The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Beyond the existing risks, one far more dangerous feature in Greg’s film is the increasing citizen challenges to voter eligibility. Most states provide for this, but right wing activist groups have used them to try and purge voters from the electoral roll. These challenges are largely motivated by mis- and dis-information concerning voter fraud and backed by groups seeking to undermine public confidence in elections. If nothing else, deliberate mass challenges simply serve to bury election officials under additional work, in the hope that at the very least some will slip through the safeguards already in place.
In 2024 the Republicans used a system called Eagle AI to actually draw up lists for activists to then mass challenge. Again you can see examples of this in Greg’s film. Alice Clapman and Andrew Garber from The Brennan Center For Justice wrote a piece about it in which they say:
EagleAI is the latest effort by election deniers to use the upkeep of voter rolls as a vehicle to disenfranchise voters and spread disinformation.
The key takeaway is :
“EagleAI takes from sources including the National Change of Address database, criminal justice records, and tax property data to create massive lists of voters. From there, it highlights names of potentially ineligible voters using criteria that are at best unreliable and at worst irrelevant, such as matching names on voter lists with change-of-address forms or felony convictions, or even just registration at nursing homes (baselessly implying that nursing home residents are somehow not competent to vote). Amateur investigators take the highlighted names and look for purported evidence of voter ineligibility, like a social media posting from out of state. They can then use EagleAI to auto-prepare challenge forms in a couple of clicks. It’s no more than a clearinghouse for election deniers to compile mass challenges”.
There is little doubt in my mind as someone who has extensive experience in data analysis, this is a tool with malicious intent. It’s being pushed by MAGA interests as a replacement for the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) which:
“…uses sophisticated, AI-assisted matching technology to identify voters who have moved or died. By using confidential data, it creates far fewer false matches than other methods and produces a better list of potentially eligible voters for states to contact. ERIC has drawn widespread praise from both Republican and Democratic election officials. It’s a triumph of professional and competent election administration”.
Republican operatives are seeking to replace ERIC with EagleAI, but more importantly, they appear to be seeking to ingest the confidential data sources that ERIC uses to match records. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that election systems infiltration is the objective here and given that states control election administration, success can’t be ruled out.
My deep concern is that just as they have captured the social media narrative with their ability to tweak algorithms on 80% of the social media message flow, if they can install AI driven software at the heart of the system that controls voter rolls, then it’s game over. Before you accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist, I would urge you simply examine the publicly available facts and you should definitely look at the The Brennan Center For Justice report
What amazes me is, you hear very little about these threats, they are largely hidden from view and that’s why Greg Palast’s film is really important. While I don’t share his genuinely held belief that Trump won in November on the back of stolen votes, I do believe that his contribution to the conversation is vital in terms of mitigating risk in 2026. I beleive election lawyers should be looking very closely at this threat, because you can have the best campaign in the world, but if Republicans are able to control AI at the heart of the voting system, you can’t win. Remember, this is what we know about, heaven only knows what else might be in the pipeline given the access DOGE had to the records of Americans. It absolutely terrifies me, as it should you.
Why don’t Democrats start now with court cases to prevent the key parts of this from happening. Why aren’t we dragging Musk into court on these issues. We are always reacting - we need to be proactive.
This is an area that people need to pay attention to. We cannot assume that there will NOT be tampering with the midterm elections. THE QUESTION IS WHERE ARE THE WEAK SPOTS IN THE VOTING PROCESS AND HOW CAN WE STRENGTHEN THEM TO MAKE THE PROCESS LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO BEING HACKED? It doesn’t really matter who is doing the hacking, if the process is insecure, the outcome is called into question so unless the results are of landslide proportions, they can be contested by the opposition.