Ben Denzer from The New York Times asked eight election experts a variety of questions on the safety of our election system, and whether they anticipate any disruption on Election Day. SKDK CEO Doug Thornell weighed in on possible threats, and what Americans should, and should not, be worried about.
Q: What’s the single biggest issue you’re focused on [this cycle] and why?
Doug: Tracking and mitigating political misinformation, long a challenge, is harder with artificial intelligence: It scales faster, is more difficult to detect and lacks trusted referees.
Q: Can President Trump undermine the midterms? Or does the highly local nature of the midterms make them hard to rig?
Doug: The president has significant power over federal agencies but does not run elections. That decentralization is a real safeguard. My concern is that federal action will disrupt local officials or undermine confidence in legitimate results.
Q: In July the president gave a speech identifying what he described as alarming “vulnerabilities” in our election system. Do you share his concerns?
Doug: Foreign interference and cyberthreats are real and should be taken seriously. But the evidence doesn’t support sweeping claims that our voting systems are fundamentally compromised. Our elections have multiple layers of security and local oversight, and claims about vulnerabilities should be based on evidence, not politics.
Q: If the midterms produce close elections for the House or the Senate and post-election litigation reaches the Supreme Court, how confident are you that the court will be fair and impartial in any election ruling?
Doug: I would be concerned. The court has become a deeply polarizing institution, and in a razor-close election, any partisan-looking ruling would further erode public trust.
Q: What’s the biggest red herring — something people worry about that isn’t a big deal?
Doug: Voter fraud. Allegations of multitudes of individuals who are ineligible to vote because they are noncitizens are inflated and geared toward sowing distrust in outcomes.
Q: Imagine it’s clear that Democrats have won the House. What could go wrong with seating a Democrat as House majority leader in 2027?
Doug: The pressure point would likely be individual contested House races, not the selection of a majority leader. The House ultimately judges the elections and qualifications of members. If enough races are tied up in litigation or certification disputes, that could create uncertainty around the majority and complicate the transition.
Q: If you could tell Americans one thing about their voting system, what would it be?
Doug: Election administration in this country is much more resilient than people realize, run largely by committed professionals in communities nationwide, not politicians in Washington.