“If Republicans lose, Trump could claim election fraud” ... Trump also hints at deploying troops

[Financial News] Concerns are growing that U.S. President Donald Trump could once again play the election-fraud card if he loses the midterm elections to be held this November.
With Republicans facing likely defeat, they have continued to make statements attacking confidence in voting, prompting analysis that they may be laying the groundwork to reject the election results.
The New York Times (NYT), a U.S. daily, reported on the 15th (local time) that election officials are concerned the Trump administration may challenge the results of the midterm elections.
Recently, President Trump has questioned the reliability of voting almost every day, stoking sentiment that elections are fraudulent.


With repeated efforts to expand federal control over elections administered by state governments being thwarted—including courts blocking restrictions on mail-in voting—the administration appears to be trying to undermine confidence in voting by spreading false claims.
At a rally in Arizona on the 14th, he falsely claimed that “voting machines had malfunctioned in areas that support Republicans.”
In effect, he once again emphasized his longstanding claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged to make him lose.
The Trump administration has also argued that the U.S. election system is highly vulnerable to interference by hostile countries and at significant risk of being manipulated, and that identification checks should be mandatory when voting.
The Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department to review the reliability of voting machines and also invoked executive orders in an effort to restrict mail-in voting.
The Justice Department even sued California, demanding that it halt the counting of mail-in ballots until the identities of 20,000 people presumed to be noncitizens are verified.
Last week, President Trump also invited election denier Tina Peters, who had been convicted of tampering with voting machines during the 2020 presidential election, to the White House for a meeting.
The White House maintains that these measures by the Trump administration are intended to ensure fair elections.


However, given that the current state of the race is unfavorable to Republicans, suspicions are growing that the measures are intended to provide grounds for rejecting a midterm election defeat.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Trump could use foreign interference as a pretext to try to seize voting machines, adding that he “will use any means necessary to get the result he wants.”
As a result, some states are making contingency plans to protect the election results. Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, a Republican, said the state government was preparing for potential election interference, including the possibility of federal agents showing up at polling places with warrants.
President Trump has also left open the possibility of taking extreme measures. He hinted that he could invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy troops in connection with the election. However, the NYT noted that it is unclear whether Trump will actually take extreme action regarding the election results.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Specialist Reporter