The Highs and Lows of the Midterms for Democracy

[Originally published in Democracy & Society on November 16, 2018. Read the full article here.]

The Democratic party performed about as well as expected in the midterm elections, perhaps restoring confidence to the electoral prediction industry. Though the success of the Democratic party in the House of Representatives can be taken as a sign that Americans are rejecting some of the more authoritarian aspects of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, the conduct of candidates’ during the campaign and after the election should leave (small-d) democrats pessimistic. The Democratic party’s new majority in the House will place a check on President Donald Trump’s power, but the 2018 midterms served to highlight the profound problems of American democracy.

The way we define what the requirements for “democracy” determines what problems we believe exist. The popular definition of democracy is a government ruled by the “will of the people.” Yet, the will of the people may include denying the protection of certain rights fundamental to political and civic participation. Thus, a more complete definition of democracy is a political regime (set of rules) which guarantees regular, competitive, free and fair elections, representative government, and the protection of essential rights and liberties including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to form associations and the right to vote.

Based on this definition, the election has seen several undemocratic actions and subversion of the rule of law. In Georgia, Secretary of State and Gubernatorial Candidate Brian Kemp refused to recuse himself from the process of certifying election results, including his own, despite the obvious conflict of interests present. Since then, through the implementation of the state’s “exact match” voter ID legislation, Kemp’s department has delayed the registrations of at least 53,000 voters, almost 70% of whom are black. Kemp’s campaign also claimed that the Georgian Democratic Party had “hacked” the voter system after both campaigns were informed of significant information security vulnerabilities in the voter registration and voter information websites. The information security vulnerabilities could potentially cancel voter registrations. Kemp’s campaign then repeated the claim of Press Secretary Candice Broce, without evidence, that “[the Secretary of State] can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure.”