Defying Manipulation: Strategies for Electoral Resilience in the U.S. and Beyond

• In Event: Uncertain Transatlantic Relations: Domestic Challenges in Interconnected Spaces

Abstract

Uncertainty about the integrity of the United States’ 2024 presidential elections poses a dire threat to transatlantic relations. If electoral manipulation compromises electoral integrity, European reactions to American democracy backsliding could exacerbate resurgent transatlantic tensions.
This paper examines attempts to develop resilience against such a scenario by resisting electoral manipulation in the United States between the presidential elections of 2020 and 2024. The paper answers the following questions: 1) Which actors attempted to resist electoral manipulation in the United States between 2021 and 2024? and 2) What kinds of strategies did they utilize?
To recognize potentials for administrative resilience, this study first identifies the electoral manipulation tactics in use in the present-day United States. For that purpose, this study relies on a framework constructed by this author. The framework categorizes electoral manipulation tactics utilized by Trump and other members of the Republican Party in connection with the 2020 elections and thereafter.
This paper relies on qualitative and quantitative content analysis of news reports and editorials from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. To complement the newspaper material, criminal indictments related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election are also examined. Acts of resistance to electoral manipulation are categorized by type of actor, type of action and type of electoral manipulation they are trying to resist.

Author

• Maria Linden, Tampere University