TPM THIS WEEK...

Voting is underway and, with less than two weeks until Election Day, the country is collectively holding its breath. It's not just that the race is, according to the polls, nail-bitingly close, or that we're unlikely to know the results on election night, but there is also a creeping fear that even after the results are in, the election may not be over. The way in which the post-election fight now feels inevitable is another way in which Trump and his allies' long-running effort to sow doubt in the integrity of our elections is having an effect beyond merely deluding his base, damaging our democracy in ways that could have serious and long-lasting consequences.

Yesterday, The Washington Post published an analysis finding that "nearly half of Republican candidates for Congress or top state offices have used social media to cast doubt on the integrity of the 2024 election." This is likely not surprising to TPM readers, but the breadth of the analysis is helpful in understanding just how pervasive and seemingly coordinated the spreading of election conspiracy theories and lies is within the GOP. Combined with JD Vance finally admitting that he does not think Trump lost the 2020 election, it appears Republicans are increasingly comfortable making election doubt a focal piece of their campaign strategy. 

Meanwhile, Trump superfan and campaign surrogate Elon Musk is using both his massive reach and bottomless piggybank to dabble in all manner of election influence — some of it, according to experts, pushing, if not exceeding, the limits of election law. In just the last week, Musk:

• Promised a $1 million dollar daily giveaway to randomly selected voters who sign his free-speech and gun-rights petition. (This earned him a warning from the DOJ.)
• Was revealed to be funding a group called Future Coalition PAC which targets Jewish and Muslim communities with diametrically opposed ads about Kamala Harris' support for Israel or Palestine.
• Was also revealed to be funding Building America's Future Pac, which set up a fake site called Progress 2028 (purporting to be Harris' response to Project 2025) and is sending text messages to voters pushing caricatures of Harris' policies.
• Used his pro-Trump America PAC to set up a community on X for users to "share potential incidents of voter fraud or irregularities [they] see while voting in the 2024 election."

It may be tempting to just view this as the latest iteration of the right's usual election shenanigans, the kind of dirty tricks we've seen for decades. But the distrust Trump, Musk, and prominent Republicans are manufacturing is something new to the Trump era and, as we are seeing in this first post-insurrection presidential election, has already resulted in real challenges to the way elections are administered. 

Just yesterday, the MAGA-dominated Georgia state election board's months-long attempt to delay election certification was finally defeated — at least, for this year. If it had succeeded, election deniers would have had even more room to potentially sow chaos post-Election Day by rummaging through votes in an effort to substantiate baseless claims of fraud.

Things are, you don't need to be told, fraught in these final weeks of the campaign. 

And with trust in the democratic process showing signs of erosion, it's critical to bolster what remains before it's too late. As Nina Jankowicz, co-founder of The American Sunlight Project, told TPM, "It takes generations for trust in the system to be rebuilt."

In other election-related news, Khaya Himmelman and Josh Kovensky point to the about-face the Trump campaign has made on absentee voting in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, finding the one place where the Trump campaign wants more mail-in voting.

Elsewhere at TPM, Hunter Walker investigates why, after four years and a reward of $490,000, the FBI still can't identify the Capital Hill pipe bomber, leaving one of the biggest mysteries from January 6 unsolved ahead of the next election.

On the podcast, Kate and Josh debate whether we're living in a post-October surprise world, discuss Trump's former generals using the F-word, and investigate an interestingly timed E. coli outbreak.

By Josh Marshall

There's deeply cynical and then there's things which might be illegal. 

RELATED ➡ Musk Encourages People To Post About Voter Fraud, Playing Into Conspiracy Theories

About-Face: How the Trump campaign learned to stop worrying and love absentee voting.

The Capitol Hill pipe bomber left a trail of frustration and fears ahead of the next election. Despite a $490,000 reward, the suspect has not been identified in the nearly four years since January 6. 

Kate and Josh debate whether we're living in a post-October surprise world, discuss Trump's former generals using the F-word, and investigate an interestingly timed E. coli outbreak.

ONE MORE THING..

For going on a quarter century, TPM has paid close attention to anything that involves the right to vote. This is because you can't have democracy — which we think is good — without an inclusive voting apparatus.

These aren't always the sexiest stories. They aren't going to be splattered across the major networks' chyrons. But it's important and it directly affects voting, which directly affects democracy, which directly affects everyone in the United States.

With the funding we receive from memberships, we are able to pay a reporter, Khaya Himmelman, who's primary focus is covering the various ways in which the GOP has mobilized its apparatus to spread lies, disenfranchise voters and preemptively cast doubt on the 2024 election at various levels of government.

If you are interested, you can read Khaya's work here. As you will see, there has been no dearth of material to report on.

And if you think this kind of reporting is important, we hope you'll consider becoming a member or making a contribution to The TPM Journalism Fund.

Thanks for reading!