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State Dems must stop ICE from stealing the midterms - Cory Doctorow
Donald Trump has announced his intention to steal the midterms with a voter suppression law that would ban the mail-in voting that he himself uses (which he claims is not fit for purpose).
This voter suppression campaign is Trump's number one policy priority, and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that would accomplish this is behind the shutdown and aviation chaos that has hamstrung the country for weeks:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/save-act-voting-rights-congress/
SAVE requires voters to show up at the polls in possession of ID like birth certificates and passports, and it will fill our polling places with armed, masked ICE agents – you know, the guys who just randomly kidnap and murder people for having accents, speaking a language other than English, or being visibly brown.
During Trump's aviation crisis, Trump heard about "Linda," a woman who called into a far right talk-radio program to suggest that ICE be deployed to American airports to backstop the TSA agents who'd stopped showing up for work on the very reasonable grounds that they hadn't been paid in a month:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-may-have-got-his-ice-airport-idea-from-linda-from-arizona/
Trump loved the idea and the next thing you knew, ICE was at the airports, hanging around like a bad smell and being totally useless. It turns out that the TSA is a trained workforce, unlike ICE, who receive precisely 47 days of training as a kind of MAGA Kabbalah (Trump is the 47th president):
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-agents-frustrate-airport-employees-as-shutdown-drags-on/
ICE's uselessness at the country's airports was beyond farcical, though, as ever, The Onion found and nailed the farce in "How ICE is assisting TSA":
https://theonion.com/how-ice-is-assisting-tsa/
Overseeing the removal of shoes, belts, and abuelas
Confiscating, then brandishing dangerous items
Assuming all milling-around duties
Culling weaker travelers when lines get too long
Commiserating about failing the police academy
Drinking any shampoo that exceeds the carry-on volume limit
Simplifying the customs interview to one question about skull size
But having ICE in the airports does serve one purpose. As Steve Bannon gloated on his podcast, ICE in the airports is a way to soften people up for ICE in the polling stations. He called it a "test run" for the midterms:
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/steve-bannon-calls-ice-agents-at-airports-part-of-a-test-run-for-the-midterm-elections
Writing for Jacobin, Eric Blanc points out that Democrats don't have to sit by passively while Trump – who repeatedly promised that if you voted for him in 2024, "you won't have to vote anymore" – steals an election:
https://jacobin.com/2026/03/ice-trump-election-theft-laws/
That's because America has a federal system of government, and the administration of its elections is firmly, constitutionally, unarguably in the hands of the states, and the states have large collections of highly trained, highly armed officials who can enforce their laws.
On March 13, the New Mexico state legislature passed a law banning armed federal officials from showing their fascist asses anywhere within 50 feet of a polling place or ballot drop-box:
https://www.koat.com/article/new-mexico-prohibits-armed-agents-voting-sites/70729595
Other blue states like "California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington" are contemplating similar laws.
It's a start, but as Blanc says, what the fuck are the other blue statehouses waiting for? This is a white-hot, hair-on-fire emergency. There isn't a moment to spare. This should be on the agenda for every union, at every demonstration, at every DSA and Democratic Club meeting. As Blanc says, if we wait until November to find out what Trump is going to do, it'll be too late. The time to act is now.
This is – as Blanc says – a "concrete, winnable demand that unions, student organizations, and immigrant and democracy defense groups could organize around today." And that organizing would "onboard and develop scores of new leaders in this fight nationwide."
I know where we can start. Unions across America have called for a general strike on May Day (May 1), under the banner "No work, no school, no shopping." As we rally on May Day, let defending our right to vote be at the top of our agenda. Mark your calendars:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?ref=paydayreport.com&mid=1_b8qBUINLYWeLiwpFSfUO2SmX2w6TWA&ll=37.724800549268%2C-96.94920235000001&z=4
(Image: Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0; Jami430, CC BY-SA 4.0; modified)
This voter suppression campaign is Trump's number one policy priority, and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that would accomplish this is behind the shutdown and aviation chaos that has hamstrung the country for weeks:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/save-act-voting-rights-congress/
SAVE requires voters to show up at the polls in possession of ID like birth certificates and passports, and it will fill our polling places with armed, masked ICE agents – you know, the guys who just randomly kidnap and murder people for having accents, speaking a language other than English, or being visibly brown.
During Trump's aviation crisis, Trump heard about "Linda," a woman who called into a far right talk-radio program to suggest that ICE be deployed to American airports to backstop the TSA agents who'd stopped showing up for work on the very reasonable grounds that they hadn't been paid in a month:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-may-have-got-his-ice-airport-idea-from-linda-from-arizona/
Trump loved the idea and the next thing you knew, ICE was at the airports, hanging around like a bad smell and being totally useless. It turns out that the TSA is a trained workforce, unlike ICE, who receive precisely 47 days of training as a kind of MAGA Kabbalah (Trump is the 47th president):
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-agents-frustrate-airport-employees-as-shutdown-drags-on/
ICE's uselessness at the country's airports was beyond farcical, though, as ever, The Onion found and nailed the farce in "How ICE is assisting TSA":
https://theonion.com/how-ice-is-assisting-tsa/
Overseeing the removal of shoes, belts, and abuelas
Confiscating, then brandishing dangerous items
Assuming all milling-around duties
Culling weaker travelers when lines get too long
Commiserating about failing the police academy
Drinking any shampoo that exceeds the carry-on volume limit
Simplifying the customs interview to one question about skull size
But having ICE in the airports does serve one purpose. As Steve Bannon gloated on his podcast, ICE in the airports is a way to soften people up for ICE in the polling stations. He called it a "test run" for the midterms:
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/steve-bannon-calls-ice-agents-at-airports-part-of-a-test-run-for-the-midterm-elections
Writing for Jacobin, Eric Blanc points out that Democrats don't have to sit by passively while Trump – who repeatedly promised that if you voted for him in 2024, "you won't have to vote anymore" – steals an election:
https://jacobin.com/2026/03/ice-trump-election-theft-laws/
That's because America has a federal system of government, and the administration of its elections is firmly, constitutionally, unarguably in the hands of the states, and the states have large collections of highly trained, highly armed officials who can enforce their laws.
On March 13, the New Mexico state legislature passed a law banning armed federal officials from showing their fascist asses anywhere within 50 feet of a polling place or ballot drop-box:
https://www.koat.com/article/new-mexico-prohibits-armed-agents-voting-sites/70729595
Other blue states like "California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington" are contemplating similar laws.
It's a start, but as Blanc says, what the fuck are the other blue statehouses waiting for? This is a white-hot, hair-on-fire emergency. There isn't a moment to spare. This should be on the agenda for every union, at every demonstration, at every DSA and Democratic Club meeting. As Blanc says, if we wait until November to find out what Trump is going to do, it'll be too late. The time to act is now.
This is – as Blanc says – a "concrete, winnable demand that unions, student organizations, and immigrant and democracy defense groups could organize around today." And that organizing would "onboard and develop scores of new leaders in this fight nationwide."
I know where we can start. Unions across America have called for a general strike on May Day (May 1), under the banner "No work, no school, no shopping." As we rally on May Day, let defending our right to vote be at the top of our agenda. Mark your calendars:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?ref=paydayreport.com&mid=1_b8qBUINLYWeLiwpFSfUO2SmX2w6TWA&ll=37.724800549268%2C-96.94920235000001&z=4
(Image: Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0; Jami430, CC BY-SA 4.0; modified)
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/31/actual-federalist-society/#mayday
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
TSF and his bunch of unamerican monsters WILL prevent results from this election to be counted! They are ALL acting like they do NOT care how the loses look bad for them. We some how need a HUGE plan to stop them. 
