Editor’s Note: Sen. Mallory McMorrow was recently reelected to her second term in the Michigan Senate where she will serve as the chamber’s Majority Whip. Follow her on Twitter. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.
I’ve been a Michigan state senator for almost four years, and for the last two of those years election deniers have caused unnecessary chaos.
When MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell lied and said he had evidence that computers in China changed votes in Oakland County, Michigan – the home of my Senate district – my office was overwhelmed with a deluge of calls and emails calling us traitors and liars. The torrent of hate flooding our phones and inboxes made it difficult for my small staff and me to respond to constituents on critical issues like accessing unemployment benefits, small business resources and navigating state departments. Now, it may get even worse.
For all the talk that the 2022 elections were a nationwide refutation of election denialism, the attacks against our elections and our democracy are far from over. Now, the United States Supreme Court may inject even more opportunity for further election denialism, having heard arguments in the case of Moore v. Harper on Wednesday.
At the heart of Moore v. Harper is the “independent state legislature theory,” or ISLT, which relies on a fringe interpretation of the elections clause of the US Constitution that grants state legislatures – and state legislatures alone – exclusive authority to facilitate and regulate federal elections. ISLT wouldn’t allow state legislatures to overturn federal election results after the fact, as election deniers here in Michigan and in Georgia attempted to do in 2020.
No, it’s almost worse.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the theory, it would mean that state legislators would have the unchecked ability to draw gerrymandered congressional districts, override ballot initiatives codifying voting rights into state constitutions (such as those recently passed in Michigan) and make it harder to vote.
Here in Michigan, all three Republican statewide nominees at the top of the ticket earned their nomination in part by promoting former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. They were joined by a staggering 44 candidates running for our state legislature who expressed doubt in the validity of that election.
Thankfully, most of them were defeated in November, as Democrats swept the top of the ticket and won control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years. This was a result made possible – in large part – due to a fair, independent commission that finally took the process of drawing legislative maps out of the hands of the legislature.
Across the country, voters chose truth and democracy, largely rejecting election deniers in this year’s midterms. The Supreme Court ought to ensure they avoid opening the door for many of these same election deniers to take control of future elections.
As a state legislator, I, like my counterparts in North Carolina, swear an oath of office to uphold both the Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of our respective states. The notion promoted by ISLT that somehow our Founders would have allowed state legislators to be independent from – and free to violate – their own state constitutions flies in the face of federalism and the checks and balances necessary for American democracy to survive.
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The Supreme Court must reject this extremist theory and reassure the American people that their state legislators, just like the people they represent, are bound by our state’s constitutions and the will of the people. And they need to send a strong message that our elections are sacred, that politicians should not be able to rig districts and vote to benefit themselves, and that the process is truly fair and democratic.
It will take a long time to root out the conspiracy theories that have taken hold since the 2020 election. Look no further than Michigan. Throwing out ISLT once and for all will be a good start.