News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by latexr on Friday January 23, 2026 @10:58AM (#46734015)
> very consequential American elections are happening this year, and in 2028.

Let’s hope they are (happening).

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by tdb7893 on Friday January 23, 2026 @11:14AM (#46734243)
There's no way to stop them federally without a full coup since they are administered by the states. The US has a long history of not cancelling election but suppressing votes (e.g. literacy tests, gerrymandering, closing polling locations, etc).

I would look more for voting place shenanigans, voter ID laws with only a weird subset of IDs allowed, radical gerrymandering, and stuff like that. Some of it will be blatantly partisan but also people are using justifications like "restoring trust in elections" to advocate for things that reduce the general franchise. They don't need to do a lot since a few percent is enough to swing the general balance of things.

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by AnimalMuppet on Friday January 23, 2026 @01:36PM (#46736005)
A few percent may not be enough to swing 2026.

What there are also going to be are allegations, claims of cheating, lawsuits...

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by tcb678 on Friday January 23, 2026 @01:50PM (#46736201)
Your contention only works in a functioning democracy.

Republicans currently control ~55% of all state legislative seats nationally and hold governing majorities in most states. In some of these states, they are incredibly partisan and just don't care - they will burn it all down to stay in power (MO, TX, etc.) Congress is required to certify the results of presidential elections, but state and congressional elections are a different matter. Those are certified at the state level, by state officials.

So what happens if Republican led states simply decide to declare, "We certify that the incumbent representative has been reelected," regardless of the actual vote count, or play other games e.g. discarding votes, eligibility, etc? It would be wildly illegal, of course. It would almost certainly trigger lawsuits, protests, and significant political repercussions within each state.

But here's the problem: in many of these jurisdictions, the federal district courts are controlled by Republican-appointed judges. The circuit courts are too. If the state officials certifying the results are Republican, the state courts and legislatures are friendly, and the federal courts that would hear any challenge are also sympathetic, how exactly would anyone stop them? Who enforces the ruling if the courts themselves are part of the alignment? The U.S. DOJ will not take up these cases on anyone's behalf. And in such a circumstance, you're unlikely to find a Congress willing to impeach the officials failing to do that.

More importantly, the National Guard and/or the Army gets activated under the Insurrection Act. So. That's the ballgame.

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by tdb7893 on Friday January 23, 2026 @04:58PM (#46738526)
I'm expecting shenanigans at the state level. I'm not saying there won't be malfeasance, it's just that the "no election happening" is not really a possibility at this point without a full coup.

People keep saying "if" the election happens and it's definitely happening, it's just whether it's free and fair (the US has never had incredibly fair elections even in modern times, highly gerrymandered two party elections are really stupid, but substantially less fair than even the somewhat low bar the US traditionally sets for our democracy).

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by idibiks on Friday January 23, 2026 @03:43PM (#46737650)
They are happening. Polling places in districts with close races will even have ICE stopping suspiciously foreign-seeming people to make sure non-citizens don't vote, since that's a real, actual, pressing problem and not made-up bullshit. Since Democrats are the ones committing these (mysteriously un-investigated) criminal conspiracies to let illegal immigrants vote, naturally ICE's limited resources will focus on polling places where the demographics lean heavily democratic.

They'll be the most free and fair elections we've had since 2016, and maybe ever!

Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by burnerzzzzz on Saturday January 24, 2026 @12:11AM (#46741259)
cant tell if this is sarcasm or you’re a maga nut
Re:Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? by idibiks on Saturday January 24, 2026 @12:44AM (#46741368)
Sarcasm. Though I do think that’s a highly-likely scenario in November.