Elections Distorted

Autocracy in America

The Atlantic

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump White House is changing the rules of our political system through intimidation, the distortion of information, financial corruption, and the dismantling of government offices. In the final episode of this season, we examine whether the administration is also trying to change the rules of our elections. Dawn Baldwin Gibson, a North Carolina pastor, tells us about how, in 2024, her vote was challenged for reasons that still aren’t clear to her. Host Anne Applebaum interviews Stacey Abrams, who has spent years fighting voter-suppression tactics. Abrams argues that Gibson’s story is one of many attempts to change how people vote and how their votes are counted. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For more than 35 years, I have been a registered voter and I have been casting my vote.
0:07.9	To this day, months later, I still don't know why my vote was being challenged.
0:15.7	From the Atlantic, this is Autocracy in America.
0:19.8	I'm Ann Applebaum.
0:21.6	This season, we've been talking about the Trump administration's unprecedented accumulation of power.
0:27.6	But we're still missing one piece of the story, the elections themselves.
0:32.6	We've heard people talk about how they fear soldiers on the streets could intimidate voters,
0:38.2	or how crypto barons could try to manipulate campaigns.
0:41.8	But the Trump White House is also very interested in elections, how voters are registered,
0:47.1	how they vote, how those votes are counted.
0:50.5	Across the country, state governors and legislators, sometimes inspired by Trump's false claims about the 2020 elections,
0:57.6	are enacting new voter ID rules,
1:00.7	they're changing registration requirements,
1:03.3	and crafting lists of voters to purge from the rolls.
1:06.9	Don Baldwin-Gibson is a pastor in Newburn, North Carolina.
1:17.8	She's one of more than 60,000 North Carolina voters who had the legitimacy of their vote challenged in 2024.
1:24.8	One of the races on the ballot was for the North Carolina Supreme Court. The election was between Allison Riggs and Jefferson Griffin. I actually
1:32.7	went to vote as an early voter. And this is something that for many years, I have done with my family,
1:42.7	showed my ID, went in, cast my vote, and really thought nothing else about it until a couple of weeks went by.
1:53.1	I started hearing about this Jefferson Griffin list.
1:58.2	Republican candidate Griffin is challenging more than 65,000 ballots in the North Carolina Supreme Court race, arguing three...
2:04.6	The authority in North Carolina is the State Board of Elections.
	...

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