In the weeks lead­ing up to the dead­ly insur­rec­tion at the U.S. Capi­tol on Jan. 6, a hand­ful of Amer­i­cans — well-known politi­cians, obscure local bureau­crats — stood up to block then-Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s unprece­dent­ed attempt to over­turn a free and fair vote of the Amer­i­can people.

In the year since, Trump-aligned Repub­li­cans have worked to clear the path for next time.

In bat­tle­ground states and beyond, Repub­li­cans are tak­ing hold of the once-over­looked machin­ery of elec­tions. While the effort is incom­plete and uneven, out­side experts on democ­ra­cy and Democ­rats are sound­ing alarms, warn­ing that the Unit­ed States is wit­ness­ing a “slow-motion insur­rec­tion” with a bet­ter chance of suc­cess than Trump’s failed pow­er grab last year.

They point to a mount­ing list of evi­dence: Sev­er­al can­di­dates who deny Trump’s loss are run­ning for offices that could have a key role in the elec­tion of the next pres­i­dent in 2024. In Michi­gan, the Repub­li­can Par­ty is restock­ing mem­bers of obscure local boards that could block approval of an elec­tion. In Wis­con­sin and Penn­syl­va­nia, the GOP-con­trolled leg­is­la­tures are back­ing open-end­ed “reviews” of the 2020 elec­tion, mod­eled on a deeply flawed look-back in Ari­zona. The efforts are poised to fuel dis­in­for­ma­tion and anger about the 2020 results for years to come.

All this comes as the Repub­li­can Par­ty has become more aligned behind Trump, who has made denial of the 2020 results a lit­mus test for his sup­port. Trump has praised the Jan. 6 riot­ers and backed pri­maries aimed at purg­ing law­mak­ers who have crossed him. Six­teen GOP gov­er­nors have signed laws mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult to vote. An Asso­ci­at­ed Press-NORC Cen­ter for Pub­lic Affairs Research poll showed that two-thirds of Repub­li­cans do not believe Demo­c­rat Joe Biden was legit­i­mate­ly elect­ed as president.

The result, experts say, is that anoth­er base­less chal­lenge to an elec­tion has become more like­ly, not less.

“It’s not clear that the Repub­li­can Par­ty is will­ing to accept defeat any­more,” said Steven Lev­it­sky, a Har­vard polit­i­cal sci­en­tist and co-author of the book “How Democ­ra­cies Die.” “The par­ty itself has become an anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic force.”

Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy has been flawed and manip­u­lat­ed by both par­ties since its incep­tion. Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans — Black peo­ple, women, Native Amer­i­cans and oth­ers — have been exclud­ed from the process. Both Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats have writ­ten laws rig­ging the rules in their favor.

This time, experts argue, is dif­fer­ent: Nev­er in the country’s mod­ern his­to­ry has a a major par­ty sought to turn the admin­is­tra­tion of elec­tions into an explic­it­ly par­ti­san act.

Repub­li­cans who sound alarms are strug­gling to be heard by their own par­ty. GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming or Adam Kinzinger of Illi­nois, mem­bers of a House com­mit­tee inves­ti­gat­ing the Jan. 6 insur­rec­tion, are often dis­missed as par­ty apos­tates. Oth­ers have cast the elec­tion denial­ism as lit­tle more than a distraction.

But some local offi­cials, the peo­ple clos­est to the process and its fragili­ty, are plead­ing for change. At a recent news con­fer­ence in Wis­con­sin, Kath­leen Bernier, a GOP state sen­a­tor and for­mer elec­tions clerk, denounced her party’s efforts to seize con­trol of the elec­tion process.

“These made up things that peo­ple do to jazz up the base is just despi­ca­ble and I don’t believe any elect­ed leg­is­la­tor should play that game,” said Bernier.

LOCAL CONTROL

Bernier’s view is not shared by the major­i­ty of the Repub­li­cans who con­trol the state Leg­is­la­ture in Wis­con­sin, one of a hand­ful of states that Biden car­ried but Trump wrong­ly claims he won. Ear­ly in 2021, Wis­con­sin Repub­li­cans ordered their Leg­isla­tive Audit Bureau to review the 2020 elec­tion. That review found no sig­nif­i­cant fraud. Last month, an inves­ti­ga­tion by the con­ser­v­a­tive Wis­con­sin Insti­tute for Law and Lib­er­ty came to the same conclusion.

Still, many Repub­li­cans are con­vinced that some­thing went wrong. They point to how the non­par­ti­san Wis­con­sin Elec­tions Com­mis­sion — which the GOP-led Leg­is­la­ture and then-Repub­li­can gov­er­nor cre­at­ed eight years ago to run the state’s elec­tions — changed guid­ance for local elec­tions offi­cers to make vot­ing eas­i­er dur­ing the pandemic.

That’s led to a strug­gle for con­trol of elec­tions between the state Leg­is­la­ture and the commission.

“We feel we need to get this straight for peo­ple to believe we have integri­ty,” said GOP Sen. Alber­ta Dar­ling, who rep­re­sents the con­ser­v­a­tive sub­urbs north of Mil­wau­kee. “We’re not just try­ing to change the elec­tion with Trump. We’re try­ing to dig into the next elec­tion and change irregularities.”

Repub­li­cans are also remak­ing the way elec­tions are run in oth­er states. In Geor­gia, an elec­tion bill signed this year by the GOP gov­er­nor gave the Repub­li­can-con­trolled Gen­er­al Assem­bly new pow­ers over the state board of elec­tions, which con­trols its local counterparts.

The law is being used to launch a review of oper­a­tions in solid­ly-Demo­c­ra­t­ic Ful­ton Coun­ty, home to most of Atlanta, which could lead to a state takeover. The leg­is­la­ture also passed mea­sures allow­ing local offi­cials to remove Democ­rats from elec­tion boards in six oth­er counties.

In Penn­syl­va­nia, the GOP-con­trolled leg­is­la­ture is under­tak­ing a review of the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, sub­poe­naing vot­er infor­ma­tion that Democ­rats con­tend is an unprece­dent­ed intru­sion into vot­er pri­va­cy. Mean­while, Trump sup­port­ers are sign­ing up for local elec­tion jobs in droves. One pas­tor who attend­ed the Jan. 6 ral­ly in the nation’s cap­i­tal recent­ly won a race to become an elec­tion judge over­see­ing vot­ing in a rur­al part of Lan­cast­er County.

In Michi­gan, the GOP has focused on the state’s coun­ty boards of can­vassers. The lit­tle-known com­mit­tees’ pow­er was briefly in the spot­light in Novem­ber of 2020, when Trump urged the two Repub­li­can mem­bers of the board over­see­ing Wayne Coun­ty, home to Demo­c­ra­t­ic-bas­tion Detroit, to vote to block cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the election.

After one of the Repub­li­can mem­bers defied Trump, local Repub­li­cans replaced her with Robert Boyd, who told The Detroit Free Press that he would not have cer­ti­fied Biden’s win last year.

Boyd did not return a call for comment.

A sim­i­lar swap — replac­ing a tra­di­tion­al Repub­li­can with one who par­rot­ed Trump’s elec­tion lies — occurred in Macomb Coun­ty, the state’s third most pop­u­lous county.

The Detroit News in Octo­ber report­ed that Repub­li­cans had replaced their mem­bers on boards of can­vassers in eight of Michigan’s 11 most pop­u­lous counties

Michi­gan offi­cials say that if boards of can­vassers don’t cer­ti­fy an elec­tion they can be sued and com­pelled to do so. Still, that process could cause chaos and be used as a ral­ly­ing cry behind elec­tion disputes.

“They’re lay­ing the ground­work for a slow-motion insur­rec­tion,” said Mark Brew­er, an elec­tion lawyer and for­mer chair of the Michi­gan Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party.

The state’s top elec­tion offi­cial, Sec­re­tary of State Joce­lyn Ben­son, warned: “The move­ment to cast doubt on the 2020 elec­tion has now turned their eyes … to chang­ing the peo­ple who were in posi­tions of author­i­ty and pro­tect­ed 2020.”

TRUMP’S RETRIBUTION

That includes Benson.

Mul­ti­ple Repub­li­cans have lined up to chal­lenge her, includ­ing Kristi­na Karamo, a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege pro­fes­sor who alleged fraud in the 2020 elec­tions and con­tend­ed that the Jan. 6 attack­ers were actu­al­ly antifa activists try­ing to frame Trump supporters.

Trump has been clear about his inten­tions: He is seek­ing to oust statewide offi­cials who stood in his way and replace them with allies.

“We have sec­re­tary of states that did not do the right thing for the Amer­i­can peo­ple,” Trump, who has endorsed Karamo, told The Asso­ci­at­ed Press this month.

The most promi­nent Trump push is in Geor­gia, where the for­mer pres­i­dent is back­ing U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who vot­ed against Biden’s Elec­toral Col­lege vic­to­ry on Jan. 6, in a pri­ma­ry race against the Repub­li­can sec­re­tary of state, Brad Raf­fensperg­er. He reject­ed Trump’s pleas to “find” enough votes to declare him the winner.

Trump also encour­aged for­mer U.S. Sen. David Per­due to chal­lenge Gov. Bri­an Kemp in the GOP pri­ma­ry. Kemp turned down Trump’s entreaties to declare him the vic­tor in the 2020 election.

In Octo­ber, Jason Shep­herd stepped down as chair of the Cobb Coun­ty GOP after the group cen­sured Kemp. “It’s short­sight­ed. They’re not con­tem­plat­ing the effects of this down the line,” Shep­herd said in an inter­view. “They want their pound of flesh from Bri­an Kemp because Bri­an Kemp fol­lowed the law.”

In Neva­da, mul­ti­ple law­suits seek­ing to over­turn Biden’s vic­to­ry were thrown out by judges. A suit aimed at over­turn­ing his con­gres­sion­al loss was filed by Jim Marchant, a for­mer GOP state law­mak­er now run­ning to be sec­re­tary of state, and it too was dis­missed. The cur­rent Repub­li­can sec­re­tary of state, Bar­bara Cegavske, who is term lim­it­ed, found there was no sig­nif­i­cant fraud in the contests.

Marchant said he’s not just seek­ing to become a Trump enabler, though he was endorsed by Trump in his con­gres­sion­al bid. “I’ve been fight­ing this since before he came along,” Marchant said of Trump. “All we want is fair and trans­par­ent elections.”

In Penn­syl­va­nia, Repub­li­can state Sen. Doug Mas­tri­ano, who orga­nized bus­es of Trump sup­port­ers for Trump’s ral­ly near the White House on Jan. 6, has sig­naled he’s run­ning for gov­er­nor. In Ari­zona, state Rep. Mark Finchem’s bid to be sec­re­tary of state has unnerved many Repub­li­cans, giv­en that he host­ed a day­long hear­ing in Novem­ber 2020 that fea­tured Trump advis­er Rudolph Giu­liani. For­mer news anchor Kari Lake, who repeats Trump’s elec­tion false­hoods, is run­ning to suc­ceed Repub­li­can Gov. Doug Ducey, who stood up to Trump’s elec­tion-year pres­sure and is barred from anoth­er term.

Else­where in Ari­zona, Mari­co­pa Coun­ty Recorder Stephen Rich­er, who defend­ed his office against the con­spir­a­to­r­i­al elec­tion review, has start­ed a polit­i­cal com­mit­tee to pro­vide finan­cial sup­port to Repub­li­cans who tell the truth about the elec­tion. But he’s real­is­tic about the per­sis­tence of the myth of a stolen elec­tion with­in his party’s base.

“Right now,” Rich­er said, “the incen­tive struc­ture seems to be strong­ly in favor of doing the wrong thing.”

HIGH STAKES RACES FOR GOVERNOR

In Michi­gan, Penn­syl­va­nia and Wis­con­sin, Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nors have been a major imped­i­ment to the GOP’s effort to over­haul elec­tions. Most sig­nif­i­cant­ly, they have vetoed new rules that Democ­rats argue are aimed at mak­ing it hard­er for peo­ple of col­or to vote.

Gov­er­nors have a sig­nif­i­cant role in U.S. elec­tions: They cer­ti­fy the win­ners in their states, clear­ing way for the appoint­ment of Elec­toral Col­lege mem­bers. That rais­es fears that Trump-friend­ly gov­er­nors could try to cer­ti­fy him — if he were to run in 2024 and be the GOP nom­i­nee — as the win­ner of their state’s elec­toral votes regard­less of the vote count.

Addi­tion­al­ly, some Repub­li­cans argue that state leg­is­la­tures can name their own elec­tors regard­less of what the vote tal­ly says.

But Democ­rats have had lit­tle suc­cess in lay­ing out the stakes in these races. It’s dif­fi­cult for vot­ers to believe the sys­tem could be vul­ner­a­ble, said Daniel Squadron of The States Project, a Demo­c­ra­t­ic group that tries to win state legislatures.

“The most moti­vat­ed vot­ers in Amer­i­ca today are those who think the 2020 elec­tion was stolen,” he said. “Acknowl­edg­ing this is afoot requires such a leap from any core Amer­i­can val­ue sys­tem that any of us have lived through.”