November 3, 2026 – Election Day. It’s a date that has been etched in our minds and marked on our calendars for two years. We’ve been waiting for it, preparing for it, and counting the days until we get the chance to undo the biggest collective mistake in US history. And given the fact that this date has been so important for so long, it’s easy to see Election Day as a kind of finish line, as something that marks the end of a long journey.
But we live in a country in transition, one that is presently deciding whether or not the rule of law still matters, and as such we must understand that while Tuesday may be the end of one struggle, it is almost certainly the beginning of another. While we will make our voices heard on Election Day, the forces trying to silence us will not give up the fight simply because we vote them out. Instead, they will do what they always do – try to manipulate the results and manufacture the outcome they want.
There has already been an unprecedented amount of foul play in this election cycle, with Trump and his goons using the federal government and the captured Department of Justice to intimidate the people who run our elections. They have filed suit against states, ordered others to hand over records, and made many demands that have no Constitutional basis of any kind. They even went as far as seizing election records in a ridiculous attempt to prove Trump actually won the 2020 election, a fantasy only the most devoted cultists and conspiracy theorists believe.
The manipulation has been aggressive and constant, and there’s no reason to think it’s going to stop. Trump will do anything he can to invalidate the results of Tuesday’s election, and unlike the last time he attempted this, he now has a team of raging cultists around him, and they are certainly more willing to break the law than those who came before them.
I have no idea what Trump might do next, but I know he’ll demand a whole-of-government response to the rejection he is about to experience, and I know his team of bootlickers will do whatever he asks. Which leads me to my point: While Election Day might be a finish line of sorts, it is very likely that running through the tape may not be enough. We may need to do more.
In the coming days and weeks, we may be called upon to take our fight beyond the ballot box. We may have to join our friends and neighbors in protest, and we may have to get nose-to-nose with the very people who have killed our fellow Americans in the streets of our own cities. Like I said before, I have no idea how ugly it will get, but I am entirely certain that this is going to drag on well past Tuesday, and we may be fighting this battle all the way to January 3rd when the results are certified by Congress and new members are sworn in.
Voting may be our superpower, but that may not be enough this time around. We’re about to experience a massive attack on the American way of life, and it will come from our own government. And if we cross the finish line too soon, the bad guys just might find a way to win.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days amplifying the voices of freedom and democracy as an Editor right here at The Political Voices Network, and he spends his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.
November 3 is not the end but the beginning. Yes, we need to be prepared for what Trump and the people who benefit from him will try to do to thwart the will of the people. However, we also need to work towards making the United States a firmer democracy that is for all the people. It is our continuing work to make our founding documents apply to all.