First, rhetoric decrying illegitimate elections can further erode electoral trust and kick democracy toward a death spiral. We saw this on Jan. 6, 2021, when a group of Trump supporters became so convinced of election fraud that they were willing to physically attack Congress to prevent the results from being ratified. A genuine democracy doesn’t work this way — instead, it depends on losers accepting election results, even if the rules governing the election are imperfect. The last thing we need is Democrats, too, ginning up panicked opposition to the 2022 or 2024 results. Clearly, not everyone currently holding public office, or seeking it in 2022, is committed to free and fair elections. That is a deeply worrisome truth. But we should reserve illegitimate election allegations for conduct more outrageous than resistance to federal voting rights legislation; opposing a bill is neither illegal nor contrary to the rule of the law.

Second, the illegitimate election claim would be unproven. Although a number of states enacted provisions last year that unnecessarily limit voter access or inject additional chaos into the vote counting and certification process, it is a big stretch to say that will inevitably lead to a stolen election. Arguing that some legislators are making it harder to vote and count the ballots and dismissing an election as illegitimate are two very different things. Furthermore, making charges that cannot be proven undermines the genuine complaints about opposition to federal voting rights legislation. If supporters can’t prove that the legislation’s failure will lead to a stolen election, some people will think that the legislation’s defeat was no big deal. That would be a real shame.

This leads directly to the third problem with illegitimate election rhetoric: It focuses on the wrong issue.