In every democracy, power is meant to transfer through ballots, not bullets. Yet whenever violence is aimed at a national leader—whether successful or not—it shakes the foundations of public faith in elections. An assassination attempt, by design, tries to override the will of millions with the will of one. And in that sense, an assassin’s bullet is not unlike any scheme that suppresses or distorts voters’ ability to cast ballots freely. Both undermine the same principle: that the people alone choose the president.