In 2020, we moved to mail-in voting as a nation. We institutionalized fraud and election theft. Ever since then, the MAGA base of the Republican Party has screamed for reform and a return to electoral integrity. Establishment Republicans have done absolutely nothing.
So, now, by executive order, President Trump has acted.
Trump just signed an Executive Order to strengthen election integrity by ordering citizenship verification for Federal elections and modernizing and securing mail-in and absentee ballot procedures through the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The Order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Social Security Administration, to compile and transmit to each State a State Citizenship List of confirmed U.S. citizens who will be 18 or older at the time of the next upcoming Federal election and reside in that State. Those lists will be updated and transmitted no fewer than 60 days before each regularly scheduled Federal election, and individuals and States will be allowed to access, update, or correct records.
In short, the federal government will tell the states the names of the people who are actually legally entitled to vote in federal elections, so that the states can make sure only those individuals are casting ballots.
The Order also directs the Postmaster General to initiate rulemaking to require all mail-in and absentee ballots transmitted by the USPS to be placed in secure ballot envelopes marked as Official Election Mail with unique Intelligent Mail barcodes that facilitate tracking.
In other words, USPS will ensure the integrity of the ballot transmission process, so we know the ballot being received and counted is legitimate and should be counted.
The Order also requires the USPS to transmit ballots only to individuals enrolled on a State-specific Mail-in and Absentee Participation List, ensuring that only eligible absentee or mail-in voters receive absentee or mail-in ballots.
We are not going to mail out ballots to unknown addresses and unknown individuals. Ballots are only going to go to people who are actually real, legitimate voters.
The Order also directs the Attorney General to:
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(1) Prioritize the investigation and prosecution, under applicable Federal statutes, of election officials, individuals, and other entities that violate the law by issuing or distributing Federal ballots to ineligible voters; and
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(2) In coordination with other relevant agencies, withhold Federal funds from noncompliant States and localities, as appropriate.
In brief, if you are involved in stealing elections, you are going to jail, and if you are aiding and abetting fraud, we are not going to pay for it.
In case somehow you did not understand why all this was so important, the Order further notes:
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The right to vote in Federal elections is reserved exclusively for United States citizens under the Constitution and Federal law.
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Federal statutes explicitly prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote or casting ballots in Federal elections, yet lax verification and self-certification loopholes in some States have left gaps that undermine public confidence in election outcomes.
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The Federal government has a duty to prevent violations of Federal criminal law in Federal elections and to maintain public confidence in election outcomes.
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The Federal government has existing tools – including the Social Security Administration’s records and the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program – that can assist in verifying voter identity and eligibility in Federal elections.
By any measure, all of this ought to be non-controversial and welcomed by all Americans. This Executive Order puts in place common-sense steps to make sure we all know that our elections are safe and secure. There can be nothing more fundamental to the functioning of a constitutional republic. If we do not trust our electoral process, it is only a matter of time until government is considered illegitimate and the rule of law vanishes.
And yet, already there is an uproar.
Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, released the following statement:
“Once again, President Trump is attempting to seize power he does not have. The President’s order is not about protecting elections — it’s about trying to control them and using that control to make it harder to vote for his perceived enemies. The Constitution is very clear: only Congress and the states can make laws regarding our elections. The ability to vote by mail is crucial to our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities, those without transportation access, working families, those who are deployed or otherwise abroad, and many others who rely on its flexibility can exercise their right to vote. President Trump’s attempts to undermine a safe, proven, and reliable method of voting is just another part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections. As always, we are prepared to protect our democracy and our right to vote in court against these continued unconstitutional attacks.”
League of Women Voters
“The president has no power to direct the creation of any of these lists or to restrict the delivery of mail ballots to any given list,” said Danielle Lang, vice president for voting rights at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, which represented plaintiffs suing over Trump’s first executive order on elections.
Absolutely nothing in Trump’s Executive Order says anything about stopping people who are entitled to vote from voting. The only conceivable impact of the Order is to prevent people who are not entitled to vote from voting. One suspects that is the real reason why so many people on the Left are outraged.
The Constitution says the states administer elections. It also makes the President the Commander-in-Chief and puts him in charge of the defense of the country. By this point, it is crystal clear not just that we have problems with electoral fraud but that hostile foreign powers are working hard to interfere in our elections. This Executive Order does not say the federal government is now in charge of elections. It says you can only allow citizens to vote in elections for federal office. We should all be able to agree on that, and all of us, but in particular Republicans, should wonder why our elected representatives in Congress never found the backbone to take such action.