President Trump has spent a solid year telling congressional Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, and while the House kept doing its part, the Senate apparently decided it had better things to do. So now, with midterms less than four months away, the president has essentially said "fine, I will do it myself" and is pursuing election security through executive actions, administrative changes, and every other lever he can pull.
As Conservative Brief reported, the strategy involves a broad reshaping of election systems that Democrats have described as "death by a thousand cuts." Which, to be fair, is also how most Americans would describe trying to get anything through the Senate.
Last week, Trump scaled back the Election Assistance Commission, a federal body so obscure that most people are learning about it for the first time right now. Some election officials warned the move could affect cybersecurity support for state and local offices. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been firing off letters to state officials warning they could face prosecution if non-citizens are allowed to vote. Federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which makes you wonder why anyone would object to enforcing that, but here we are.
The Department of Homeland Security also told states that federal election security funding could be at risk if they refuse to use a federal system for verifying voter citizenship. Nothing motivates cooperation quite like threatening to cut the check.
During a primetime address Thursday, Trump dropped what he called a bombshell: declassified documents alleging that China carried out "the largest compromise of election data in history" during the 2020 election cycle, obtaining 220 million U.S. voter files. "This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare," Trump stated, adding that the files included names, addresses, phone numbers, and political party preferences.
Democrats were not impressed. Ingham County, Michigan, Clerk Barb Byrum called the broader effort "a concerted effort of death by a thousand cuts. Every day is another battle, but the war that we're fighting is to maintain our democracy." Ann Jacobs, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, added: "Do I think this is part of the pattern and intentionality of undermining confidence in elections? Yes, yes, I do. The constant drumbeat since 2020 has been specifically designed to do that, and it's distressing."
Trump, naturally, argues that he is the one protecting democracy by making sure elections are free and fair. So both sides agree democracy is at stake. They just disagree on whether the threat is foreign hackers with 220 million voter files or the guy trying to stop them.
Courts have already blocked several of the administration's earlier executive orders on election policy, and more than a dozen courts have rejected DOJ efforts to compel states to hand over voter registration records. So the legal battles are very much ongoing. But with midterms approaching fast, the administration seems content to keep swinging and let the courts sort it out later. Classic strategy: move faster than the people who can tell you no.
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