Trump Acts to Protect American Voters

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to take numerous actions intended “to protect the integrity of our election process.”

His order is a well-designed, comprehensive plan that will ensure that the federal government assists the states in conducting “free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion.” 

This has been long needed and is a reversal of the decades of indifference, neglect, or downright interference in the election process by the federal government, particularly by the Obama and Biden administrations. They took every opportunity to attack commonsense election reform efforts by the states, like voter ID requirements, and to stymie efforts to improve the maintenance of accurate voter registration rolls.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Their overall goal, it seemed, was to make American elections as insecure, and therefore vulnerable to fraud, as possible. 

Trump’s executive order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” directs a whirlwind of crucial activity harnessing the resources of multiple federal agencies such as the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Those directives include the following: 

• The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which has statutory authority over the federal voter registration form, shall require proof of citizenship for anyone using the form to register. The EAC is barred from providing any federal grants to states that refuse to comply with this proof-of-citizenship requirement. The EAC, which promulgates voluntary voting system standards, must revise those standards to ensure “that voting systems should not use a ballot in which a vote is contained within a barcode or quick-response code,” something that makes it impossible for a voter to verify that a voting machine has correctly recorded the voter’s choices. 

• The EAC must also condition federal grants to states on their compliance with a provision in the Help America Vote Act that requires states to adopt “uniform and nondiscriminatory standards” that “define what constitutes a vote and what will be counted.” This law was passed by Congress shortly after the Florida election fiasco in the 2000 presidential election in which different counties in the state used different standards of what would be considered a legitimate vote. DOJ has not done enough to enforce this requirement, so this step is long overdue. 

• The Department of Homeland Security will (finally) open up its multiple databases, without charge, to state and local officials trying to check the citizenship status of registered voters. DHS is also directed to start reviewing state registration records itself (with the help of DOGE) to verify the citizenship of registered voters, something the agency has never done. Moreover, DHS must forward to the Attorney General and state and local election officials information on any alien who indicated on an immigration form that they registered or voted in an election (that question is contained on the form used to apply for naturalization). In other words, the Justice Department is supposed to finally start investigating and potentially prosecuting aliens who have illegally registered or voted, something it has rarely done.  The State Department is also ordered to open up its databases that contain information on aliens present in the country to state and local election officials, something State has never done. 

• The Justice Department is directed to enter into “information-sharing agreements” with states to obtain detailed information on “suspected violations of State and Federal election laws discovered by State officials.” This includes individuals who registered or voted despite being ineligible, or who voted multiple times; committed other election-related fraud; provided false information on voter registration forms; or “intimidated or threatened voters or election officials.” This directive is also long overdue. The Public Integrity Section of DOJ, which is responsible for prosecuting federal election crimes, has been lackadaisical, to say the least, in pursuing such cases. 

• There is an entire section on improving the security of voting systems. Amongst its requirements is having both DHS and DOJ work to “prevent all non-citizens from being involved in the administration” of elections, including “by accessing election equipment, ballots, or any other relevant materials” used in federal elections. DHS must also work with the EAC to “review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in the voter registration and voting process,” including when they are connected to the Internet, and assess the “risk” of “malicious software and unauthorized intrusions.” Given the type of cybersecurity attacks suffered daily by governments, businesses, and individuals, this is also a much-needed step. 

• DOJ is directed to take all necessary measures—which will mean litigation—against states that are not complying with the federal laws that set the national day for elections, which is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This action item is aimed at states like California that allow absentee ballots that come in after Election Day to be counted. The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently held that Mississippi’s law, which allows absentee ballots that come in up to five days after Election Day to be counted, violates those federal laws. 

• Finally, the Treasury Department is directed to work with the attorney general to enforce federal laws that “prevent foreign nationals from contributing or donating” money to candidates in U.S. elections, as well the ban on “lobbying by organizations or entities that have received any Federal funds.” That latter directive is particularly important because there are numerous so-called NGO’s – nongovernmental organizations – that receive federal grants that are constantly roaming the halls of Congress and government agencies lobbying members of Congress and bureaucrats in the federal swamp. DOJ has also neglected enforcing this ban for far too long. 

The president says in the executive order that “elections must be honest and worthy of public trust.” It is the policy of his administration, he says, “to enforce Federal law and to protect our election process.” 

Finally, we have a president who understands the role of the federal government in safeguarding our elections, while respecting the primary authority of states to administer their elections. It is about time that the federal government helped, rather than hindered, that work. Bravo, Mr. President.