It's Been a Heck of a Ride
In recent weeks - well, let's be honest, in the last almost-six months since President Trump reassumed office, we've been drinking from the fire hose. Never has an administration moved so far so fast, and for those of us in the news media, keeping track of all this has been a lot like firing a shotgun and then trying to follow each individual shot pellet.
There's been the One Big Beautiful Bill, now signed into law; there are the ongoing efforts by Homeland Security and ICE to detain and deport people who are in the country illegally, along with all of the inexplicable resistance to that effort. The Trump administration has managed to get NATO nations to step up their defense budgets and has brokered several key peace deals.
With doubts about the 2020 election still hanging over people's heads, there is one other big agenda item that the Trump administration has been focused on, and it may be the most important one of all: election integrity. The Trump administration has made some significant progress there, too; let's take a look at just what's been done so far.
Cleaning Up Biden-Era Actions
These efforts began almost the moment that President Trump reassumed office in January. Some highlights:
January 28th: The DOJ voluntarily dismissed a Biden-era lawsuit challenging Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s voter roll cleanup efforts. Virginia NVRA 90-day Quiet Period – United States v. Virginia (E.D. Va.)
March 6th: The court issued an order dismissing the Biden-era claims in the Texas redistricting case LULAC v. Texas (Case No.: 3:21-cv-00259) (W.D. Tex.). The Biden administration originally challenged the 2021 redistricting plans for the congressional delegation and state house in Texas for vote dilution under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
March 14th: The DOJ dismissed a Biden-era lawsuit against Alabama, in which the previous administration had filed the action in 2024 after the secretary of state in Alabama had taken steps to remove ineligible alien voters from their voter rolls in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
March 24th: The DOJ withdrew a Biden-era case against Houston County, Georgia’s at-large voting system.
April 4th: The DOJ dismissed the Biden-era lawsuit against the 2021 Georgia voting law (“Jim Crow 2.0” case).
April 21st: The DOJ dropped the Biden-era lawsuit accusing Hazelton, Pennsylvania, of diluting the Hispanic vote.
The Biden/Autopen administration wasn't exactly friendly towards efforts at election integrity, which in itself seems good enough reason to reverse course. It also exacerbates people's concerns about the 2020 election. The previous administration seemed determined to shut down every state and local effort to clean up voter rolls and ensure election integrity, but that's all over now.
Prosecuting Illegal Voters
The left loves to claim that the number of people who truly vote illegally is too small to worry about. That's a canard. If even one person is voting illegally, whether they be an illegal alien or disqualified for any other reason, that's one too many. The Biden/Autopen administration looked the other way; the Trump administration is not. Again, some highlights:
February 3rd: Carlos Jose Abreu, 45, an illegal alien living in Broward County, Florida, appeared in federal court to face charges of impersonating a United States citizen when registering to vote and when voting in a federal election. Abreu is also charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm. On June 12th: Abreu was sentenced to 65 months in prison followed by three years supervised release, after pleading guilty in two consolidated federal cases (24-cr-60155 and 25-cr-60015) to the following charges: (1) falsely claiming United States citizenship to register to vote; (2) using a United States citizen’s name to vote; (3) possessing firearms as an alien without lawful status; (4) making false statements in support of a passport application; and (5) aggravated identity theft. As a condition of his supervised release, he was also ordered to turn himself in to immigration authorities for removal proceedings.
March 27th: A non-U.S. citizen, living in South Florida, was charged with federal crimes after using false identity documents to apply for a U.S. passport, registering to vote, and voting in multiple U.S. general elections using a fraudulent identity.
April 29th: Two Ukrainian women with no United States citizenship have been charged with unlawfully voting in the general election for the United States presidential election during early voting in Palm Beach, Florida, on October 31, 2024.
June 11th: A convicted aggravated felon and Haitian permanent resident was arrested in Miami, Florida, for unlawful voting and casting a false ballot.
June 17th: HSI Miami arrested two foreign nationals from Cuba and Turks and Caicos for voter fraud.
These are just a few examples; there are more. And here's the thing: The law is the law. What Democrats don't seem to get is that laws aren't selectively enforced. There is no acceptable level of voter registration fraud or people voting illegally.
See Also: Iraqi Man Charged With Illegally Voting in 2020 Election, DOGE Plays a Key Role
This Is Huge: FBI Stonewalled China Election Interference Probe to Protect Wray
Working With States to Clean Up Voter Rolls and Ensure Election Integrity
This is where the rubber really meets the road. The Constitution gives the states great power over how elections are conducted, and the states have traditionally managed voter rolls. But some states, mostly the Democrat-run blue states, have made little or no effort to clean up and properly maintain the integrity of their elections. The Trump administration has been busy there, too, including filing federal charges where necessary. Again, some highlights:
April 22nd: DHS announced a revamping of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to ensure a single, reliable source for verifying non-citizen status nationwide. This makes it easier for states to use and is free of cost.
May 27th: The DOJ filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina Board of Elections under the federal Help America Vote Act for registering voters without obtaining their driver's license number, SSN, or other unique identifying information.
June 4th: The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, pursuing Wisconsin’s failure to comply with the Help America Vote Act.
June 25th: The DOJ filed a lawsuit against Orange County, California, for refusing to provide the Justice Department with records pertaining to the removal of non-citizens from its voter registration list and for failing to maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
July 1st: The DOJ filed a statement of interest in a Wyoming case to defend a documentary proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration.
July 8th: The DOJ filed a statement of interest in an Illinois case concerning the need for states to make reasonable efforts to remove the names of ineligible voters from their voter rolls.
There is a lot more work to be done in this quarter, but this is a fair amount of progress for six months in office.
See Also: This Is Big: DOJ Files Lawsuit, Hammers NC Over Inaccurate Voter List
New: Federal Judge Blocks Part of Trump's EO Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Vote
The Big One: Voter ID
Democrats consistently oppose any attempt at voter ID laws, and the only possible explanation for that is that they are willing to accept people voting fraudulently and illegally. The attempts to cast voter ID laws as racist or otherwise discriminatory are pure horse squeeze; these arguments are not only insulting, implying that certain classes of people (minorities, poor people, etc.) are somehow incapable of obtaining a legal ID, but the argument flies in the face of the fact that it is virtually impossible to comport ones' self through our modern lifestyle without some form of identification. Without a government-issued ID, one cannot open a bank account, cash a check, buy a bottle of booze, or apply for government assistance of any kind. One cannot buy a car or fill a prescription.
On March 25, President Trump issued a wide-ranging executive order aimed at protecting the integrity of American elections, including calling for voter ID laws and other key reforms.
President Trump: “We’re going to fix our elections so that our elections are going to be honorable and honest and people leave and they know their vote is counted. We are going to have free and fair elections. And ideally, we go to paper ballots, same-day voting, proof of citizenship, very big, and voter ID, very simple.”
If the Trump administration does one thing, if history marks this 2025-2029 presidential term only for restoring the American people's faith in our elections and our voter registration rolls, that will be enough. Oh, the Trump administration, as we noted, has done a lot more than that, and we still have three and a half years to go. This, however, is the most important thing. This is the elephant in the room, especially after the 2020 elections, in which a lot of people still harbor a lot of doubt. We cannot have that happen again. The Trump administration seems determined that this will not happen again.
Without honest elections, there can be no republic. If we lose this fight, we lose everything. Those are the stakes. That's why, in next year's midterms and every election hereafter, we have to do our part as well: Vote. Vote as though the survival of the republic depends on it, because it does.
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