Regardless of the dearth of proof, President Donald Trump and his high aides proceed to contend they should maintain preventing the alleged voter fraud he falsely blamed for his 2020 defeat.
As a part of that, Trump has introduced plans, principally not but applied, to broaden the federal position in state supervision of elections. Subsequent week, the Justice Division is sending federal brokers to watch off-year state elections in California and New Jersey.
Whereas the division known as election monitoring a routine operate, some Democrats worry it’s step one in making fraud claims this yr — and subsequent. “This can be a preview of 2026,” warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom, referring to subsequent yr’s congressional elections. “Get up, everyone.”
And California’s Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta introduced the state would dispatch its personal observers to watch the federal ones.
Its aim, the Justice Division stated, is “to make sure transparency, poll safety and compliance with federal regulation.” Whereas previous administrations additionally despatched federal displays, there are not any federal elections Tuesday, and the administration’s strikes stem primarily from native GOP criticism of mail-in voting, a persistent goal of criticism by Trump.
The New Jersey Republicans requested federal displays to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots.” In California, the place most voting is by mail, GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin wrote that, “In latest elections, we’ve got acquired experiences of irregularities in these (5) counties that we worry will undermine both the willingness of voters to take part within the election or their confidence within the introduced outcomes of the election.”
In actual fact, the primary factor that has undermined confidence in latest American elections is Trump’s repeated false rivalry that the 2020 election was rigged in opposition to him — and his skill to persuade many Republicans.
Going ahead, Trump has made little secret of his intention, if not his means.
“We are able to by no means let what occurred within the 2020 election occur once more,” Trump stated not too long ago. “We simply can’t let that occur. I do know (FBI Director) Kash (Patel) is engaged on it, everyone is engaged on it. And positively (Nationwide Intelligence Director) Tulsi (Gabbard) is engaged on it. We are able to’t let that occur once more to our nation.”
He has put in a number of 2020 election deniers in authorities roles that cope with election safety, together with Heather Honey, named in August as deputy secretary of homeland safety for election integrity.
In line with The New York Instances, Honey urged to conservative activists earlier than her appointment that the administration ought to declare a “nationwide emergency” to justify dictating new election guidelines to the states, simply as Trump used comparable declarations to extend tariffs, broaden immigration crackdowns and broaden power manufacturing.
In the meantime, Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — each potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates — stated they feared Trump’s latest dispatch of Nationwide Guard troops to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland to curb crime and help the roundup of unlawful immigrants is a forerunner of what he may do subsequent yr.
“I believe it’s not very distant from him providing and offering the army to guard the polling locations throughout America, however notably in blue states and blue cities, with the concept that they might confiscate the poll containers in the event that they assume there may be fraud within the election,” Pritzker stated in an interview with Politico.
Newsom questioned the motives behind the Justice Division’s choice to watch voting in 5 southern and central California counties, and in Passaic County, N.J. California is holding a referendum subsequent Tuesday on Newsom’s effort to redistrict congressional seats, whereas New Jersey is electing a brand new governor.
“They’re creating the pretext that after we’re profitable with Prop. 50, after there’s a Democratic governor in New Jersey — and will likely be one in Virginia, unquestionably — that they will recommend one way or the other these had been fraudulent, these elections had been rigged in opposition to them,” Newsom advised KQED in San Francisco.
Pritzker additionally cited the Justice Division’s demand for detailed state voter data.
“That’s by no means occurred within the historical past of america,” he stated. “They gained’t inform us what they’re doing with them, however it seems that they wish to use them within the elections subsequent yr, claiming fraud. So, whenever you put all these items collectively, it’s not a leap to say that he’s doing this as a result of he needs to have an effect on the 2026 elections in favor of MAGA.”
One aim, The New York Instances reported, is to show beforehand unsubstantiated claims that giant numbers of unlawful immigrants have voted illegally. However many states refused to offer the requested knowledge, and the division has sued eight states, together with California.
And when Texas sought to find out the extent of unlawful voting, its preliminary outcomes appear to verify prior conclusions that the numbers are small.
A comparability of the state’s voter registration listing with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s database recognized solely 2,724 noncitizens who had been registered to vote, Secretary of State Jane Nelson introduced.
Since Texas has 18.6 million registered voters, meaning noncitizen registrants represent about .01 of 1 p.c.
The chief order Trump signed in March mandated proof of citizenship for voter registration, banned counting mail-in ballots acquired after Election Day even when postmarked by then and gave the federal authorities a brand new position in state purging of its registration rolls.
A number of authorized challenges have been filed, and the federal courts have blocked enforcement of the citizenship requirement.
However the warnings from Newsom and Pritzker clarify that Democrats will likely be intently watching subsequent week’s Justice Division displays for additional clues to the administration’s long-term intentions.
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