Voter Fraud and the November Elections
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
My colleague, Tom Abram, posted an excellent piece on June 13 here on federal and state Republican attempts to influence voter turnout in November. (It is well worth a second read.). It is clear that the president’s mindless agitation and confused rambling on the subject on X is driven by his increasing fear that his party might take a drubbing. Retaking the House by Democrats is being predicted by most reliable pundits and the polls are reinforcing those predictions. Even the Senate majority is in play, despite the recent troubles in Maine.
So, Trump is resorting to the same playbook that was used to launch his first presidential run in 2015 and in his subsequent presidential runs. The threats, the use of power bestowed on him by SCOTUS, the obsequious pandering by all levels of the Republican Party, the unwillingness of most media outlets to challenge his lies and the seeming disengagement by many voters would suggest his plan may bear fruit. But, his personal approval ratings tell a different story.
His desperate attempt to get his SAVE Act passed seems to be floundering. As is typical, he even used his remarks following Senator Lindsey Graham’s passing to suggest that its passage would be a grand sendoff for the senator. Pretty typical for the man with no soul, no moral compass, no concern for absolutely anyone else except Donald J. Trump.
Voter Fraud
Voter fraud is the point of the SAVE Act or, more precisely, the justification for the blatant attempt at voter suppression. So, how bad is voter fraud?
The Heritage Foundation, the group responsible for Project 2025, the Trump playbook for his second administration, did research on presidential elections covering the period from 1982 to 2023 (10 presidential elections). During those presidential elections, 1.18 BILLION votes were cast and only 1,200 people were convicted of voter fraud related to those 10 elections. That calculates to .000010 of 1 % (one ten thousandth of 1%) of voter fraud convictions over 1.18 billion votes cast.
Of course, the Heritage Foundation, as you might expect, cited all kinds of caveats to explain the insignificance of their findings. But, hey folks, this is their data, not mine. As we know, Trump is the all time master of the denial of statements he made the previous day in front of cameras. We should expect no less from his puppet masters, the Heritage Foundation.
Since I have worked as an election observer for several cycles, I have seen the whole process from the inside. Our elections are very safe and the results are checked, rechecked and checked again. There is absolutely no way for any significant unlawful voting to take place in North Carolina.
Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged actually speaks to the veracity of everyone (Republicans, Democrats and all political persuasions in between) who have rejected his claims. If you look back on his stated perceptions about the 2016, 2020 and 2024 election, a simple pattern emerges. When he won, the vote was “clean." In 2020 the election was rigged. The Democrats held the levers of power in 2016 and Trump won. The Republicans had those same levers in 2020 and he lost. The Democrats were in charge of the government again in 2024 and Trump won.
Where Is This Going?
It is easy to see (even for many Republicans, even if they won’t admit to it in public) that the president’s mental state, along with his physical state, is deteriorating rapidly. The SAVE Act is an example of his frenzy to save himself and his “legacy.” The SAVE Act is constructed to eliminate voters. If you are a woman (and Republican women are just as vulnerable as Democratic and Unaffiliated women), you will be severely challenged to prove your personhood. If you are married or were married, your birth certificate cannot be used to prove you are a US citizen. You will need corroborating documents. The process may include the provision for most of us to prove we are US citizens. (See more details about the SAVE Act.)
The sheer stupidity embedded in the details in the SAVE ACT further reinforces the depth of Trump’s frenzy, his declining cognitive skills and the stark terror about November’s implications for the last two years of his second (and last) presidency. He wants to limit the number of early voting days, decrease the number of voting sites, decrease the number of voting hours and (at least here in North Carolina) weaponize the power of the Republican-controlled state Board of Elections. It is easy to see how the attempts to suppress voter turnout could fall more heavily on Republicans.
What Can We Yet See From Trump Before November?
His renewal of the war against Iran may signal positioning to declare a national emergency and declare a cancellation of the November election under the War Powers Act.
Calling Democrats “Communists” is a shift in Republican messaging. It has been “Socialists” for years, but his propping up farmers with billions in subsidies, the short term reduction in federal income taxes (that, by the way, disappears in two more years), vague promises of tariff rebates (good look on that one) and accelerated reimbursements for disaster relief to red states are all “socialist” governance. So, we are now ‘communists”. It is ironic in the extreme since he fawns over Putin and has bent over backward to protect Putin from Western sanctions.
We can expect some suggestions from him that federal troops are necessary at polling places across the country in November. I suspect that will be a nonstarter even for many Republican politicians.
What Can We Do?
Chin Up. Head Up. We are winning. Actually take solace from his fevered nightly rants. Ignore the in-fighting at the DNC or in New York (or in Maine for that matter). As Ann Twiggs said recently, “we are not New York, we are WNC." We are not Republicans who goose step every time Trump makes another pronouncement. Maybe we do not agree with every policy statement from the several parts of our “big coalition” party. None of us get everything we want from our politics. We only win if we find common ground among ourselves. How do we move forward? WE ELECT DEMOCRATS! Protest votes for Republicans just continue our time in the wilderness. Staying home in November is a vote for Chuck Edwards. Are we really going to self-immolate just to protest some perceived slight?
The Republicans are handing us an unprecedented opportunity to begin the process of taking back our country. No, the opportunity is not perfect. But, it is the best opportunity we have had in a generation.
Our Voice, our Vote, our Power!
Joe Elliott