State and local officials, as well as election security experts, have largely panned a recent speech by President Donald Trump, in which he reiterated claims that U.S. elections have been rigged against him. The White House had teased explosive new claims about potential compromise of U.S. elections by China, but Trump's speech was deemed a rehash of claims that have been repeatedly debunked.
Claims Lacking Credible Evidence
David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said that none of Trump's claims or allegations were new or substantively different from previous theories he's been espousing over the past six years. Becker stated, 'The White House promised a bombshell and they delivered a dud. There was nothing that even calls into question past elections — certainly not the 2020 election.'
The administration declassified a huge tranche of documents from intelligence agencies, but so far, nothing has been found that remotely validates the administration's claims about foreign interference from China costing Trump the 2020 election. In fact, some of the most relevant documents found have supported the opposite conclusion, with agencies assessing that while China engaged in influence campaigns around the election, it was not attempting to outright interfere with U.S. election infrastructure, hack voting machines, or manipulate ballots.
Investigation Yields No Evidence
John Solomon, a former journalist and opinion writer at The Hill, who was brought in by the White House to lead the investigation, told reporters that his search hasn't turned up evidence that the 2020, 2022, or 2024 elections were affected by fraud. The one new major claim by Trump — that the Department of Homeland Security determined hundreds of thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote across four states — is almost certainly false or overinflated, given that it contradicts post-election state audits that have routinely found single or double-digit numbers of noncitizens registered to vote within a single state across multiple elections.
Over the past six years, similar claims by GOP secretaries of state and political activists purporting to find mass numbers of noncitizens registered to vote have turned out to be grossly inflated due to shoddy data analysis, and the vast majority of cases involving 'suspected noncitizens' turn out to be U.S. citizens who are legally registered to vote.
Election Officials Respond
Nevada Democratic Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said that Trump has spent a decade attempting to manufacture a crisis around voter fraud and that the president's speech was an extension of that effort. Aguilar stated, 'As Nevada's chief elections officer, it's my job to call balls and strikes — so when the President lies, I am obligated to call him out. The facts have not changed: Nevada's elections are among the safest, most secure, and accessible in the nation.'
It's not just Democrats that have objected to the administration's efforts. GOP states have gone to court to block the Department of Justice from obtaining their voter data, and Idaho's Republican secretary of state responded to a DOJ letter threatening prosecution of election officials as 'not well met' and potentially illegal under state ethics laws.
Concerns Over Election Security
Trump's speech potentially casts additional light on recent White House decisions, such as firing all three commissioners on the Election Assistance Commission. The agency helps certify voting machines for security, and all three commissioners have served across administrations and maintain close relationships with state and local election officials. Pamela Smith, CEO of the nonprofit Verified Voting, said that while the EAC can't take certain actions that need commissioner approval, 'critical functions like voting system testing and certification can continue under the existing framework and should not be affected.'
Some have worried that Trump could use the speech as a pretext to declare a national emergency or cancel elections. Tom Lopach, CEO of the Voter Participation Center, said, 'You don't dismantle election security infrastructure if you're serious about protecting elections. You dismantle it if you're planning to claim, without evidence, that the system failed you.'
While Becker takes Trump's broadsides against state election authority seriously, he also said it's essential not to lose sight of the fact that, in his view, the administration is losing the argument across the board. More than a dozen federal courts have unanimously rejected the federal government's attempts to forcibly obtain state voter data, while other courts have rejected core pieces of his election-related executive orders.
Becker predicted that such an act would be quickly shot down by courts as well, noting that the U.S. has never canceled or postponed an election in its 250-year history, including when British troops were marauding on American soil during the War of 1812 or even at the height of the Civil War. It's crucial not to conflate the White House's bluster and intentions with its actual authorities or capability to seize control of U.S. elections.
'This is what panic and desperation look like,' Becker said. 'They've had 18 months in total control of the federal government and they have found nothing that would support President Trump's lies about the 2020 election, and so they're just trying to grab as much garbage as they can and throw it up against the wall, and it's not sticking.'
Source: CyberScoop