Trump & GOP Ramp Up Voter Suppression Efforts

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on voting last month called Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections. Based on past performance, however, we can be confident that preserving and protecting integrity was anything but his goal.

The Republican-backed SAVE Act, passed in the House on Thursday, falls into the same category. Like Trump’s executive order, it would establish new federal voting rules with the apparent purpose of tilting future elections to Republicans.

For decades, the goal for voting rights advocates has been to make it easier for eligible citizens to vote. This has not led to widespread fraud as Trump and his congressional loyalists would have you believe. In fact, this system has been remarkably successful. But Trump’s executive order and the SAVE Act would take us backward.

No matter what one might call them, Trump’s executive order and the Save Act are direct attacks on our democracy.

“Every single day, I think the chances are growing that we will not have a free and fair election in 2026,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned recently. If Trump’s executive order stays in place and the SAVE Act is enacted, Murphy’s ominous warning will be a reality in next year’s midterms.

The SAVE Act basically would require citizens to show a birth certificate or passport to register or re-register to vote. A driver’s license would not qualify.

This could stop millions of eligible voters from registering or re-registering, including those who do not have access to their birth certificates, women whose married names are not the same as the names on their birth certificates, and the more than half of Americans who do not hold passports.

The Declaration for American Democracy (DFAD) – a coalition including Democracy 21 and more than 260 organizations – sent a letter to Representatives strongly opposing the SAVE Act, saying:

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections and ensure all American citizens can freely, securely, and easily exercise their right to vote. The SAVE Act represents a dangerous departure from fulfilling this duty, and as currently written, this bill will make it significantly harder, if not outright impossible, for millions of Republican, Democratic, and independent voters to register to vote and have their voices heard.”

Like the SAVE Act, Trump’s executive order would restrict the ability of eligible citizens to register or re-register to vote. It would, according to many analyses, disproportionally affect the young, people of color, and lower-income Americans.

The executive order instructs the Election Assistance Commission to change the voter registration form and within 180 days decertify all state voting systems, subject to recertification if a state can meet a new federal standard. According to the Brennan Center, “[t]here is no voting system currently on the market that meets this standard, leaving states with no feasible way to comply.”

The order would also grant DOGE access to state voter rolls – a dangerous and destructive move. Other provisions will also interfere with the voting process.

The SAVE Act and the Trump executive order would place obstacle after obstacle in the way of eligible citizens who want to vote. And they do so with the apparent goal of rigging elections to ensure Republicans win. This is voter suppression, plain and simple.

Our elections can be protected from these actions.

The Constitution gives power to set voting rules only to the states and Congress and provides no role for the President. Trump’s executive order is plainly unconstitutional and has been challenged by voting rights groups and 19 states in federal court.

The SAVE Act now moves to the Senate, where Democrats can block action on the measure.

Senate Democrats must block the SAVE Act and the Supreme Court must declare Trump’s executive order unconstitutional.

The late Representative and civil rights icon John Lewis once said, “The right to vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society.”

We must not risk losing it now.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.