The key to what a new Trump administration can do to enhance the security of the election process is not to nationalize election operations, something the radical Left has tried to do for years.
What the Trump administration can and should do is assist states’ efforts to improve the integrity of elections. This includes removing roadblocks placed in their way by the Obama and Biden administrations and properly enforcing federal laws affecting the voting process instead of abusing those laws and selectively enforcing them.
The Constitution places the primary responsibility of administering elections on the states. To be sure, federal laws bar discrimination and affect the voting process, but those laws are an overlay to the responsibility of state governments.
So, what steps should the second Trump administration take after taking over Jan. 20?
First, it should remove the roadblocks. For years, the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has made it difficult, if not impossible, for state election officials to access DHS databases that contain information on aliens who are in this country both legally and illegally.
State election officials need access to these databases to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. The federal government is required to provide this information to the states by two separate statutes, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1373 and 1644, yet DHS has delayed, prevented, and hindered access.
Florida, Ohio, and Texas have sued the Biden administration over its refusal to abide by those provisions.
The Trump White House and Homeland Security Secretary-designate Kristi Noem need to stop that obfuscation immediately once Noem, currently governor of South Dakota, is confirmed by the Senate. They must drain the DHS swamp of every employee involved in violating federal law and refusing to verify citizenship for state election officials.
Moreover, DHS’ “Application for Naturalization” form (Form N-400, Part 9) asks aliens whether they have “EVER registered to vote or voted in any Federal, State, or local election in the United States?” When aliens answer “yes,” however, DHS currently just sits on this information.
The Department of Homeland Security should be required to forward that information to election officials in the state in which the alien registered or voted, so those officials can take appropriate action. DHS also should forward it to the Justice Department so the aliens can, if appropriate, be prosecuted under federal criminal laws that bar aliens from registering and voting.
Additionally, the Justice Department should instruct U.S. attorneys across the nation—all of whom will be selected by the returning president and confirmed by the Senate—to take advantage of federal jury information.
Federal district courts obtain lists of potential jurors from state election officials via voter registration rolls. When individuals called for jury duty in a federal case are excused because they’ve moved out of state or aren’t citizens, U.S. attorneys should be required to forward that information to state election officials.
U.S. attorneys already are obligated to do that under the National Voter Registration Act for individuals convicted of felonies in federal court. Additionally, those aliens excused from jury duty whose names were obtained from a voter registration list should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted by that same U.S. attorney for illegally registering and potentially voting.
None of this is being done currently. Jury rolls are another source of information that is completely ignored by the Justice Department.
And speaking of the weaponized, politicized Justice Department: Attorney General-designate Pam Bondi, once confirmed, needs to dismiss all of the abusive, meritless lawsuits filed by DOJ’s out-of-control Civil Rights Division.
Georgia is still fighting a lawsuit filed by DOJ that claims commonsense election reforms passed by the state in 2021 were discriminatory. That’s a particularly absurd claim given that with all of these reforms in place, Georgia has seen record registration and turnout.
Similarly, lawsuits filed by the Justice Department against the states of Virginia and Alabama for removing aliens from voter rolls should be immediately dismissed with prejudice. DOJ’s claim that such action is barred by the National Voter Registration Act is wrong and a misinterpretation of the law. And its Criminal Division should ask those states for the files on those aliens for investigation and possible prosecution.
While abusing the Voting Rights Act and portions of the National Voter Registration Act by attacking states’ efforts to improve election integrity, the Justice Department has refused to enforce a key requirement of the NVRA and the Help America Vote Act.
The NVRA (at 52 U.S.C. § 20507(4)) requires states to maintain their voter rolls by making a “reasonable effort” to remove registered voters who have died or moved away. A similar provision in the Help America Vote Act (at 52 U.S.C. § 21083) includes additional requirements such as directing election officials to match voter registration information with state driver’s license records.
A new Justice Department needs to go after the worst states in the country, places such as California and Nevada, that have some of the most inaccurate, error-ridden voter registration lists. And DOJ could start by appearing in a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation in which Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, is trying to gut this provision of the National Voter Registration Act.
Just enforcing these federal requirements for clean voter rolls would do a lot to improve the integrity of elections by helping ensure that invalid or fraudulent ballots aren’t being cast due to errors, mistakes, duplications, and numerous other problems with bad voter lists.
And aren’t you tired of the delays, chaos, and opportunities to cheat caused by states implementing laws that allow absentee and mail-in ballots to continue to come in after Election Day?
This is one area where the Constitution gives the federal government authority over states in federal elections. Congress has the power to set the date for choosing electors for president (Article 2, Section 1, Clause 4), as well as the date for congressional elections (Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1).
Acting under those constitutional provisions, Congress set the date by federal law for presidential and congressional elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held recently in Republican National Committee v. Wetzel that the federal law preempts Mississippi law allowing absentee ballots to be received (and counted) for up to five days after Election Day.
The Justice Department should join the plaintiffs who filed that lawsuit and file similar lawsuits against any state that doesn’t require absentee ballots to be in the hands of election officials by Election Day. This issue may end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is an effort that needs to be made to bring back the “uniform time” for voting that was the purpose behind federal laws setting a national Election Day.
Finally, Trump should immediately rescind President Joe Biden’s executive order in 2021 unlawfully directing federal agencies and their staffs to become involved in voter registration and related activities. Biden had no constitutional or statutory authority to promulgate this attempt by the federal government to interfere in our elections, and Congress didn’t appropriate funds for that purpose.
Various states have filed lawsuits over this order against the Biden administration, which has tried to hide its nefarious activities behind meritless claims of executive privilege, violating the federal Freedom of Information Act.
In addition to rescinding Biden’s order, the Justice Department should agree immediately to settle all related lawsuits and disclose the information and documentation being sought.
These are just a few of the things the federal government can and should do to assist the states and help achieve a goal that should be shared by all Americans regardless of political affiliation: conducting fair, secure, and honest elections in which only eligible citizens vote and ballots are properly counted without mistakes, errors, or fraud.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
