'Direct attack': Inside Trump’s plan to upend free and fair elections

04 August

Donald Trump gestures at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

A sweeping new report from the Brennan Center for Justice warns that the Trump administration, backed by Republican legislators and allied state actors, is mounting what one civil‑rights coalition calls a “coordinated scheme” to rig voter rolls and control election machinery to stay in power regardless of how the public votes.

In an article for People's Worldpublished Monday, journalist Mark Gurenberg highlighted the key elements of this strategy that surfaced in an executive order signed March 25 titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”

It mandates documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport or naturalization certificate, for any voter registration using the federal form, and bars counting mail‑in ballots if they arrive after Election Day, irrespective of postmark date. States that do not comply risk losing federal election funding and may face enforcement actions by the Department of Justice or other agencies.

The article highlighted the Brennan Center report's finding that more than 21 million eligible U.S. citizens — many low‑income voters, married women, seniors and people of color — lack ready access to the documentation required. This means that the order and its legislative counterpart in Congress, the proposal known as the SAVE Act, would likely prevent millions from ever registering to vote.

The center's report said: “A president has no right to rewrite the country’s election rules or regulate federal elections on his own."

“As a federal court recently put it, ‘The Constitution vests none of these powers in the president.’ In issuing the order, the president claimed extraordinary unilateral authority to regulate federal elections and usurp the powers of Congress, the states, and the (U.S.) Elections Administration Commission, an independent, bipartisan federal agency," it added.

“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” said one civil‑rights leader in April who testified before the Senate Rules Committee.

“The SAVE Act is a direct attack on our freedom to vote and a dangerous attempt to silence the voices of millions—particularly voters of color, low income families, women, and young people … It is not about safeguarding elections. It is about stripping power from the people and undermining our democracy," the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement in March.

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