Trump could make it harder to vote — with Congress’ help

26 December 2024

Only two presidents in U.S. history have been elected to two non-consecutive terms: Democrat Grover Cleveland in the 1880s and 1890s and Republican Donald Trump in the 2010s and 2020s.

After being voted out of office in 2020 and losing to Democrat Joe Biden, President-elect Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris four years later and will return to the White House on January 20, 2025. Trump, however, has never acknowledged that he lost in 2020 and has maintained that the election was stolen from him — a false claim that has been repeatedly debunked.

Trump has been calling for major changes to the United States' election system. And according to Associated Press (AP) reporter Christina A. Cassidy, he has a chance of making that happen in 2025 — as Republicans will have small majorities in both branches of Congress.

"Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation's voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements," Cassidy reports in an article published the day after Christmas. "They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election."

Cassidy adds, "In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to address Trump's desires to change how elections are run in the U.S. — something he continues to promote despite his win in November."

Republicans, the AP reporter notes, are "likely to face opposition from Democrats" with their voting proposals and will "have little wiggle room."

One of those Democrats is Rep. Joe Morelle of New York State, who is highly critical of two bills being pushed by Republicans: the SAVE Act and the ACE Act.

Morelle told AP, "Our view and the Republicans' view is very different on this point. They have spent most of the time in the last two years and beyond really restricting the rights of people to get to ballots — and that's at the state level and the federal level. And the SAVE Act and the ACE Act both do that: make it harder for people to vote."

Read the full Associated Press article at this link.

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