The second strategy seeks to enlist
Congress. The SAVE Act, Trump’s “number
one priority,” would require citizens to produce a passport or birth
certificate to register—yet 21 million Americans lack ready access to those
documents. The House of Representatives twice passed versions of the bill, and
for two weeks this past month, the Senate debated it. Forty-two opponents gave
floor speeches—including Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski—and thus the bill
has so far been unable to garner the support necessary to overcome a filibuster.
Senators went on vacation without even taking a vote. The president’s only live
legislative priority will, again, be stymied if foes continue to press.
Another scheme deploys the Justice
Department. In January, the FBI raided the elections offices in Fulton County,
Georgia, seizing ballots from the 2020 election in an attempt to relitigate the
results. The affidavit underlying the raid turned out to be a compilation of debunked
conspiracy theories. That’s all ominous, but just as worrisome have been the Justice Department’s demands
that all 50 states turn over sensitive voter rolls, including Social Security
numbers. Why is the federal government hoovering up all this information? It’s
now clear that Trump’s team wants to pressure states to purge voters from the
rolls, many of whom would be eligible to cast ballots. Some states have gone
along, but most have resisted. Three courts so far have ruled that Washington has
no authority to demand this data. In the face of improper federal demands, state
and county officials are standing up. Outside experts are training lawyers for
election officials about how to resist further encroachment.
Another move has been to pull the
federal cops off the beat. Election officials have been beset by threats, disinformation,
and actual violence. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency exists
in part to help them, providing expertise and funding. But last year, Trump gutted the agency, cleaning out its staff
and even ordering an investigation of its former director, Chris Krebs, who had
the temerity to affirm that the 2020 election had been secure. That has left
elections dangerously unprotected against foreign government hacking. There’s no
substitute for a strong national security response, but many of these election
security experts are now advising states from the outside.
