Trump keeps spewing election misinformation to dishearten voters
The Trump administration’s recent demand for personal information about everyone who worked on Election Day 2020 — including volunteers — should concern all Georgians.
This latest action, combined with the FBI raid earlier this year when agents for the administration seized every ballot cast in the 2020 election from safekeeping in Fulton County, are part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to take power away from state and local officials to conduct elections and vest it in the hands of the federal government through a series of unprecedented and unlawful executive orders.
The president has made this message clear. He posted on social media that, “the states are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them.”
But the law — specifically Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution — shows this claim to be false, granting those powers exclusively to the states.
The president’s misinformation about election fraud in his loss in 2020 and his threat to take over elections appears to be a strategy to further consolidate power by disenfranchising millions of minorities and working-class voters.
President is overstepping his authority to keep GOP in power
The recent actions in Fulton County, based on Trump’s false claim that the election he lost in Georgia was somehow rigged, are an outrageous intrusion into the sanctity of the election booth and they jeopardize the personal information of as many as 3,000 election workers. A Trump-appointed judge has blocked the administration’s attempt to seize this information, for now.
The government’s actions in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and elsewhere — even if overturned later by the courts — suggests what the Trump administration may be planning to do in this year’s midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.
By casting doubt on the validity of the outcome in 2020, the administration’s actions set the stage to enact executive orders that will allow the president to take over elections in large, urban areas around the country that have been traditional Democratic strongholds.
Already, members of his administration have stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be present at selective voting sites this year to prevent voter fraud. The real goal, however, is more likely to intimidate legal citizens from voting.
The president knows what is at stake in the midterm elections if Republicans lose Congress. He recognizes that he will face possible impeachment and a significantly harder time advancing his agenda on most issues.
Executive orders carry far less weight if they are not funded and supported by Congress. If Democrats win a majority in Congress, the president either must work with politicians he has repeatedly attacked or attempt to govern through edict and force.
Facing the potential loss of power, the president has already taken steps to diminish Americans’ right to vote. He issued an executive order requiring state and local officials to impose stricter identification requirements on voters. Most of that order has been blocked by the courts, but The Washington Post has reported the president is considering a new executive order that would give him the power to declare a national emergency and nationalize the elections.
Reagan offered valuable words on the right to vote
The administration has also championed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which will add significant voter identification changes — including the requirement that each voter prove he or she is a U.S. citizen.
Many citizens lack access to their birth certificates or a passport. It is estimated that many of those people might be denied the right to vote. The SAVE Act, which has passed the House and is awaiting Senate action, is a solution in search of a problem. The conservative Heritage Foundation found only 36 instances of voter fraud among more than 64 million votes cast in Georgia from 1982-2024.
It’s worth restating over and over again. There is no factual basis for the president’s claims of massive voter fraud, here or elsewhere. Elections in Georgia have been overseen by Republican secretaries of state for decades. The state has strict voter ID rules and other protections in place. The facts show that voting was fair and accurately tabulated in 2016, 2020 and again in 2024.
In 1982, then-President Ronald Reagan said, “the right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.”
His successor, Donald Trump, has been conducting a calculated campaign to erode public trust in elections. The law is clear. Elections are conducted at the local level, and the president of the United States cannot take over an election when he has an obvious interest in the outcome.
Adam Hames is a second-generation Georgia lawyer. His practice focuses on appeals and representing people accused of crimes. He is a member of Georgia Lawyers for the Rule of Law.
Send letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer with your name, city or town and contact information to letters@ajc.com.