The president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, lost re-election in 2020 by more than 7 million popular votes and by 51.3 percent to 46.8 percent in the GOP-favoring Electoral College. He also lost in sixty court cases, including before the United States Supreme Court, in his efforts to prove that election fraud prevented his re-anointment. Why? Each of the judges said, “NO FACTS.” Attorney General Bill Barr testified under oath that he told Trump in 2020 that the DOJ found no proof to support the Trump claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Senate Republicans issued a 2019-2020 report concluding that foreign attempts to influence American elections had failed. No voting machines were manipulated. No votes were changed.
Tampering with voting machines to change the outcome of an election is nearly impossible. The hacking of voting machines requires physical access to each machine, precinct by precinct, community by community, state by state. And then there are paper records of votes and verifiable audits.
Who has been supporting the Trump conspiracy lies? As noted by GOVTRACK.us recently, “ Fox News agreed to pay voting machine maker Dominion nearly $1 billion in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit over Fox personalities’ extensive fabrications that Dominion machines flipped votes from Trump to Biden in 2020. Newsmax settled with Smartmatic, another voting machine maker, and admitted it lied about the company’s machines and ties to Venezuela. Smartmatic also won a similar case against Mike Lindell and MyPillow for their lies and is in ongoing litigation with Fox.”
Sadly, Trump, in addition to his speeches intentionally undermining America’s belief in election security, has directly reduced America’s ability to defend itself from those who, like him, try to interfere with the sanctity of our vote. He fired all the commissioners of the U. S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the commission tasked to work with states to enhance election security. Trump cut funding and refuses to fill the director position of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within Homeland Security. The CISA provides cybersecurity support to state and local elections offices. Trump also closed the Foreign Influence Task Force at the Department of Justice. And yet he still practices the Art of the Squeal.
Not only are there no facts supporting the Trump lies of successful foreign vote tampering, but there are also no facts supporting claims of widespread noncitizen voting. The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote in 2024 that “it is extremely uncommon for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.” The Department of Homeland Security has found no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. The Center for Election Innovation & Research says that existing election safeguards work.
But Trump the Whiner is pushing the voter suppression bill, The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act). The California GOP is pushing a similarly unneeded constitutional amendment, Prop 39, that Attorney General Rob Bonta “big and beautifully” titles “Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government Issued Identification.” (Republicans are calling “foul.” Apparently, only they get to creatively characterize proposed laws.)
The proposed laws are expensive, sloppy purported cures for a nonexistent disease. Trumpers say, “So? Why not pass it? Better safe than sorry.” I say to them, “Why don’t you get a lobotomy? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Existing election safeguards work. We just need educated and informed voters to make our government work.
Do you qualify?
— Chuck Wieland,
Madera