Add voter registration to the President Trump 100-day to-do list. Why? Because voting is a broken foundational system of our Democratic Republic and must be saved. The federal government must pass a low dictating the way forward and then give the states a year’s time to get a fraud-free system in place before the 2026 off-year primary elections begin.
Here is a Newsweek headline that illustrates exactly what the Liberals are thinking and doing whenever they discover the Republications are planning to initiate a fix for the broken voting system. “Within 24 hours of Independence Day 2022, Biden’s Department of Justice announced its plan to sue Arizona for a state law that requires proof of American citizenship to vote in presidential elections.” As incredulous as it may seem, you read that right; the DOJ was suing Arizona for making sure that people who are not citizens are not allowed to vote for president of the United States.
Additionally, every time any possible solution to fraudulent voting is raised it is by the Republicans. And every time it is loudly and frequently declared “racist” by the collective Democrat leadership. Every time.
The irony of the Democrats’ “racist” claim is that the statement is in and of itself racist and demeaning. Their implication is that the process of lawful voter registration is so onerous that minority adults will not be able to accomplish the process. Hogwash.
A University of Maryland study released in 2023 tells us that at least 20 million voter-age Americans do not have a current government photo ID. The ACLU in particular and Democrat leaders in general are quick to point out that a disproportionate share of those 20 million are minorities. Therefore, they conclude, voter ID must be a racial issue. Fact, every adult has access to a state-run ID facility. Fact, voting is both an American privilege and responsibility. We should not, must not denigrate the right to vote or a guaranteed honest election result because adults of any race make a personal decision to not have an ID.
This Democrat behavior cannot be allowed to continue. Mr. President, make it a national issue and fix it now.
Democrats are insistent that we need mail-in voting. They also insist that presenting Voter ID in the form of a driver’s license, passport or other state or federal ID is somehow a violation of citizens’ rights. Let’s take a look around the world:
Is the United States the only country that has experienced a mail-in voting problem? Certainly not but at least others have done something about it and for a good reason. This research was compiled by a friend of mine. I’m certain it is fact-checked (thanks, Joe).
- France banned mail-in voting in 1975 due to fraud.
- Mexico banned mail-in voting in 1992 due to fraud.
- Belgium banned mail-in voting in 2018 due to fraud.
- Sweden does not permit mail-in voting.
- Italy does not permit mail-in voting.
- Ukraine does not permit mail-in voting.
- Russia does not permit mail-in voting.
- Japan does not permit mail-in voting.
- No Middle Eastern nation permits mail-in voting.
- No Latin America country permits mail-in voting.
THE PROBLEMS
The key elements are mail-in ballots, drop boxes (stuffing), ballot harvesting (sorted by unauthorized persons) and out of date error-ridden voter registration rolls.
The cause-and-effect are that the validity of the mail-in ballot is directly linked to the validity of the mail-out ballot. Voter registration rolls are the source of addressing the mail-out ballots and across the country the voter registration rolls are in pathetic condition involving millions of legal voters/illegal voters.
FACTS SUPPORTING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
Judicial Watch is a nonprofit activist group that focuses on promoting transparency and accountability in government through litigation and investigations.
Judicial Watch relies on its voter registration studies to warn and/or sue states that they are failing to comply with the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires states to make reasonable efforts to clean their voter rolls. Judicial Watch can and has sued to enforce compliance with that federal law.
Some Judicial Watch actions:
Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S., had a 2022 population of 9.86 million residents. Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit against Los Angeles County that was finally settled in 2017 after the county complied by removing 1,207,613 ineligible and inactive voters from its voter rolls. Without that successful law suit, those 1,207,613 ineligible voters would have presumably received a mail-in ballot.
September, 2021 California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 37 making California the eighth state in the nation with a law on the books requiring every voter (that is, voter name on the registration rolls) to be mailed a ballot.
Other Judicial Watch recent settlements: New York City was forced to remove 441,083 ineligible names from voter rolls. In Kentucky, “hundreds of thousands” were removed. In North Carolina “over 430,000 inactive registrations were removed.”
Though all states offer some form of voting by mail, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washinton state and Washington, D.C., now mandate that every “registered” voter be mailed a ballot ahead of an election by default; it’s called all-mail voting, aka all-fraudulent voting.
All of the above could be OK if, and this is the big IF, the voter registration rolls were up to date (no dead people), correct (actually living at the recorded address) and are in fact eligible to vote (U.S. citizens).
HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION PROBLEM?
Judicial Watch announced that a nation-wide September 2020 study revealed that 353 U.S. counties in 29 states had more registered voters than eligible voting-age citizens. In other words, the registration rates of those counties exceeded 100% of eligible voters. The study found eight states showing state-wide (all counties) registration rates exceeding 100%: Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Two questions: First, where the Judicial Watch study methods valid? The September 2020 study collected the most recent registration data posted online by the states themselves. This data was then compared to the Census Bureau’s most recent five-year population estimates, gathered by the American Community Survey from 2014 through 2018. ACS surveys are sent to 3.5 million addresses each month, and its five-year estimates are considered to be the most reliable estimates outside of the decennial census. Yes, the study methodology was valid.
Second, what number of ineligible voters is considered significant? The candidate for dog-catcher in Po Dunk township expects and deserves a legal election just as much as a presidential candidate. The dog-catcher election in that small community can come down to a single vote. Bottom line, one ineligible voter is one too many.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed during his first debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden that mail-in voting will lead to “fraud like you’ve never seen,” thereby challenging the integrity of the upcoming election.
Biden countered: “No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots.” Oh yes, they have Mr. Biden, you just didn’t like the answer so you and your Democrat followers continued lying with the denial and the “racist” accusations. Judicial Watch pretty much settled that question.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The data highlights the recklessness of mailing blindly ballots and ballot applications to voter registration lists. Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections.”
Right now, the Democrats need to stop lying to themselves and we-the-people about the mail-in ballot fraud issue.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT VOTER FRAUD? A SIMPLE FEDERAL LAW AND A NUMBER.
We cannot just sit by, do nothing and hope for the best. Hope is not a process and doing nothing is irresponsible and cowardly.
The federal government should pass a law as soon as possible that mandates two actions at the State level. The SECURE U.S. ELECTIONS ACT should easily be less than ten pages, easy for everyone to understand and easy to execute. The Act should tell us:
- First, as of a date-certain in 2025 every voter registration roll in every state must become null and void.
- Secondly every eligible voter who wishes to vote in the states’ next election must re-register in 2025 or 2026. Simply stated, we desperately need a one-time, 100% reboot of the voter registration system.
- The law will then go on to specify how the voter will go about proving in person that they are in fact, an eligible voter.
THE REAL ID ACT 2005 CAN/SHOULD PLAY A CENTRAL ROLE
In accordance with that law (finally) on May 7, 2025, U.S. travelers must be REAL ID compliant to board domestic flights in the U.S.
Secure driver’s licenses and personal ID cards are a vital component of our national security framework. The REAL ID Act enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.” Every state is required by this federal law to provide the facilities capable of providing REAL ID drivers licenses or personal ID cards. The applicable parts of that law are:
- The person’s full legal name.
- The person’s date of birth.
- The person’s gender.
- The person’s driver’s license or identification card number; critical.
- A digital photograph of the person.
- The person’s address of principle residence.
- The person’s signature.
- Physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.
- A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements.
- An expiration date.
- As millions of Americans already know, when you appear to get the REAL ID, you must have in your possession proof of all the above information; birth certificate, U.S. passport, social security card, a current bill addressed to you at your legal address.
Why does anyone believe we should have anything less to prove that we are eligible to vote?
HOW THE REAL ID CAN WORK FOR VOTER REGISTRATION
At some date when a state is ready to begin reconstructing its voter registry, an eligible voter may appear at a voting office in their area or download their REAL ID data onto an online application form that can be mailed to their local election office. The name, address, expiration date and most importantly the number on the driver’s license or personal ID will be entered into the new state voter registration data base.
It is the number on the ID that will make voter fraud very difficult. As part of this new voter fraud law, every single ballot, either mail-in or in-person voting will have a number on it; a REAL ID number, a Voter ID number if required by that state or a social security number. Every single ballot will have a number on it that directly links it to one eligible voter. Period.
This new law, let’s call it SECURE U.S. ELECTIONS ACT, will also specify that every voting machine in the nation will be updated to reject any ballot that does not contain a voter number, that the number corresponds to a particular individual whose name and address is on the ballot and that the number has not been previously used during that election cycle.
Getting dead voters off the rolls. Under this system, part of the on-going process with the voter registration roll is that when a Voter ID reaches its expiration date, that person will be automatically dropped from the rolls. Also, each time a REAL ID license or ID is renewed, that data will be automatically forwarded to the state voter registration to put that individual back on the voter rolls. On a continuous basis, this cleans out the dead voters.
THE PERSON WHO DOES NOT WANT TO GET A REAL ID BUT DOES WANT TO VOTE
The SECURE U.S. ELECTIONS ACT will provide for in-person election day voter registration (to include early in-person voting dates). That voter must present the same documentation required for a REAL ID and present it at the voting venue. The documentation must include a Social Security card and the social security number will become the voter number used on that ballot, that day.
STATES’ RIGHTS
States have proven they cannot be trusted when left to their own devices when it comes to voter security. Therefore, a federal law, Secure U.S. Elections Act, will prescribe a single nation-wide system that every ballot will be paper, contain a valid ID number and be signed by a voter who has proven their U.S. citizenship.
Left up to the states are issues such as early voting (when, where and for how long), and absentee ballots (deadline for requesting one and for receipt back). Mail-in voting is authorized if the mail-out ballot has a valid Voter ID number preprinted on the ballot and is sent to a valid address that matches that of the legal voter. Ballot boxes and Ballot Harvesting are absolutely prohibited.
CONCLUSIONS
This law, SECURE U.S. ELECTIONS ACT, can/should be an easy, quick fix to support our next election cycle that, without a fix, could be the one that completely crumbles one of the most sacred foundational elements of this country; free and honest elections.
The basis for this new law is already on the books, THE REAL ID ACT. The states are already performing the functions to produce IDs for eligible voters. Tens of millions of Americans already have a Real ID. All that is needed is a requirement to reboot the voter registration rolls during 2025
This is not rocket-science; it’s just a name, an address and a number. Any attempt to manipulate the data for political gain is voter fraud and someone should go to jail.
BOTTOM LINE
What this all boils down to is this question; are eligible citizens at least patriotic enough that they will make the same effort for the right to vote that they would make for eligibility to get on a U.S. airliner?
The answer to that question seems to be a resounding YES. How resounding?
On 24 October, 2024 Gallup released polling data that revealed overwhelming support for voting reform as follows:
- 84 % of Americans back having, “all voters give photo identification at their voting place in order to vote.”
- 83% back having, “people who are registering to vote for the first time provide proof of citizenship.”
- 80% of people of color support Voter ID.
- 76% of people of color support a proof of citizenship requirement.
Mr. President, make it happen now in this sequence.
- Draft the SECURE U.S. ELECTIONS ACT in the White House.
- Address the nation on this subject with these objectives:
One, use fact-checked numbers from Judicial Watch to take away Bidens claim that, “no one has established at all that there is fraud”, and the Democrat leaders’ “racist” claim and the Left media’s noise about “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional.”
Secondly, tell the American public that there has rarely been a serious national issue that has this kind of bipartisan support by using the Gallup poll numbers. Tell Americans, “We are doing this because more that 80% of you want us to.”
Also spend some time talking about free and honest elections being one of the hallmarks of this great nation and we must do whatever is necessary to insure its purity. While we recognize that at least 20 million voting-age Americans do not possess any form of non-expired, government-issued photo identification, voting is not only a right and privilege it is also a responsibility. Your state has a facility where you can get a Real I.D. Under this Bill, that I.D. is all you will need to be a lawful voter. I encourage all of you to act responsively and be ready to vote in the next election.
- Send the draft Bill to Congressional leaders with a personal cover letter requesting their bipartisan support for the will of 80% of Americans.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.