There are a lot of things that Donald Trump could regret in the aftermath of the 2020 election. He could regret the lies he spread about the existence of widespread voter fraud. He could regret his phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to “find” Trump the votes he needed to win Georgia. He could regret the ensuing violence on January 6 when he unleashed a mob of his supporters on the Capitol building.
But that’s not what he regrets. He recently told the New York Times that what he regrets after the 2020 election is that he didn’t order the National Guard to confiscate voting machines from swing states that he lost. Defenders of the president often tell us to not take seriously his ramblings, but it’s hard to not take him at his word when he has taken several steps in his first year back in power to undermine future elections.
We have important midterms coming up this November. In the coming months, it will fall on our local and state election officials to defend free and fair elections from any attempts by this administration to undermine them.
The opening salvo in this administration’s attacks on our elections came in March, when Trump signed an executive order that attempted to usurp control over elections, a power given to the states by the Constitution. In the executive order he demanded that states not count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after. And while that order is caught up in the courts for now, changes in how the U.S. Postal Service postmarks mail could have an impact on mail-in ballots. The Postal Service now postmarks mail when it is processed, not when it is dropped off. This means that voters who wait to mail their ballot back in might not get their vote counted, even if they send it back on or right before Election Day. Trump has vowed to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.” Part of that effort will no doubt include continued attacks on mail-in ballots and voting machines.
In addition, the president has threatened to prosecute election officials who oversaw the 2020 election that he lost. This stands in stark contrast to his treatment of the violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, an event that resulted in seven deaths and more than 100 injured law enforcement officers. He has pardoned those rioters who tried to overthrow the 2020 election. The message being sent is clear: those who uphold the law will be prosecuted while those who are willing to break the law on his behalf will be given shelter. So much for law and order.
Then in May, the Department of Justice demanded that all states turn over their voter registration lists. Many states, including Wisconsin, have refused and are now being sued by the federal government. These lists include our Social Security numbers, birth dates, and addresses. There are certainly privacy concerns in turning this data over, but there are also concerns that the administration will pressure states to purge their voter rolls. We have already seen cases where voters have been wrongly identified by the federal government as non-citizens. Those mistaken cases will give the administration cover to militarize elections. Given the siege currently taking place in our neighbor to the West, it is not difficult to believe that this administration will send ICE agents to polling places this fall under the guise of ensuring that non-citizens don’t vote. Of course, non-citizens already can’t vote in federal elections, but it will be about sending a message. The image of masked federal agents with guns standing outside polling places will be an attempt to intimidate those who would oppose the ruling party.
And then there’s the gerrymandering wars currently playing out across the country. The president has gotten some GOP-controlled states to gerrymander their states in the hopes of stemming what is looking like a tough midterm for Republicans. Some Democratic states have followed suit and the result has been a gerrymandering arms race which isn’t good for anybody, least of all voters of all parties who want fair representation in Washington.
Luckily, our Framers in their wisdom gave the power to run elections to the states, not the federal government. Admittedly, this decentralization can sometimes be frustrating as there are different rules in different places, but it protects us from the federal government taking them over and bending them to their will. Local and state elections officials from both sides have demonstrated their courage and honor in previous elections, standing up to pressure from the president to hand him what he wants. For the sake of the republic, we must hope that they continue to show strength in the face of a growing storm. The best thing we can do now is vote against anybody who would enable the president and his administration’s power grab.