One of the most “American” things we can do in the United States is vote. As we approach the midterm elections this year, the editorial board has concerns about recent voting reform policies. After all, any attempt to dispute voting processes disrupts democracy itself, and we must take steps to vote in a critical election year.
On March 31, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14399, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The order and other rules drafted by the U.S. Postal Service would mandate the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to create a list of “eligible” mail voters to share with the Postal Service and states, among other mail ballot provisions.
The order also allows the Postal Service to deny delivery of states’ ballots if they do not provide a list of voters who are eligible to vote in federal elections. Since then, a federal judge struck down the ruling last Friday.
“Given this overwhelming evidence, the USPS’ intention to withhold noncompliant ballots from the mail stream makes disenfranchisement more than likely, if not probable,” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote.
The executive order points to voter fraud as a particular concern of the Trump administration. However, a study by the Brennan Center for Justice revealed the incident rate for voter fraud in the U.S. is between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. We’re more likely to be struck by lightning than impersonate someone else at the polls.
Yet, the order appears to protect against voter fraud. Further inspection reveals a more daunting intent. Under this executive order, we place the entire trust of election integrity into the hands of partisan public officials within the Trump administration. Those are individuals who have an established political agenda and who operate under the will of a president who famously cannot accept the results of an election he verifiably lost.
States often operate their own elections within a set of rules they have established. By creating a system of federal overreach and limiting the distribution of mail-in ballots, the federal government could say anyone is not an eligible voter and thus have them purged from the list.
And this isn’t the first time voting rights have come into question. In April, the Supreme Court overturned key provisions within the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected majority-minority districts representing Black and Latino citizens.
Let one thing be clear: this not the intent nor the purpose of a functioning, representative democracy. Every voter who is an American citizen and at least 18 years old at the time of the election should be able to cast their ballot without the fear of their vote being cast out.
Under the Trump administration, the executive order creates new rules that were never broken in the first place. Election integrity is important, but we’ve always practiced it.
We must then ask ourselves why Trump would create this order, among his other actions related to election reform. After all, a country made up of over 300 million people has varied interests that depend on states’ regional and geographic interests.
Imagine a voter in Athens County who lives in an isolated area with steep hills and only one or two voting centers. It would likely be a burden to vote in an election, but a mail ballot makes it easier and affords greater accessibility to the voter.
Yet, imagine if the same voter’s information was accidentally purged from the system because the Postal Service said it was so. By the time election season comes around, the Oct. 5 registration deadline would have already passed. One critical vote would be lost.
Thus, it is the duty of a state’s government to allocate resources for its citizens. In this case, it is not the role nor the right of the federal government to dictate who has access to mail-in voting.
In this case, mailed ballots fall victim to the political priorities of the president. Under the Trump administration’s ruling, “approval” falls very short of an objective marker. Instead, it becomes an empty, infinite canvas to rewrite the rules and earn nothing but a slap on the wrist.
This is not a partisan issue. Nor is this editorial a critique of any one president, either.
An executive order like the one currently being debated in the federal courts strips states’ ability to provide free and fair elections for registered voters. Any vote cast out without justification or in the name of partisan interests costs American voters the rights owed to them.
And any individual in power who attempts to dismantle systems that increase voter turnout and election participation damages the function of a representative democracy. When we do this, we sacrifice our right to choose who represents us.
The editorial board encourages its readers to check their voter registration and vote this November. It is not just our duty as citizens; it is our right.
The Post editorials are independent of the publication’s news coverage. Have thoughts? The Post can be reached via editor@thepostathens.com.
