How Donald Trump might make it harder to vote if he wins a new term
The warning comes as Democrats say that democracy is on the ballot, Trump suggests he won't accept a defeat and Republicans say they want to make it harder to cheat.
A liberal watchdog organization is warning that former President Donald Trump is on a mission to make it harder for people to vote in 2024 and beyond, and he is ready to discredit the results if he loses.
In a new report this week, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed to Trump and his allies’ refusal to commit to accepting the results of this year's presidential election.
Even if he does win, the ACLU said, Americans should expect Trump will abuse his executive power to interfere with elections, such as prosecuting spurious claims of voter fraud, purging voters from rolls, and using federal police powers to intimidate local election workers.
It’s one of the strongest nonpartisan warnings yet of the potential consequences of a second Trump presidency, as anxious Democrats say that democracy is on the ballot but Republicans counter that the purpose of their new election laws is to make it harder to cheat.
The report comes on the eve of the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee. The party's platform says "Republicans will ensure election integrity" and fix "our very corrupt elections" through laws related to voter identification and proof of citizenship, among others.
"It’s typical that the fake news media obsessively cover President Trump’s commitment to ensuring the integrity of our nation's elections,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. She said “voters know he is the only one who can make America great again.”
Here are three things the ACLU is saying to expect from a Trump administration.
1. Weaponizing the Department of Justice
The ACLU says that Trump would use the Department of Justice, or DOJ, to pressure states into removing massive numbers of people from voter rolls. He would also ask it to launch spurious investigations and prosecutions into allegations of voter fraud, as he did in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
During his first term, Trump appointed DOJ with leaders who were loyal to him. And one of Trump’s major proposals over the years has been to update federal guidelines to make it easier to fire nonpartisan, rank-and-file civil service workers, including those who staff the Department of Justice.
The ACLU says Trump and his allies are likely to use the department to spread false claims about voter fraud and embark on“bad-faith investigations and prosecutions.”
“Even if those prosecutions ultimately are unsuccessful, and you trust the court to sort of hold the line, the fact of the investigation and prosecution can wreck somebody’s life, financially, reputationally,” said Mike Zamore, the national director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU.
“What does that do to people’s willingness to participate at all?” he asked. “How does that shape the decision making along the way?”
2. Federal pressure on local election administration
The ACLU warns that a second Trump administration would use federal policing power to intimidate people at the polls, which are run by local governments, and use federal agencies including the Department of Justice to force local governments to purge voters from their rolls.
Trump said in 2020 that he would send sheriffs and law enforcement to the polls to guard against voter fraud. And the Republican National Committee has vowed to place thousands of poll watchers around the country. The ACLU said Trump may deploy law enforcement himself or encourage state governments to deploy the National Guard.
Attempts to clean voter rolls have become a popular tool on the right. It’s a central theme in the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee’s litigation program, in lawsuits brought by right-leaning groups like Judicial Watch, and of grassroots activists who do their own data analyses.
The ACLU said Trump’s false claims about illegal voting are behind these efforts, and that a Trump administration would use its power to “force aggressive voter purges directly.”
3. Rolling back the motor voter law
The primary federal law the ACLU says is in danger is the National Voter Registration Act, a 1993 law that directed states to make it easier to register to vote through methods like checking off a box when a person applies for their driver's license, and regulates how states can remove people from voting rolls.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 expanding voter registration under that law, and it’s led to more people being registered in tribal communities through Indian Health Service locations and veterans being registered through Veterans Affairs hospitals. The ACLU predicted Trump would rescind the executive order.
Trump’s allies in the House have already passed another bill that would update the voter registration law to make it harder to be registered. The bill would require people to show proof of citizenship before getting on voter rolls. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the initiative during an April visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headquarters.