President Trump is continuing his lone efforts to secure elections ahead of the November midterms after the GOP-controlled Congress has failed miserably to help.
While the House has managed to pass the SAVE America Act on four occasions, which would, among other things, require proof of citizenship to vote and a photo ID, some Senate Republicans have refused to sign on to the measure, even though 80-85 percent of voters on both sides of the aisle support those provisions, according to polls.
Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to allow his administration to move forward with implementing a broad executive order on mail voting after lower courts blocked key provisions in nearly two dozen states, setting the stage for a significant election-related dispute ahead of the midterm elections.
The executive order would expand the roles of the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security in helping states identify potential non-citizens on voter rolls.
Signed in March, the order would require states to provide the U.S. Postal Service with lists of voters eligible to receive mail-in ballots, CNN noted.
Under the proposal, the Postal Service would be prohibited from sending ballots to individuals whose names do not appear on those lists.
The order also requires states to use individualized ballot-tracking barcodes on ballot envelopes and directs the federal government to prioritize the prosecution of state election officials who knowingly send or accept ballots from non-citizens or other individuals who are ineligible to vote.
Trump’s order comes as federal and New Jersey officials announced that as many as 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote in that state, and at least hundreds of them cast ballots in the last election.
It also comes as the Trump administration said it had discovered as many as 250,000 non-citizens are on voter registration rolls in just four states – California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada.
And while Democrats and left-wing media outlets continue to claim “widespread voter fraud” is a myth, voter integrity activist Scott Presler announced on X Tuesday that one of those states – Pennsylvania – is engaged in a “massive purge” of its voter registration rolls, ostensibly to remove unqualified and illegal voters.
“You’re going to want to sit down for this one. The Pennsylvania Department of State just conducted a MASSIVE voter registration purge,” Presler announced.
“This comes after we have been exposing NON-CITIZENS on the PA voter rolls,” he continued. “Democrats just lost TENS of thousands of voters.
“The thing that never happens keeps happening!” Presler continued. “I’ll post the data shortly. Citizen journalism works.”
A coalition of 23 Democratic-led states challenged Trump’s order, arguing that the Constitution largely assigns responsibility for administering elections to the states rather than the White House.
A federal district court blocked enforcement of the order for this year’s elections in the states that filed the lawsuit, and the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit upheld that ruling over the weekend in a divided decision.
Two members of the three-judge appellate panel were appointed by former President Joe Biden. The third judge, appointed by President Trump last year, agreed with portions of the ruling but would have allowed some provisions of the executive order to take effect.
Although the injunction formally applies only to the states participating in the lawsuit, court filings indicate it effectively prevents the U.S. Postal Service from implementing the order nationwide because the agency cannot enforce different mail-ballot procedures in different states.
A group of 12 Republican-led states has intervened in the case to defend the executive order, CNN reported.
In addition to directing the U.S. Postal Service to implement new mail-ballot procedures, the executive order instructs the Department of Homeland Security to provide states with lists of residents it believes are eligible to vote.
However, the federal government has acknowledged in court that its citizenship databases are not comprehensive.
