Boston
Just four days after President Donald Trump announced that his administration had discovered “astonishing weaknesses in our election system,” a large group of state election officials from various regions convened in Boston.
However, their purpose was not to hold an urgent summit addressing the alleged crisis, even as the midterm elections approach in just 15 weeks.
Instead, these officials from 37 states participated in a pre-planned professional conference that maintained a notably routine atmosphere. In fact, Trump’s primetime speech was rarely mentioned.
In conversations with USdaily, over a dozen election officials from both political parties indicated that Trump’s speech did not present any new evidence. Some Republican officials even dismissed his claims, referring to the data the administration provided to support its assertion of a significant number of non-citizen voters in U.S. elections.
Matt Crane, a Republican who oversees the Colorado County Clerks Association, shared that his group chat with bipartisan colleagues was filled with “lots of laughing emojis, and comments like, ‘you’ve got to be joking?’ about the entirety of it.”
A Republican official from a state that Trump won three times criticized the speech, which included the release of intelligence reports that Trump claimed represented an “unprecedented threat to election security” from China and Venezuela. (Notably, Trump failed to mention that these reports clarified that neither country interfered with U.S. election outcomes.)
“I reviewed the documents,” the official told USdaily, requesting anonymity for his state’s identification. “It was outdated. I had already seen this information. It wasn’t new to me. Most of this data was already known.”
Democratic officials, along with election specialists, have criticized Trump for what they perceive as an escalation of his ongoing attacks on the electoral process, suggesting that he is establishing a narrative to rationalize any potential GOP defeats in November.
However, many Republican election overseers have been more cautious in their public remarks, generally supporting Trump’s declared aim of improving voter rolls and curbing illegal voting, while also defending their work in their jurisdictions.
Privately, though, many express discontent with Trump’s actions.
“We all understand elections are not manipulated, but we must keep working diligently and focus on our responsibilities,” one Republican election official remarked to USdaily, on the condition of anonymity to avoid upsetting the Trump administration.
Challenging Trump’s claims
The president’s address last Thursday, along with a subsequent briefing from the Department of Homeland Security, highlighted multiple states that allegedly had alarmingly high counts of non-citizens on their voter registers.
Trump has consistently promoted unverified and exaggerated claims suggesting that thousands, if not millions, of undocumented individuals are voting in American elections. While isolated incidents do occur, extensive research from both conservative and liberal think tanks has determined that such occurrences are extremely rare.
Nonetheless, the administration claimed to have analyzed public records and discovered hundreds of thousands of non-citizens registered in states such as Pennsylvania and Nevada, as well as in California and New Jersey, which are Democratic strongholds. Some officials within those states have requested greater transparency, asking how the DHS reached those figures.
Even states that are traditionally Republican and voluntarily shared their voter information with the Trump administration were included in the latest claims. The administration stated that over 28,000 non-citizens had been identified on voter lists in states led by GOP election officials.
The DHS citizenship database utilized for reviewing voter registrations, known as SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements), has a history of exaggerating the number of registered non-citizens. The DHS itself admits that states voluntarily using this system for maintaining voter rolls must conduct additional inquiries for any matches.
Sam Hayes, the GOP executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, who has actively supported several of Trump’s electoral policies, stated that his office would not simply accept the administration’s conclusions. He mentioned that the state, which DHS alleged had 1,599 non-citizens on its rolls, would perform its own verification, which is time-intensive and requires reaching out to registrants.
“We don’t take anything at face value and start eliminating individuals” from the voter lists, Hayes informed USdaily. “We need to conduct our independent evaluation of this. … We still have to perform our due diligence.”
Hayes also expressed skepticism about Trump’s demand for rapid resolutions, stating: “Achieving this by the midterms will be challenging, but we are working towards that goal.”
Officials in Georgia informed USdaily that the administration’s assertions regarding non-citizens on their rolls seem exaggerated. They noted that only about 20 of the 2,549 registrants flagged by DHS had ever voted in the state.
Despite questioning the data from the White House, officials from both parties emphasized their commitment to ensuring non-citizens are not included on voter rolls.
The governor of New Jersey announced recently that a software glitch at the state Motor Vehicle Commission inadvertently added around 6,600 non-citizens to the voter lists, with 400 having cast illegal ballots in recent elections.
The unexpected disclosure from a Democratic governor in a typically liberal area quickly gained attention and prompted “I told you so” reactions from the Trump administration.
Ignoring Mullin’s threats
During a subsequent press conference on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned that election officials could face fines and even potential “prison time” if they do not adhere to the Trump administration’s requests regarding voter lists and other electoral reforms.
Election officials communicated to USdaily that they regard these threats seriously, especially after witnessing the Trump-era Justice Department prosecute several of his political adversaries. Nonetheless, they emphasized their commitment to their responsibilities.
“There is concern about becoming an example,” stated Crane, the Republican who heads Colorado’s bipartisan election clerks’ association. “However, by and large, it has become a bit of background noise at this point.”
A Democratic election administrator from a crucial state shared with USdaily, under anonymity, that his mother expressed concern after hearing Mullin’s remarks regarding the potential prosecution of election officials.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department sent similar warning letters to all 50 states. Idaho’s Republican attorney general was among those who responded, condemning the DOJ in a strongly worded reply that claimed the “suggestions of criminal breaches of federal election laws are unfounded.”
“Cease threatening your allies in Idaho,” wrote James Craig, a senior attorney from the Idaho attorney general’s office.
A GOP election official from another state conveyed to USdaily that even some officials in Republican states feel uneasy due to the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration.
“It’s incredibly concerning when they speak like that, and we are uncertain about their future actions,” the official remarked.
