Trump Asks Supreme Court To Protect Elections From Voters

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court this week to rescue American democracy from its most persistent threat: Americans attempting to participate in it. The administration’s emergency appeal seeks to revive Trump’s March 31 mail-voting directive, which would require states to surrender voter lists and allow the U.S. Postal Service to mail ballots only to federally approved recipients. The plan modernizes elections by replacing the outdated presumption that eligible citizens may vote with a streamlined federal inquiry into whether the government recalls authorizing their existence.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the directive nationwide on Aug. 11 after 23 states and the District of Columbia argued that the Constitution assigns election administration to states and Congress rather than to whichever president has most recently located a pen. Talwani also warned that rebuilding mail voting shortly before the Nov. 3 midterms could create confusion. Administration officials rejected that concern, noting that confusion is now a crucial security feature: legitimate voters will patiently navigate mismatched databases, missing records, agency transfers and unexplained denials, while fraudsters are expected to become discouraged by the paperwork.

“The ballot has to prove itself, frankly, just like a person,” Trump said. “It should go through lists, databases, maybe three or four agencies, and if it survives all that, perhaps it deserves to be counted. That’s election integrity.” Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the justices to act quickly, warning that judicial delay could prevent the government from hurriedly redesigning voting before millions of people use it. Critics have called the proposal disenfranchisement, but the administration describes it as premium democracy, in which the right to vote remains available under the same terms as airline legroom, affordable housing and speaking to a human at customer service. Every citizen remains entirely free to vote once the federal government has protected the election from their ballot.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.