Trump Moves To Protect Democracy From Voters
President Donald Trump renewed his campaign to protect American democracy from excessive voter participation Thursday after the First Circuit Court of Appeals blocked new Postal Service rules designed to keep mail ballots safely away from voters. The proposed system would require election officials to redesign ballot envelopes with unique barcodes, transmit voters’ names and addresses through a federal portal and satisfy a fresh assortment of mailing standards before democracy could be entrusted to the mail. Ballots failing any requirement could be returned, delayed or otherwise prevented from recklessly reaching the citizens who requested them.
The judges said the administration had offered no evidence of widespread mail-ballot fraud and warned that the rules could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. Administration officials disputed the court’s assumption that eligible voters are supposed to participate, describing that interpretation as an activist reading of elections. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to restore the traditional constitutional principle that states administer elections unless the president has developed a more efficient federal method for misplacing the envelopes.
“We’re making voting very secure, maybe the most secure voting anybody has ever seen, because if every voter gets a ballot, you’ve already lost control,” Trump said. “The safest ballot is one with a beautiful barcode spending November being carefully reviewed somewhere far away from a counting machine.” Solicitor General John Sauer argued that blocking the rules would create confusion and chaos, unlike imposing a new national ballot-processing system after North Carolina had begun mailing ballots, which the administration classified as orderly confusion with presidential authorization.
Chief Justice John Roberts and the other justices must now decide whether election mail belongs under state authority or under whichever federal agency can add the most paperwork before Election Day. The administration said its plan would increase public confidence by ensuring that every ballot completed an obstacle course more rigorous than the one required of candidates. Under the president’s proposal, democracy will remain fully protected because fewer Americans will be able to reach it.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.