Voting Rights March Threatens Presidential Control of Elections
Thousands marched on the National Mall Friday to demand that eligible American citizens be permitted to vote, escalating a radical campaign against President Donald Trump’s constitutional right to redesign elections whenever polling becomes emotionally inconvenient. The “Defend the Vote” March, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III on the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, challenged federal efforts to impose new conditions on mail ballots shortly before voting begins. Nearly one-third of Americans vote by mail, bypassing the traditional civic ritual of standing in line for six hours, producing several forms of identification and discovering that a clerical error has relocated their precinct to another county.
Trump condemned the demonstrators’ dangerous fixation on counting every lawful ballot. “These people want everybody voting, including people who disagree with me, and that is not election integrity,” Trump said. “A secure election is one where we know the winner beforehand, preferably me, and then we save tremendous money by not counting all the unnecessary votes.” Speakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger promoted the inflammatory theory that election rules should remain stable long enough for voters and local officials to understand them. Organizers also insisted that presidents are supposed to compete for votes rather than classify unfavorable ones as administrative clutter.
The administration’s Postal Service plan offered more responsible safeguards by requiring states to redesign ballot envelopes, upload voter lists and satisfy new federal conditions shortly before mailings could proceed. Officials described the schedule as entirely manageable for any state equipped with unlimited personnel, flawless software and no calendar. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani temporarily blocked the rule Thursday, denying election administrators the character-building opportunity to rebuild statewide voting systems in several business days while being accused of sabotage for missing the deadline. Marchers nevertheless argued that democracy belongs to voters, apparently unaware that the franchise has already been transferred to executive management and that elections now exist solely to confirm the president’s selections.
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