Jonathan P. Baird

Any close observer of American elections has to note the frequent use of the allegation of voter fraud. In the Trump era, it has been a Republican staple. If Trump doesn’t win, the instant response on the Republican side is “the election was rigged”. Republicans are always asked to produce proof of the fraud and they never can. Extensive research reveals voter fraud is very rare.

The lack of proof never stops Republicans from repeating baseless charges. In 2020, the Republican Party filed more than 60 lawsuits in state and federal court challenging the election results. All the lawsuits were ultimately dismissed or rejected due to lack of credible evidence.

The widespread assertion of voter fraud is being used to justify voter suppression. It is aimed at undermining future elections. Trump wants to drive down the vote because of his own unpopularity which is demonstrated in every poll. It would appear he believes voter suppression is entirely to his political advantage. He must think that if he can hold the vote down, Republicans will be able to eke out a win in Congress.

While we must protect the integrity of elections, something else is going on here. I don’t think Donald Trump cares about any other Republican candidates but I do think he remains concerned about a future Democratic House and Senate investigating his criminal activities and his unprecedented corruption.

He has moved on multiple fronts to monkey with elections. His latest obsession has been passage of the SAVE America ACT (another Orwellian name). Trump refused to sign a bi-partisan housing bill because Congress hasn’t passed the SAVE Act. That Act has different versions but all feature drastic new proof-of-citizenship requirements. Trump doesn’t have the votes to pass it yet he tweets about it constantly on his social media.

Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in state and federal elections. It is a federal and state crime to do that. Yet MAGA floats endless conspiracy theories about non-citizen voting. The fuel behind these MAGA conspiracy theories is racism.

The U.S. Constitution gives the Executive Branch no authority over elections. The Founders wisely gave control to the states to run elections. Yet, early in his second term, Trump wanted the federal government to take over the running of elections. He signed an Executive Order in March 2025 seeking broad authority over elections. That Executive Order has been blocked by courts.

The Trump regime demanded voter files from states, including New Hampshire. Our New Hampshire Federal Court ruled the Department of Justice request for unredacted files was invalid. The Court found the DOJ failed to show any compelling need for the records. The DOJ has sued at least 30 states to try and obtain voter files. It has yet to win one of these cases. 16 states have voluntarily turned over their files.

The U.S. Postal Service actually has proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that did not turn over their voter rolls to the federal government.

The Trump regime had sought to tighten voting restrictions through a Mississippi lawsuit that challenged the state’s policy of accepting mail and absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but arriving after. The Supreme Court ruled such ballots could be counted. Without evidence, Trump has asserted mail-in ballots are vulnerable to fraud. Statistics show late-arriving postal ballots skew Democratic. More than a dozen states allow mail-in ballots to be received after Election Day, including California, Texas, Nevada and Virginia.

There has also been the Republican initiative around mid-decade redistricting. Facing mid-term losses, the Trump regime pushed red states to re-draw congressional maps to try and save their majority. Both sides responded. Partisan gerrymandering undermines faith in any fair process. With an assist from the Supreme Court, partisan gerrymanders have been allowed even though this has been a thin cover for allowing racist gerrymanders.

Maybe most troubling is the MAGA refusal to accept election results. It is forgotten now but Trump created an Election Integrity Commission in 2016 when he won the election. He lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton but he claimed that was due to three million illegal voters. That commission disbanded finding no proof of wrongful voting.

Now Trump pursues a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election he lost. Earlier this year, we saw the FBI executing a search warrant and seizing materials from Fulton County Georgia with then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard looking on. Georgia had conducted a hand recount. According to MS NOW, the FBI leadership is putting resources into what it calls a “priority” investigation related to the 2020 Georgia election. FBI Director Kash Patel is ordering personnel from all field offices to participate.

This is madness. The 2020 election was the most scrutinized election in American history yet Trump remains determined to uncover fraud that doesn’t exist. He stocks his administration with election deniers and purges FBI agents and government lawyers who investigated January 6. We have the absurd spectacle of the DOJ and FBI wasting precious resources going after phantom crimes that exist only in the imagination of Donald Trump.

He remains the only president who has sought to overturn a decided election result. And, you have to ask, for what? He continues to sow doubt on all elections. None of this goes in a good direction. All the schemes are about Trump self-preservation in the face of a fed-up electorate.

It is hard to predict what is next but I think it is a safe bet we can expect more monkey wrenches in any normal election process. It would be out of character for the Republicans to abide by any process they expect to lose.