The Trump Administration's Long, Fruitless Hunt for Voter Fraud Comes to Rhode Island

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would be “observing polling locations today in Pawtucket, Rhode Island,” the last stop on an 11-state tour to “secure ballot integrity, maintain transparency into the voting process, and enforce compliance with federal law.”

Despite spending months foraging through the voting process of 11 states and hundreds of polling locations, the department has failed to find proof of President Donald Trump’s dubious claim that there is widespread voter fraud taking place in American elections. Yet the Trump administration isn’t planning to stop interfering anytime soon. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the department would “continue this work through the midterm general elections to assure the American public of the fairness and security of the voting process.”

The American people are indeed worried about political pressure in elections, but the DOJ’s injudicious campaign to root out voter fraud isn’t connected to any of the people’s fears. 

In a July Gallup poll on election concerns ahead of the midterms, 53 percent of Americans said they worried a “great deal” or a “fair amount” about ineligible voters casting a ballot. In contrast, 67 percent of Americans were worried a “great deal” or a “fair amount” about political leaders pressuring election officials to change election outcomes. 

If the Justice Department were truly serious about election integrity, Dhillon would ostensibly be taking a closer look at the president—a political leader who has already manifested Americans’ fears by attempting to pressure election officials to overturn the 2020 election. 

Instead, the department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for access to their full voter registration list, including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. With 23 of the lawsuits dropped, the efforts have been largely unsuccessful. Still, that hasn’t stopped the department from requesting voter data from 48 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The DOJ is just one arm of the federal law enforcement apparatus being deployed against voters. As part of Trump’s executive order on election integrity—which, among other things, tasks federal agencies with compiling a list of federally verified voters in each state—the department will share any voter data it receives with the Department of Homeland Security to aid its immigration enforcement actions. Last month, CNN reported that Homeland Security Investigations—an agency within Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would be launching a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review.” 

There’s little evidence of voter fraud nationwide. Analyzing cases over the last 30 years, Reuters found just 73 convictions for noncitizen voting in America, hardly a phenomenon that requires the Justice Department to put on a traveling roadshow to lean on state and local election officials. 

The Constitution gives the states authority to regulate and conduct elections, including the “supervision of voting, protection of voters, prevention of fraud and corrupt practices.” Given the low levels of voter fraud in our elections, states are performing this duty quite well. There’s no reason to involve the federal government in a paternalistic role that only serves the president’s ego.

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