Last week, President Trump signed an executive order demanding election integrity. Before he became President, he stated that our elections needed vast improvement to rebuild confidence and trust in the American people. Now, he is trying to accomplish that goal.
Problems
With the executive order came two problems. First, the guidelines are not mandatory. They are there for guidance or suggestions. Next, this order does not address electronic voting machines, which can be manipulated to change the outcome of the elections.
What It Does
This order does have several good items:
- Proof of US citizenship must be mandatory on all voter registration documents.
- This ties federal election funding to states’ adherence to integrity measures outlined in federal law. If states do not comply, they will lose federal funding.
- It orders updates to the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 and security protocols for voting machines, requiring a voter-verifiable paper ballot record and prohibiting ballots in which the recorded vote is embedded in a barcode or QR code.
- This instructs the Attorney General to establish information-sharing partnerships with state election authorities to detect instances of election fraud or other breaches of election law.
- It implements suitable measures against states, including ballots received after Election Day in federal election tallies.
- Finally, this cancels Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which repurposed federal agencies as voter mobilization hubs for the Democrat Party.
While Trump is doing what he does best—negotiating—he hopes states will join him in letting the people decide who will govern them. You can read the executive order here. So far, in his second term. President Trump is trying to accomplish what he promised.
