In President Trump’s interminable State of the Union address last month he told one truth that the path to victory in the November elections “is to cheat.”
Except he lied about the perpetrators, charging it was the Democrats. It is Trump himself and some fellow Republicans who know the only way to avoid a midterm debacle in November is to rig the elections.
From trying to change the rules to make it harder to vote, curtailing mail voting, threatening to send forces into selective precincts or even impounding voting machines, he is exploring multiple avenues to illicitly stave off defeat in the midterms.
It’s redundant to cite these threats over and over again. It gets more likely, however. It’s remarkable how many serious folks -- including some Republicans -- wonder whether the midterm elections might be called off. There’s a recognition that Trump has no use for the rule of law and fears the consequences of a Congress that would try to hold him accountable.
He may try to defer the elections though I don’t think he would get away with it. The Democrats are starting to get their legal act together, hopefully bringing in the first team as the Biden campaign did after the 2020 election. They won 60 of 61 cases in the President’s unsuccessful effort to overturn the election. (Trump’s Attorney General dismissed charges of widespread fraud and his Homeland Security Agency called it “the most secure election in American history.”)
Trump’s latest theatric is to claim he won’t sign any legislation until the Senate passes the so-called SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship, a passport, birth certificate or military ID, to vote. This would necessitate breaking the filibuster rule, requiring 60 votes, which almost all Republicans have vowed to maintain. It also would need the vote of seven Democrats; none have indicated support.
Trump is trying to peddle this as a voter ID safeguard. But 38 states already have voter ID requirements. As the Brennan Center reports more than 20 million Americans lack these identifications, passport or driver’s license. Moreover, married women who took their spouses names would have to jump through extra hoops to vote.
The lack of seriousness is attested by Trump’s insistence that the SAVE Act include a ban on transgender participation in sports. That would take care of all those hordes of transgender illegal immigrant basketball players !.
The clear purpose is voter suppression and Trump, desperate as he is, will have to back down and find a new ploy.
It’s extraordinary that anyone takes this premise seriously, the demagoguery that millions of illegals flock to the polls to elect Democrats. It has been demonstrated conclusively in studies that this is bogus, including surveys in conservative red states:
-- A study in Utah, which votes largely by mail, found that of two million votes only one was cast illegally.
-- Louisiana a while back reviewed returns back to the 1980s and concluded there is “no systemic problem.”
-- Of 8.2 million registered to vote in Georgia, the Secretary of State found only 20 were non-citizens.
-- A Brennan study of 42 precincts where illegal votes might be suspected of 23.5 million cast, there were only 30 incidents of possible non-citizens voting.
There is no more damning indictment of the voter fraud lie than Trump’s own commission -- The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity -- launched in his first Administration, chaired by Vice President Pence and stacked with voting fraud zealots. After less than eight months it was disbanded with no findings.
Even more than the many surveys refuting the centerpiece charge of “illegal immigrants” overwhelming the polls, is simple common sense. Do you really believe undocumented workers, scared stiff of deportation, would risk it all to cast one vote?
Good morning Al,
Thank you for your accurate posting on Substack. I hope that it will be read, and shared by many, if not all, so that we may correct the absurdity of the “Election Deniers” false claim.
We have endured much pain, divisiveness, and cost, from the illegitimate claim by #45/#47 ,GOP, their supporters, and false claims of fraud in our elections No, there is not, as your data prove.
I studied the elections and electorate for the last decade, with emphasis on the last 3 Presidential cycles, 2016, 2020, and 2024, and can validate that there was no systemic and endemic widespread fraud. In fact, what the election deniers are doing, is stating the quiet part out loud, and projecting their own intentions and behavior.
There have been multiple cases of attempted elections interference by the GOP, including, and not limited to: Citizens United, gerrymandering, mid-decade redistricting, voter suppression and intimidation, 400 plus pieces of ill-fate legislation at the Federal, State, and Local levels, voters and votes nullification, and the ongoing solicitation of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, disseminated on social media channels, both domestic and international.
As I researched the unfounded claims by the election deniers, I realized that they were trying to create a positive narrative, by combining a lie, about the lie, not realizing that only in algebra do 2 negatives create a positive.
Simply stated, their failed attempt at creating doubt about the sanctity of our votes, voters, and elections, creates a 180-degree distortion of the truth, that flattens their argument, and brings us back to the truth. No widespread fraud in our elections, as evidenced by hundreds of legal cases where reason won, and deniers lost.
As I often tried to share, it is nonsense to say that elections are fraudulent, when the accusers launched the crime and caused the fraud in the first place. In order words, we have gone from: Renee Descartes’ Enlightened statement that: “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think therefore I am), to the election deniers’ proclamation that: “I am, therefore, I DO NOT need to think.” HELP us God!
I remain confident in our ability to win back the House and Senate on November 3rd, 2026, if, and only if, we collectively share the vision of a re-united Nation and a Democratic Republic that offers a government for the people, and by the people. We need to communicate with the voters that elections matter, every vote counts, and that we will do everything possible to safeguard and protect the votes, and the Voters.
Al, thank you again for your research and article. Please give my dear regards to James,
( He may not remember me, however, we made numerous times since 1992, and had him speak a dozen times for Congresses that I produced).
And now on to Victory!
I remain grateful,
Francesco
Francesco C. Leboffe
E: fcleboffe6@gmail.com
M: +1-609-658-8647
The fact is that Trump and his myrmidons are running scared. They can feel the hot breath of the Furies on the backs of their necks. They are increasingly desparate to find a way out of the electoral debacle coming for them in November and the legal problems they will face afterwards. So they will try anything. We are entering a very dangerous time and we need to be very aware of their attempts to control the midterms.