{"id":5390,"date":"2026-07-25T10:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5390"},"modified":"2026-07-25T10:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:38:43","slug":"leubsdorf-trump-administration-threatens-states-to-tighten-voting-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5390","title":{"rendered":"Leubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unable to pass its controversial legislation to tighten voting laws and facing dubious mid-term election prospects, the Trump administration is trying to intimidate state officials into joining its effort to find illegal voters, despite evidence there aren\u2019t many.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s all part of the effort to increase doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections and force the imposition of restrictive rules that would likely result in reduced voting by the poor, the elderly and minorities.<\/p>\n

Administration critics also fear the threats by President Donald Trump and other top officials may be designed to create a pretext for possible federal interference with November\u2019s balloting \u2014 like sending troops to monitor polling places or seizing voting machines and ballot boxes in close races \u2014 despite the constitutional provision putting the states in charge of elections.<\/p>\n

After all, the administration\u2019s real goal is helping Republicans avoid a November defeat, just like the earlier moves to redraw congressional district lines.<\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s threats followed last week\u2019s prime-time speech in which Trump called the American election system \u201cworse than any third world country.\u201d Without providing any proof, he alleged that some 278,000 non-citizens are registered in four states \u2013 California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

But neither the president nor Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin explained how they got that number, since those states are among the majority that have refused administration demands to provide their registration data.<\/p>\n

A letter to Pennsylvania officials, obtained by The New York Times, suggested they are merely estimates, declaring that its allegation that as many as 14,576 noncitizens are registered there was based on an \u201canalysis of Pennsylvania\u2019s publicly available voter registration database information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal threats<\/h4>\n

In recent days, both Mullin and the head of the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights division have warned state voting officials they could face criminal charges if they don\u2019t act on the administration\u2019s unproven claims of widespread non-citizen voting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,\u201d Mullin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state\u2019s SVRL (State Voter Registration List) or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,\u201d wrote Harmeet Dhillon,\u00a0the assistant attorney general for civil rights.<\/p>\n

State officials either ignored or dismissed the threats. \u201cGot another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,\u201d Utah\u2019s chief election officer, Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, posted on her Threads account. \u201cThis is truly bizarre behavior by the federal agency that is supposed to be protecting civil rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a recent review of its more than two million registered voters \u201cfound one confirmed noncitizen who never voted and has since been removed by the appropriate county clerk.\u201d Similar studies in other states, including Texas, Arizona, Michigan and Iowa, also showed minimal instances of non-citizen voting.<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s speech re-cycled his prior allegations that China and other U.S. enemies have sought to interfere in American elections, especially the 2020 president race which he still won\u2019t concede he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

But he failed to show how this interference affected the outcome or to repeat his oft expressed, but unproven, contention the 2020 election was rigged against him.<\/p>\n

More importantly perhaps, the so-called \u201cevidence\u201d and misleading statistics in his over-hyped, under-convincing speech suggested that his real concern is with elections he loses.<\/p>\n

He reiterated previously disclosed allegations of Chinese interference in the election he lost while he and his allies ran the relevant government machinery. But he ignored what likely were similar Chinese efforts in the more recent 2024 election, which he won while the Democrats ran things.<\/p>\n

And he failed to explain why he has crippled the very federal agency \u2013 the Election Assistance Commission \u2014 that is supposed to work with the states to ensure election integrity.<\/p>\n

Voter disenfranchisement<\/h4>\n

Under the president\u2019s SAVE voting bill currently stalemated in the Senate, states would have to require all registered voters to show proof of citizenship and a government-issued identification. While that sounds reasonable, election experts believe it would disenfranchise millions of older people, minorities, rural residents and women who changed their names when they got married, who neither have such documents nor would find it hard to get them.<\/p>\n

It also limits the number of permissible IDs. By contrast, Virginia, one of many states that requires voter ID, allows \u2014 and Trump\u2019s bill disallows \u2014 valid in-state student IDs, nursing home resident IDs, current utility bills, bank statements or paychecks that have the prospective voter\u2019s home address on them.<\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s obsession with voter registration rolls is also misleading. Because it is almost impossible for local and state officials to keep up with the frequent moves, marriages and deaths of a transient population, the registration rolls are filled with ineligible, double registered, misnamed or deceased voters. But every recent state audit has shown that the number of illegal voters is minuscule.<\/p>\n

On occasion, Trump has acknowledged that his real concern is less about the efficacy of election rules than about the results, contending that enactment of the SAVE bill would help Republicans win elections \u2014 presumably by reducing the electorate.<\/p>\n

If it passes, he told a South Dakota audience earlier this month, \u201cwe\u2019re not gonna lose an election for a hundred years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. \u00a92026 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Frustrated by stalled legislation, officials threaten criminal charges to force restrictive voting laws nationwide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nLeubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5390\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Frustrated by stalled legislation, officials threaten criminal charges to force restrictive voting laws nationwide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5390\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-25T10:38:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Leubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-25T10:38:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390\"},\"wordCount\":1001,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d97403b1256e0ff70e22612734cb6cdd.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=5390\",\"name\":\"Leubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules - 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