Donald Trump used a primetime television address to repeat his unfounded claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, a move that voting rights campaigners say is part of a broader effort to influence or overturn the results of November's midterm elections. The former president, who has an approval rating of just 37 per cent, called for the passage of the Save Act, which would give the federal government greater control over elections, and has falsely claimed that his defeats in some states were illegitimate.
However, the US election system is not run by the federal government. "It's run by states and local jurisdictions," said Ben Berwick, who leads Protect Democracy's election law and litigation team. "The president really has no power over elections." Despite this, Republicans in several states have already acted on Trump's urging to redraw congressional maps, following a Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana led the way, replacing a map with four Republican and two Democratic districts with one that will probably give Republicans five of the state's six seats.
Trump has also repeatedly tried to restrict mail-in voting, which is used more heavily by Democrats. The administration could use the US Postal Service to control the flow of postal ballots, potentially withholding them from certain voters, Berwick warned. At Trump's direction, the USPS proposed a rule requiring states to hand over voter roll information to the federal government, which would then identify allegedly ineligible voters. A judge ruled that plan unconstitutional.
Legal challenges have been mounted by the civil rights group NAACP in Washington DC and the League of Women Voters in Massachusetts. The Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, who is responsible for overseeing his state's elections, said the biggest threat to American elections is the continued lies from the White House. "It's reckless that the president will continue to do what he's doing, and that the folks around him will continue to let him do it," he said. "This is a powder keg out there."
Trump has a history of refusing to accept defeat, and the memory of the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol looms large. Fontes warned that the president's behaviour could trigger violence that "could cost lives". With the midterms approaching, activists fear Trump is laying the groundwork to challenge any results that do not go his way.
