The Trump administration has launched a multi-pronged assault on voting rights, using justice department lawsuits, FBI investigations, and an executive order to tighten mail-in voting rules, according to election experts and former officials. The moves mirror President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud.
Since the start of his second term, numerous election denialists have been installed in key agencies including the Department of Justice and the FBI. The justice department has filed lawsuits seeking sensitive voter data from 30 states, and the FBI has opened investigations into debunked fraud allegations in swing states such as Georgia and Wisconsin.
In late March, Trump issued an executive order sharply restricting mail-in voting, which he has long claimed without evidence contributes to fraud. The order grants the US Postal Service unprecedented powers to impose new rules that make voting by mail more difficult. In response, 23 Democratic states filed a lawsuit to block the order, arguing it unconstitutionally interferes with state election administration.
Former officials sharply criticised the administration’s actions. Eileen O’Connor, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center and former justice department lawyer, said: “The Department of Justice has no authority to sweep up the voter rolls… So far, eight courts have issued rulings in these cases, and the DoJ has lost each one.” Larry Noble, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel, noted that “numerous audits and lawsuits have failed to find any meaningful fraud in the 2020 election.”
The push to change voting rules comes as Trump and his allies express fears that Democrats could win control of the House in the November midterm elections, potentially leading to impeachment proceedings. At a Republican retreat in January, Trump told lawmakers: “You gotta win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be … they’ll find a reason to impeach me.”
