It took time to fully digest President Donald Trump’s July 16 primetime address spiked with claims the Chinese government meddled in the 2020 presidential election that he lost.
The same could be said for the president. Five days afterwards he played down his bold accusations when a White House reporter inquired about the consequence for China’s interference.
“Well, we’ll talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago,” Trump replied. “China’s maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But look, they do things. And we do things to them. I’ll be honest. We do things to them, too. It’s not a one-way street.”
This kind of back-pedaling from demeaning the U.S. election system’s integrity mocks the serious work of thousands of local patriotic citizens from both parties who administer federal, state and local elections to ensure they are safe, fair and verifiable.
Trump’s sweeping claims that vulnerabilities allow non-citizens to vote in person and by mail — and voting machines to switch votes — lack factual evidence to support his six years of grievances.
National Intelligence Agency investigations concluded China, Russia, North Korea and other adversaries tried to influence voters during the 2020 campaigns but did not interfere with our election system or actual voting.
Still, Trump’s baseless assertions, coming from the Oval Office, could potentially disrupt November’s congressional elections and those beyond. It is up to Americans to educate themselves with facts, not myths about election security. Helpful information is readily available at the American Bar Association website (www.americanbar.org) under the Election Law tab.
Importantly, we live in a 50-state nation with a decentralized election process. Votes are tabulated and checked locally in federal and state elections, then sent to state election officials for further verification and final results.
Think about your own experience. You vote locally, are checked against the local voter registration list for identity, and cast your ballot with electronic tabulation equipment certified by federal, state, and local election officials.
There is no central switch. Local election workers check votes for accuracy, count votes, retain paper evidence of votes and send results to state election officials for further review and inclusion in statewide totals. Despite much disinformation, voting machines are not linked to the internet, preventing hacking and other cyberattacks.
The independent, nonpartisan voter organization, Verified Voting, states “there is a robust chain of custody for ballots and equipment, strong security measures, and sound post-election audits to check the outcome. As of 2024, nearly every ballot cast has a paper record that can be used to obtain an accurate count even if there are errors or cyberattacks.”
In other words, there is a backup, and votes can be recounted, often are, to make sure the results are accurate.
It is untruthful to say millions of noncitizens are voting and swaying U.S. elections. Voter information notes it is a felony crime — and if noncitizens try to vote, they are often caught, prosecuted and deported. Incidents of the crime are rare.
Local and state safeguards work. Ballot audits in two states with highly scrutinized results from the 2020 election, Georgia and Ohio, highlight this fact.
In 2022, the state of Georgia released this conclusion: “The review found that 1,634 people who had attempted to register to vote were not able to be verified by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, and were not able to vote.”
In Ohio, a recent audit identified 597 noncitizens who had registered to vote, with 138 believed to have cast ballots — a tiny fraction of the state’s roughly 8 million registered voters.
Voting is a foremost right in our democratic republic. Yet too many Americans choose not to vote — even with access improvements, if they last, of mail-in and early voting.
In the wise words of the late novelist Louis L’Amour: “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
MEGAN GILES COONEY is a columnist for the Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle. Reach her at megangilescooney@gmail.com.
