EDITORIAL: Trump's attacks on election system damaging
For the better part of a decade now, large swaths of Americans have sought to fix something that was not broken - our election system. The impetus for these efforts is the false belief that the system is rigged, corrupt and fraudulent.
The reality is that, in seeking to supposedly repair the foundation of our democratic republic, President Donald Trump is making it worse. With help from sycophants and the U.S. Supreme Court, he has undermined democracy, frayed the fabric of a reliable system, and sown discord that diminishes the trust of the public and serves as an existential threat to our nation.
In meeting with The Columbian last week, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said: "My principal concern is that the president will continue to try to disrupt our systems. He obviously doesn't like mail-in voting, he lies consistently about election security issues, he issues executive orders to create things like he did a few months ago when he made a national voting registration list, which is unconstitutional. So we're fighting back in the courts around that. The law is pretty clear that states control elections, not the president."
Indeed, Trump's attacks on the American election system are unconstitutional and damaging. It defies common sense for anybody to believe a compulsive liar when it comes to an issue as important as election security.
Trump, for example, insists that he was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election which he lost to Joe Biden. That claim generates some questions:
* If Democrats cheated to win the 2020 election, why did they not do so in 2024?
* Why did Fox News pay a $787 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems, after accusing the company of election fraud?
* Why did William Barr, the U.S. attorney general at the time, say in December 2020 that, "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election"?
Alternative facts often can be dismissed. But when those lies are accompanied by power, they must be taken seriously and be publicly rebuked. And Trump is attempting to combine his falsehoods with the power of the presidency to control our election system. The level of support this generates from everyday Americans is frightful.
Using his election lies as justification, Trump is attempting to eliminate vote-by-mail, which is the manner of voting in the state of Washington and which he uses as a registered Florida voter; he has demanded lists of registered voters, which would further increase the federal government's power to determine who may and may not vote; and he has supported the SAVE Act, which would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
Standing alone, each action sounds like a plausible effort to enhance election security; combined, they are a threat to Americans' ability to select their government. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University maintains a timeline of Trump's anti-democratic actions, which amounts to an accounting of our nation's death by a thousand paper cuts.
In this climate, it is not a sign of derangement that Brown - along with other state and local officials - is working to ensure that this year's elections are safe and secure.
"There's a myriad of things that used to be unthinkable that are possible: sending ICE to polling locations, declaring nonsense emergencies to delay or slow down elections," he told The Columbian. "Those things, I think, are real, or the possibility of those is much more real than it used to be."
That, unfortunately, sounds like a once-sturdy system is showing some cracks.
Unlock all stories. Stay informed.
Starting at just $1.99/week
Become a subscriber and get unlimited access to every story, plus our ePaper and app for seamless reading anywhere. Stay informed, support local journalism, and stay connected to your community.
Subscribe today
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.