The midterm elections are coming. However, in this summer long before the November voting takes place, we face losing our free and fair election rights and even our democratic republic to Donald Trump. He and his followers are doing many things to rig this election. He demanded mid-census redistricting and gerrymandering from Republican governors, he’s threatened confiscating and seizing voting machines, and he’s trying to manipulate the post office to delay mail so ballots are not counted, and much more.
Trump’s war in Iran and his failed policies have created a deep fear of Republicans losing the 2026 midterms. Here are parts of his plans to cheat us out of free and fair election voting rights:
· Issuing an Executive Order requiring the Justice Department to demand all 50 states’ databases of registered voters, including private, personal identifying information.
· The DOJ has now sent letters to all 50 states saying that if non-citizens vote, the federal government will charge state voting officials with crimes. The letters demand that states explain, within five days, how they are complying with federal voter eligibility laws and threaten potential criminal prosecutions if noncitizens remain on voter rolls or receive and cast ballots.
· Trump is defying the Constitution (Article 1 section 4) that puts control over elections in the hands of the states and grants Congress the ability to pass federal election legislation. The U.S. Constitution gives no election authority to the President or the Executive Branch.
· Evidence of non-citizen registering or voting is inconsequential. For example, in the Republican stronghold ofTexas, they used the SAVE Act to identify 2,724 voter registration records that potentially belonged to noncitizens. That number was reduced dramatically even more when checked. Texas has more than 18 million registered citizens who represent 99.9 percent of their voters. The alleged fraudulent ballots cast by non-citizens represents about one hundredth of one percent. In Iowa, the Secretary of State’s review found 35 alleged noncitizens cast ballots in the 2024 general election. In Michigan, the Department of State found just 16. In the 2024 presidential election where more than 155 million votes were cast and counted and Donald Trump won, the presence of a few thousand bad votes does not rise to the problem requiring the level of intervention that Trump is forcing.
· He keeps pressing the Senate to pass the SAVE Act: it mandates that voters present in-person documentation, such as a U.S. passport (approximately half of Americans don’t have a passport), a certified birth certificate (a vast majority of married women have different names on their birth certificate), or a naturalization certificate in order to register to vote.
· He’s told FEMA to withhold 20 percent of terrorism preparedness grants unless the states provide “proof of compliance“ with newly dictated election security measures. Trump is insisting states change the way they conduct elections or risk losing tens of millions of federal terrorism prevention funds. Trump will not only withhold the money that would provide greater security for Americans, he will undoubtedly claim that failure to provide proof of compliance is evidence that there was fraud in the election.
· He’s fired Federal Election Commissioners and Election Assistance commissioners whose sole job was to assist in free and fair elections.
· He’s ordered the post office to only deliver mail ballots to states that will have provided lists of authorized voters. He is manipulating the post office to delay confirming receipt of ballots to shave off time for Americans to vote.
· His Department of Justice has dictated they will send federal election observers to 15 jurisdictions across six states to monitor the remaining primary votes, which all just happen to be strong Democrat-leaning locations.
· Based on his prior behavior related to January 6, he is capable of getting his supporters to go into polling places, create violent disturbances and claim that the resulting confusion and uproar is cause for throwing out votes. He’s said he should have sent National Guard troops to seize ballot boxes during the 2020 election.
· He has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts,” thanks to the Supreme Court case Trump v. United States, July 1, 2024. And while we plan and participate in peaceful protests, he labels us terrorists. At the same time his thug ICE soldiers are murdering people across the country.
He’s speaking from the Oval Office Thursday night, and it’s anticipated that rather than blaming fraudulent votes as his primary complaint, he’s shifting to claiming that foreign interference has corrupted our elections. Just what he’s going to do is subject to speculation at this point but we can reasonably anticipate that he will lie and that the democratic response will be be weak and ineffectual. It will be up to us, the people to right this mess.
This is why Indivisible Santa Barbara works so hard to set up No Kings rallies and community education events. We can win this election. Be aware of what we are facing and be ready to support our democratic republic when the time comes for opposing any and all of Trump’s barrage of election rigging. We have the votes, if we cast them. Make sure you are registered, let’s vote, and let’s return integrity to our voting process and our country.
Ian Paige is a founding member of Indivisible Santa Barbara. In memory of John Lewis, a “Good Trouble Lives On” rally takes place at the Dolphin Fountain along Santa Barbara’s waterfront on Saturday, July 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Correction: This piece was corrected on July 16, 2026; due to an editing error, the July 18 rally was incorrectly called No Kings. It is “Good Trouble Lives On,” in memory of Civil Rights icon John Lewis.
