FILE-Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus urge passage of the Save America Act, GOP-favored legislation that would place strict new requirements for voter registration and require photo IDs at the polls to prevent people in the country illegally from casting ballots, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) President Trump recently posted on Truth Social that unless Republicans pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE Act, “The Republican Party will never win another Election. I will, sadly, be the last Republican president.” This from the same man who boasts that he won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide (actually, he won with 49.8 percent), and Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Senate — for now.
Trump’s oft-stated concern is that Democrats will cheat in the 2026 midterm election. And although election fraud does occur, there isn’t any evidence it’s widespread.
The president continues to claim the 2020 election was stolen. But he has never presented any proof, even though he frequently promised he would. Ironically, House Republicans actually gained seats in the 2020 election, which would be very odd if it had been rigged to favor Democrats.
Trump’s then-attorney general, Bill Barr, informed Trump that the Department of Justice could find no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to overturn the results of the 2020 election. And virtually all the polls — including the president’s own internal polling — which aren’t subject to election fraud, predicted a Joe Biden win.
Yet Trump’s repeated claims have persuaded the majority of Republicans (54 percent) that election fraud is “widespread.” Only 39 percent (correctly) think there are only a “few isolated incidents” of voter fraud.
But Trump’s current warning that Republicans will never win another election is just foolish.
According to Ballotpedia, there are currently 23 states where Republicans control both the governor’s office and the legislature. Since the 2020 election several of them have passed or are about to pass their own voter integrity legislation.
Democrats have full control in just 16 states. And 11 states have divided government — one party controls the governor’s office and the other party controls one or both houses in the legislature.
Even if Trump believed Democrats were going to undertake a massive voter fraud effort in 2026, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do it in the red states or the divided states. Even Republicans who believe voter fraud is widespread think it’s primarily in “Democratic areas.”
Yes, Democrats will likely retake the House in November, and maybe the Senate as well. But that party-flip is a trend that has occurred for decades, especially when sitting presidents fail to live up to the promises they made in the previous election. That problem is apparent to everyone this year.
Trump claims the SAVE Act is popular with the public. And some parts are, but there have been several versions, including the one the House passed in February.
The act would require people to present a photo ID when voting. That part is very popular, with 80 percent support.
Another key part of the legislation would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. Even though accessing the needed documentation could be a challenge for some Americans, 66 percent support the provision.
But Trump has also demanded an end to mail-in voting, with limited exceptions. Mail-in ballots are a concern because election officials cannot manage the chain of custody as they can at election sites. Currently, eight states plus the District of Columbia allow all elections to be conducted by mail. Only one of those is a red state: Utah, whose mail-in voting system seems to work well. Six are blue states that Republicans tend to lose without the help of voter fraud.
The SAVE Act also requires states to routinely check their voter rolls to ensure their accuracy and submit those rolls to the federal government. Yet many states are reluctant to turn over their rolls, in part because the Constitution empowers them to manage voting. Decentralized voting is a feature of the American system, not a flaw.
Still, many states have been looking for ways to improve election security. For example, the National Conference of State Legislators recently announced, “All 50 states now have post-election audits to check that the equipment and processes used to count votes worked as intended.”
And there are other steps that could improve public confidence in the system. The Voting Rights Lab has a list of four best-practices.
The problem facing Trump and the SAVE Act is the Senate does not have the votes to overcome a filibuster. And the bill might not have enough Republican votes to pass even if Republicans eliminated the filibuster. Of course, if the filibuster were eliminated, Democrats could just repeal and replace the SAVE Act the next time they controlled Congress and the White House.
Trump understandably wants to keep the House and Senate in Republican hands. But the best way to do that isn’t to manufacture a voter-fraud crisis, but to live up to his promise of lowering inflation and growing the economy.
Merrill Matthews is the Texas state chair of Our Republican Legacy.
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