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🇺🇸🗳️⚙️🤔 How the Trump administration is trying to change the way people vote

🤖 AI Summary

  • 🏛️ Justice Department Action on Voter Rolls:
    • ⚖️ The Justice Department is suing 😡 eight states to compel the sharing of voter registration lists [00:00].
    • 🔒 These lists include highly sensitive personal data like dates of birth and Social Security numbers [00:08].
    • 🧑‍⚖️ The DOJ cites the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act to ensure states maintain clean voter rolls [00:52].
    • 🛑 List maintenance responsibilities reside with the states and the states alone [01:26].
    • 🚫 The DOJ is not enabled to seize authority from the states to perform list maintenance when states do not want it [01:44].
    • 🛡️ Data includes the holy trinity of identity theft, necessitating significant state regulation for protection [01:53].
    • ❓ No clarity has been provided on how the data will be stored, what will be done with it, or who will have access [02:26].
  • 🖥️ Voting Machine Access:
    • 📩 The DOJ requested access to Dominion Voting Systems machines used in two counties in Missouri [02:35].
    • ❌ The DOJ has absolutely no authority over voting machines with rare exceptions for accessibility [03:00].
    • 🔗 Federal law requires local election officials to maintain custody because destroying the chain of custody could render the machines unusable [03:35].
    • 📜 No federal statute authorizes the DOJ to seize or inspect voting machines in any way [03:54].
  • 🗳️ Mail-in Ballots:
    • 📣 Trump continues to claim that Mail-in ballots are corrupt, and a real democracy is impossible with mail-in ballots [04:03].
    • 🕰️ Mail-in voting has existed for over 150 years, since at least the Civil War [04:24].
    • ✅ The practice is absolutely secure because every state has multiple protections in place like signature matching [04:47].
    • 👑 The president has no power to get rid of this kind of voting [05:17].
    • 🇺🇸 The Elections Clause of the Constitution decentralizes the running of elections to the state legislatures and Congress [05:43].

🤔 Evaluation

  • ⚖️ The video presents an argument rooted in state authority over election administration, specifically the perspective that federal attempts to seize data or equipment are an overreach and undermine the chain of custody.
  • 🤝 A contrasting perspective, often held by advocates of federal intervention, is that a stronger federal role is necessary to ensure uniformity and integrity across all states, particularly when concerns about outdated voter rolls are raised.
  • 📚 This conflict is fundamentally about the balance of power inherent in the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 4), which gives states primary power but allows Congress to regulate the “time, place and manner” of federal elections.
  • 🔎 Topics to explore for a better understanding:
    • 📜 Research the specific legal justification cited by the Department of Justice for their authority to demand sensitive voter data and access voting machines.
    • 🗺️ Investigate the history of election administration under the Tenth Amendment and the Elections Clause to see how the balance of state and federal power has shifted over time.
    • 🔐 Compare the actual security protocols (e.g., signature verification, ballot tracking) used by states with extensive vote-by-mail systems, such as Utah and Colorado, to fully assess their claimed security.

📚 Book Recommendations

  • 📘 Similar: The Myth of Voter Fraud by Lorraine C. Minnite. 📝 This book examines the history and data surrounding claims of election fraud to show that the system is overwhelmingly secure and state-administered.
  • 📙 Contrasting: Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Funders Control Elections by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski. 😡 This work presents arguments for widespread election system vulnerability and the necessity of stricter controls and external, potentially federal, oversight.
  • 📗 Creatively Related: 🇺🇸📜 The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. 💡 Reading this provides the fundamental Founding-era context on the principle of federalism, the balance of power, and the founders’ concern with preventing a “future despot” from seizing power, which directly relates to the decentralized election system structure.

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