Trump's election order tees up DOGE for familiar voter file fight
When President Donald Trump signed a sprawling election executive order this week, he set up his administration for a lengthy fight over documentary proof of citizenship, the power of the executive branch and existing federal election law.
When President Donald Trump signed a sprawling election executive order this week, he set up his administration for a lengthy fight over documentary proof of citizenship, the power of the executive branch and existing federal election law.
But in an overlooked portion of the order, he also set Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on its next mission: hunting for voter fraud.
The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to team up with DOGE to review states’ “publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities,” and compare them against federal and state records in search of voter fraud committed by noncitizens — which is illegal and seldom occurs.
It’s not a small ask, and it’s one Trump is familiar with. During his first term, a voting integrity commission led by then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach attempted to assemble a national voter file back in 2017 in pursuit of fraud.
It didn’t pan out: 44 states and the District of Columbia refused to share at least some data, according to CNN, citing privacy concerns and balking at a federal commission wanting to hunt through voter information, despite little evidence that voter fraud exists.
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