(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

A recent social media update from the Alt National Park Service brought to light an extremely disturbing effort being made by the Trump regime regarding elections administration and voting. The post reads, in part:

“Federal agencies, led by the Department of Justice, have requested full voter rolls from at least nine states, aiming to build a centralized database of personal voter information. While a few states have complied, others are pushing back, warning that such demands risk violating privacy laws and overstepping constitutional limits. At the same time, a consultant tied to the White House has reportedly approached local officials in Colorado, seeking physical access to inspect voting machines. The move is being framed as a ‘federal review,’ but election officials are refusing, calling it an alarming intrusion into state-controlled systems.

“All of this is tied to a Trump executive order that would overhaul the way Americans vote. Among other things, it would require proof of citizenship at the time of registration, banning voting systems that rely on barcodes or QR codes, and imposing stricter deadlines on mail-in ballots. Legal challenges have blocked parts of the order, but key provisions remain and local officials are now scrambling to understand how to comply, or if they even can.

“Meanwhile, the Trump administration has gutted key federal units that traditionally protect U.S. elections from foreign interference and cyberattacks. The FBI’s election integrity task force has been shut down, and teams at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have been downsized or reassigned. That leaves state and local officials with fewer resources, and more risk, at a time when public trust in elections is already under strain.”

This is a core part of how Trump and his MAGA cultist Republican Party plan to avoid electoral accountability in 2026 and beyond for their incredibly unpopular, damaging and deadly “governance.” When congressional Democrats were trying to pass voting rights legislation known as the For the People Act (later watered down to appease Joe Manchin and called the Freedom to Vote Act, only for Manchin to allow Republicans to filibuster it by refusing to change rules surrounding the filibuster), Republicans cried foul as loud as they could. It was “federal overreach” and a “violation of states’ rights” (where have we heard “violation of states’ rights” before)?

The GOP already enjoys the benefits of systemic minority tyranny (e.g. the Electoral College, the structure of the U.S. Senate with two Senators per state regardless of population size and gerrymandering of U.S. House and state legislative districts after census years). They’ve come to realize, though, that even these distinct advantages aren’t enough to shield them from all accountability at the polls. The easier it is to vote and the more people who turn out, the worse their prospects for victory, especially at the state and federal levels.

There were no irregularities that came anywhere close to affecting the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections. Numerous decades-long studies have shown that in-person voter fraud is all but nonexistent; same with mail-based voter fraud. “Election integrity” has become synonymous in Republican speak with voter suppression. They’ve been quite successful with suppression efforts in numerous states and now they’re pressing their luck at the federal level.

It’s up to all of us who love democracy and who advocate for the egalitarian principle of “one person, one vote” to make sure we’re holding our Secretaries of State and County Clerks and other elections officials accountable to We the People, instead of the whims of a wannabe dictator and his enablers. Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales seems like a reasonable guy. It was reassuring to see him working cooperatively with his predecessor Mark Rhodes, despite Gonzales being a Republican and Rhodes a Democrat, in the 2024 election cycle.

Voting should be one of the easiest things any of us ever do. Had the For the People Act in its original form passed and been implemented, it would be. Instead, we have a party led by a man who’s never won a nationwide popular vote majority and was only supported last year by less than 1/3 of all eligible voters nationwide, trying to make voting as arduous as possible and to interfere with election outcomes regardless. There’s no low to which they won’t sink.

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Eric Engle is a resident of Parkersburg.