Trump has a history of challenging unfavorable election results, notably falsely blaming his 2020 defeat by former president Joe Biden on widespread voting fraud. "The Trump administration has tried to insert the federal government into almost every aspect of the election process” in the lead-up to the 2026 vote,said Jonathan Diaz, director for voting advocacy and partnerships at the Campaign Legal Center. Read moreGeorgia on Democrats’ minds: Powering up the Black vote to counter Trump's meddling **“**The long-term risks I think are very significant, but for these midterms in particular– even if he hasn't been successful in changing the rules or in coercing state and local election officials to do what he wants– it's created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty,”Diaz added.
In a new poll by the -NORC Center for Public Affairs, only 55 percent of Democrats said they are confident the final count after the midterm will be accurate, compared to 38 percent of Republicans. The following are some examples of how the Trump administration has tried– and in many cases, failed– to interfere in the midterm vote. Trump has repeatedly claimed that large numbers of noncitizens are voting in US elections, despite the actual numbers showing that this is exceedingly rare.
Voting in US elections is reserved for citizens and already requires an ID; any non-citizens who attempt to vote can face stiff penalties including fines, prison or deportation. Even think tanks that support Trump's voting restrictions have failed to find evidence of widespread fraud. That is about 0.000008 percent of more than 1.3 billion votes cast in presidential elections during that time,” the New York Times reported in April.
Nevertheless, Trump has been pushing lawmakers to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require people to present “documentary proof of United States citizenship” to vote. The United States does not issue a national identity card to its citizens, and under the SAVE Act a driver’s license or other official form of identification would not be sufficient for voting if it does not indicate a place of birth. Acceptable forms of ID would include a valid US passport, a military ID card, a valid government-issued photo ID showing the person was born in the United States, or a birth certificate – but only if it matches the person’s current name exactly, which could pose a problem for the69 million women who changed their names after getting married and the trans community.
According to the Campaign Legal Center, more than 21 million Americans, or nearly 10 percent of voting-age Americans, lack access to documentary proof of citizenship,notably young people, those in lower income brackets and people of color.A 2024 report by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement found that 3 percent of people of color lack proof of US citizenship like a birth certificate, passport or naturalization documents. By comparison, only 1 percent of white Americans have no such documentation. A GOP amendment to the legislation also aimed to curtail the ability to vote by mail or online by overhauling these systems to comply with the stricter ID measures.
The legislation passed the US House of Representatives in February before languishing in the Senate due to a lack of support. Trump allies are still looking to get it passed through the budget reconciliation process. Last year the Trump administration expanded a controversial federal database, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (also known as SAVE), which exists to verify whether someone is a citizen and thus qualifies for government benefits.
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