Free and fair elections are the bare minimum requirement to be a democracy. There’s no payment required to vote, and the voting instructions are simple to follow. Votes need to be anonymous to ensure that everyone is able to vote for who they want, without punishment. There are other important factors that make a functioning democracy, like limited and separate powers of government, but free and fair elections are arguably what make a democratic government a democracy.
The Trump Administration is in the process of collecting voter information from states. A recent FBI raid in a Georgia county was for this purpose, and agents collected physical ballots from the 2020 election, envelopes, provisional ballots, ballot images, and voter rolls. Attorney General Bondi also recently asked Minnesota’s governor to turn voter rolls over to the Department of Justice. No previous DOJ has ever asked for information like this before. It’s not the craziest thing for the administration to ask for, since voter rolls are generally public information that anyone can access. However, it doesn’t seem clear at this point to what extent the sharing of information with the federal government stops.
On Mar. 25, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order stating many problems he has with how the election process is done in the United States. He can have problems with how the states run elections, however, the Constitution says that he cannot interfere with them! Article One, Section Four of the Constitution literally states: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof”. If there is a problem with a state’s ability to hold a free and fair election, that’s a problem for the governor and secretary of state, not the president.
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the most widely used voting machine companies in the country, and the company at the center of the false 2020 election fraud claims, has been sold to a new election company. Dominion Voting Systems’ machines were used in 27 states during the 2024 election, and now it has been sold to Liberty Votes. This rebrand comes with a new goal to improve election integrity and push for paper ballots. This purchase and rebrand could be unimportant, with no effect on elections, and it could also have no relation to President Trump at all. However, it’s hard not to see the parallels when those are the same goals the president has had since he lost the 2020 election. It also doesn’t seem wise to purchase a voting machine company just to count each vote by hand instead.
President Trump has been invested in the election process since he lost the election in 2020. Throughout 2025, the U.S. saw this manifest through raids, executive orders, and DOJ demands. It seems like, instead of convincing people why they need to vote Republican, he’s more interested in controlling the process. Americans are blessed to live in a democratic nation and have the ability to vote. If anyone is unhappy with what’s going on in the country lately, then make a plan to vote now. Midterm elections are just as important as presidential elections, so make your voice heard.