When Election Security Starts Looking Like Election Control

I believe in secure elections. I believe only eligible American citizens should vote in our elections, and I believe anyone who actually commits voter fraud should be prosecuted.

But I also believe we need to be very careful when the government starts making it harder for legal American citizens to vote—especially when those changes are being pushed by politicians who have a personal interest in the outcome of the next election.

That's where the SAVE America Act concerns me.

President Trump and his supporters say these new requirements are needed to protect our elections. That's certainly worth discussing. But noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal, and evidence suggests it is rare. So before we create new federal requirements that could make voting more difficult for some eligible Americans, we should be asking a very simple question: Are we fixing a real, widespread problem, or are we creating a bigger problem in the name of solving a smaller one?

This becomes even more concerning when Trump pressures Congress to pass these changes and uses other government business as leverage to get what he wants.

Even Republican Senator Thom Tillis has pushed back against Trump's efforts. That should tell us something. This isn't simply Republicans versus Democrats. It's about whether members of Congress are willing to stand up to a president from their own party when they believe he's going too far.

And that's exactly how our government is supposed to work.

Our senators and representatives don't work for Donald Trump. They don't work for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. They work for the American people.

The right to vote doesn't belong to Trump. It doesn't belong to Republicans. It doesn't belong to Democrats.

It belongs to us.

That's why I think we need to pay very close attention to what's happening here.

We absolutely should protect our elections. Verify that people are eligible to vote. Keep voter rolls accurate. Investigate real evidence of fraud. Prosecute people who break election laws.

But protecting elections also means protecting the right of every eligible American citizen to cast a ballot without unnecessary government roadblocks.

This is where my warning comes in.

Government power usually doesn't grow overnight. It grows one "reasonable" step at a time. One new requirement. One new restriction. One more piece of personal information the government says it needs. And every time, we're told it's necessary for our own protection.

Maybe some of those steps are justified.

But we should never stop asking questions.

When a sitting president who still insists the 2020 election was stolen starts demanding changes to the rules governing future elections, Americans—Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals and independents—should be watching very carefully.

Election security matters.

Voting rights matter.

And neither Donald Trump nor any future president should be allowed to use the power of the federal government to tip that balance for political advantage.

Our Founding Fathers created checks and balances for a reason. They understood that giving too much power to any one person was dangerous.

That warning is just as important today as it was when this country was founded.

Because once we stop questioning those in power simply because they're on "our side," we've already given away something far more valuable than an election.

We've given away our responsibility to keep government power in check.