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By Eric Silber  Floating among the continuous wave of actions taken by the Trump administration that requires news coverage, the administration continues to assemble every tool it needs to put a thumb on the scale of the 2026 midterms. In response, Democrats across the country are taking steps to counter continued disenfranchisement efforts by the administration before it's too late. After dictating to some Republican-led states to do mid-cycle redistricting to shift advantage in House seats in their favor, the next biggest voter disenfranchisement push is with the SAVE Act, the administration's pet project to make voting harder under the guise of "security." In reality, it's a bill that would force tens of millions of Americans — disproportionately women, lower-income, and rural voters — to produce documents like passports or birth certificates just to stay registered, all while mandating "clean-up" purges using data sources known to include errors. Senate Democrats have remained unshaken in voting against the various versions of the SAVE Act, but the White House and Senate Republicans keep trying to smuggle elements of it into must-pass legislation rather than let it stand or fall on its own. Similarly, the House of Representatives snuck a Save Act element on voter ID into a bill that was supposed to address insider trading in Congress, a bill that would exclude the president. Due to that unrelated section of the bill, 198 House Democrats voted against the legislation. The GOP is trying intimidation too. After Trump allies floated sending ICE agents to polling places "to stop fraud," DHS was forced to publicly walk it back and promise agents won't show up in November. But nobody's taking that promise at face value, not after officials refused for weeks to rule it out.
And there's more to worry about. DOJ lawsuits are demanding unredacted voter rolls from state after state (30 in total), with zero clarity on what happens to that information once the administration has access to it. Several states, including Virginia, have already told the administration "no" and won court fights to back it up. Luckily, Virginia Democrats were some of the first to move to safeguard the Commonwealth’s voting process and voters from undue federal intervention. State leaders have shored up voter roll protections, rejoined voter registration data-sharing systems among states that the previous governor exited, and put safeguards in place against improper or last-minute purges. This fight is far from over and VA Dems will continue working to ensure that all voters have the ability to make their voice heard in November. Learn more about what you can do to ensure free and fair elections in the county by attending a monthly KGDC meeting, learning more about the upcoming election, and signing up to our mailing list for regular updates. Comments are closed.
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