Election Integrity

It is troubling President Trump appears more comfortable talking to President Vladimir Putin behind closed doors than to the American people about the well-documented intrusion by Russia into US elections in 2016. The attack on our democracy by the Russian government appears to have been given short shrift during the meeting.

It went mostly unnoticed as Americans took off on Friday for an extended holiday weekend, but Rhode Island is about to become the ninth state to automatically add to its voter rolls qualified citizens who do business with state agencies.

In the past week, as the Trump administration has sought an array of personal information about voters from state government databases, a bipartisan and nationwide assortment of state officials has undertaken a welcome and very constitutional defense of states’ rights to resist federal overreach.

Today, Rhode Island became the ninth state, along with the District of Columbia, to successfully pass legislation to enable automatic voter registration (AVR). The bill passed by the General Assembly, and headed to Governor Gina Raimondo for signing, could allow eligible voters to automatically register to vote when they interact with state agencies. Since 2015, states have passed or adopted measures that could add millions of eligible voters to the rolls in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The 2016 election showed clearly that Russia has the will and the ability to manipulate critical U.S. electoral and governmental systems. Russia’s actions have shown the world that the U.S. government is no longer independent from foreign exploitation.

The Pence-Kobach Commission’s and Department of Justice’s letters seeking information from election administrators are telling signs of a coordinated, partisan effort to remove eligible voters from registration rolls.