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Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, Donald Trump has been trying for quite some time to coerce the States into handing over their voter lists since his first term. That is so he and Stephen Miller can create a list of people they do and, most importantly, don't want to have voting in Federal elections. It would allow Trump to block his political enemies.
His Executive order is a desperate attempt by a failing President to cling to power by taking control over how States run their elections, and the reason I am here is its effect on States like Oregon that rely on vote-by-mail.
I am the country's first U.S. Senator elected completely by mail, and I can tell you the people of my State understand better than anyone that vote-by-mail is safe, easy, and effective. We have been doing it for over 30 years. Oregon is one of nine States that currently conducts elections by mail.
Trump talks a big game about vote-by-mail being riddled with fraud. As usual, he exists in his own reality. States that use mail-in voting experience fewer instances of voter fraud than any other system. A review of the vote-by-mail system by Oregon's Legislative Fiscal Office found that, from 2000 to 2019, there were approximately 61 million ballots cast, and, of those, 38 criminal convictions were obtained for fraud, amounting to a 0.00006 percent fraud rate.
So let's be clear. First of all, this Executive order is unconstitutional. The Constitution explicitly grants States the power to establish the times, places, and manner of elections, including creating and managing voter lists. That power does not rest with the President.
The State of Kansas passed a similar law that was struck down by the courts because it illegally blocked 31,000 eligible voters from registering to vote.
Second, this Executive order is illegal. The creation of a national voter database would give the Trump administration unprecedented access to private voter data. Forcing the Social Security office to share private voter data with another Agency is a clear violation of the Privacy Act.
When news dropped about the Executive order, I immediately wrote to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, demanding more information about this data-sharing agreement. This would force Social Security employees to put aside their real jobs--helping seniors and Americans navigate Social Security benefits--and, instead, they would have to execute Trump's voting witch hunt.
Americans are already being forced to endure long waits to receive their hard-earned benefits because of Trump's intentional mismanagement of the Agency. Under the order, they would have to wait even longer because the Agency is too busy doing Trump's illegal, unconstitutional, and unethical bidding.
From day one of his Presidency, Donald Trump has shown as much consideration for the personal privacy of the American people as a bull in a china shop. He essentially handed over the keys to the kingdom when he gave Elon Musk and DOGE unfettered access to the government's internal data systems. We still don't know who ended up having access to the data. Now he wants to do it again--this time, to create a database of voters that allows him to pick and choose who can vote. What he would be doing is weaponizing a fundamental democratic right-- the right to vote--and potentially target his enemies.
Given this administration's track record of mishandling and weaponizing Americans' personal information and data, we can be sure this is a blueprint for who-knows-what with respect to chilling abuses by the Trump administration. There is no legitimate justification for a provision like this.
Anybody who facilitates Donald Trump's directive to create a voter database would be a willing and blatant voter suppressor. They would be as culpable in this travesty as Donald Trump.
Vote-by-mail makes it possible for millions of Americans to make their voices heard. Stephen Miller would tell you that if you can't vote by mail, you can vote another way. That will have drastic consequences for millions of rural Americans, seniors, and people with disabilities. They would be shut out--no voice in our democracy.
An elderly woman living in Eastern Oregon would be forced to drive for hours to the nearest election office to cast a vote. If she doesn't have a car or if she can no longer drive, she would have to find a neighbor or a friend to drive her.
If your mom lived in a nursing home, she wouldn't be able to cast her ballot by mail. You would be forced to find time in between running your kids to soccer and holding down a full-time job to get her to a polling place.
This is exactly what Donald Trump hates about vote-by-mail: It encourages voter participation. It makes it easier for people to be heard, and it makes it harder for Trump to rig elections in his favor. He is terrified of vote-by-mail because, if he doesn't suppress votes, he knows he can't win. It protects the constitutional right to vote.
From his postmarking rule changes to consolidating the Postal Service, shutting down mail processing facilities, and now this, he is in the spaghetti-throwing phase of his midterm election strategy. He knows his platform of pardoning pedophiles and making life more expensive is going to lose him the midterms. Instead of trying to lower costs and improve life for ordinary families, he is hell-bent on making it harder for people to vote.
His Presidency is failing, and the Republican platform becomes more unpopular by the day. That is why they are making such a desperate attempt to get the SAVE Act passed before November. Republicans know they don't have the support in the Congress--certainly not to overhaul Federal elections and enact a voter suppression bill. They are wasting our time debating it because not one of them--not one--has the backbone to stand up to Donald Trump.
Oregonians will be damned if we let Donald Trump do away with how we conduct our voting so Donald Trump could rig another election.
I will fight to make sure Trump's election-rigging scheme dies the death it so richly deserves on the floor of the Senate.
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