Michigan’s junior U.S. senator is warning about election interference in the midterm elections.
In a speech Wednesday to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., Senator Elissa Slotkin said President Donald Trump’s attempts at changing election processes so close to November are concerning.
“He has sued 30 states for their voter rolls,” Slotkin said. “He's tried to ban mail-in voting, and when that didn't work, he tried to make the post office the official judge of who gets to vote by mail.”
Trump signed an executive order in March to restrict mail-in voting, arguing it was a means to end voter fraud – although mail-in ballot fraud is overwhelmingly rare. That order was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in mid-September.
In August, the U.S. Department of Justice sent election observers to Detroit, Hamtramck, East Lansing, and Lansing “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law” in the primary election.
While federal oversight is not uncommon, Slotkin is worried that it might escalate in the weeks ahead of the general election.
“If you hear in the next 34 days that there is a new security threat that you've never heard of, that somehow requires federal law enforcement or the military and not local police, an alarm bell should go off in your brain,” Slotkin said.
The Democratic senator laid out a roadmap for her party should they retake Congress following the midterm elections.
Part of that is prosecuting members of the Trump administration. Slotkin said it’s similar to what European countries have done following the ouster of authoritarians.
“In Poland, they called this plan the Iron Broom, cleaning the place up,” she said.
“The goal here is to have a list of signature cases that go after some of the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars.”
Slotkin believes Democrats made a mistake after Joe Biden won the election in 2020 and Trump supporters staged the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She said Trump’s first term should have opened some eyes.
“What we thought were laws were actually just norms, and a president who wants to completely obliterate our norms can do that easily, and Trump has,” Slotkin said. “Unfortunately, too many leaders on both sides of the aisle believe that the Trump era was behind us and not worth the heavy lift of changing laws to protect the future.”
Slotkin said Americans need to stay engaged if they want to change government for the better.
“That means normal people doing a little bit more than they're used to doing because the country they love is in trouble,” she said. “And just by showing up, you are engaged citizens.”
