'A nightmare': GOP election expert says Trump's plan 'would almost certainly be unlawful!'
Donald Trump's newest push to reform voting mechanisms is getting poor marks from a fellow Republican in politics.
Trump late Saturday night posted a statement on Truth Social about his plans to change the ways that Americans vote.
"Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!! President DJT," the president wrote.
Stephen Richer, who ran elections in Arizona's largest county and sued Kari Lake for defamation, took apart Trump's plan on X on Sunday.
"For those who want to take this seriously," Richer said, first highlighting Trump's comment about "paper ballots only."
"Some form of paper ballot is used by about 97% of American voters. This represents the high-water mark in the past twenty years," he said. "Why is this important? Because use of paper ballots means that you will always an immutable, auditable paper trail. Worried about hacking? No problem. Just check the paper. Worried about tabulation machines getting the count wrong? No problem. Just check the paper. Worried about electronic Armageddon? Well, at least we still have the unchanged paper ballots."
Tackling Trump's comment that "Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote," Richer said, "Most states require some form of identification to vote. The complication is when we parse it out by type of ID. Does it have to be a photo ID? This poses a problem with a lot tribes. Can it be a signature? (this is what is done for a lot of mail ballots). Will the government issue new IDs? (This is a big no no with civil libertarians)."
On Trump's mail-in voting remark, Richer said, "This was the focus of the President's previous tweet on election administration. As I mentioned two weeks ago, it would almost certainly be unlawful to do this by executive order. And if it was done by Congress, it would represent a significant departure in how we've done election law in the past (largely left to the states). It would also be a humongous administration shift. States like Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah, etc. would have to rebuild pretty much their entire in-person voting infrastructure."
Richer then quoted Trump saying, "Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military," and asked, "Does his caps automatically come on at the beginning of every word? Otherwise it's weird to think he's pressing the upper case button on his phone at the beginning of every word."
"This part represent a bit of a retreat from his absolute ban in his previous tweet. Federal law (UOCAVA) currently requires that military and overseas voters be eligible to vote by some form of remote delivery, beginning 45 days before Election Day. This is not limited to the 'Far Away' military," according to Richer. "It can be military living in the United States. The President's tweet would seemingly attempt to abolish that practice. The 'Very Ill' part seems like an administrative nightmare. Would election administrators require doctors' notes? That seems ludicrous. Doesn't make any exception for the temporarily away (e.g. a heck of a lot of Arizonans aren't in town on Election Day for the primary in the middle of summer). Doesn't make any exceptions for the old. Or for those who can't drive."
Richer also offered to go on MAGA news channel Newsmax, where he said he would explain "the facts as the exist on the ground and why an executive order would almost certainly be unlawful!"