Yesterday was a historic day for elections in South Dakota and the United States of America. President Trump’s Executive Order on Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections was a great first step in returning to transparent and trustworthy elections.
Many agree, it’s a great first step, but fails to address banning the machines, disbanding the EAC, defunding HAVA, declaring a national emergency regarding critical national infrastructure and other measures we’d all like to see taken. However, the President promised there is more to come, and many believe he is laying the groundwork for more drastic actions to come.
Captain Seth Keshel put out his thoughts on the EO, which you can read HERE, and his high level preliminary overview can be found HERE. We highly suggest reading through each one.
Here are a few excerpts from Captain K’s article.
The order is broad, and most notably, isn’t the last one we are going to see from Trump as we strive to get something meaningful passed through legislation – namely the Make Elections Secure Act (MESA).
Trump closes the section by affirming that voters deserve elections that are “honest and worthy of the public trust,” and that he intends to lead us toward a system with a voter-verifiable paper record. I believe Section 1 is a great way to start the order off and justify what follows.
The EAC is also given 6 months to establish new voting system certification standards honoring the text of this order. This section makes it clear Trump is expecting the EAC to function as more than a “stuck in the middle” group of babysitters unable to take a stand against out-of-control toddlers.
Section 6 is focused on “improving the security of all voting equipment and systems used to cast ballots, tabulate votes, and report results,” and empowers the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security. Interestingly, the order reads, “…so long as the Department of Homeland Security maintains the designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure…”.
I have a gut feeling this first order, particularly in this section, is laying the framework for drastic change. I’ve seen a proposed executive order about electronic voting systems that the President has been given, and when I read subsection B of Section 6, in which the Secretary of Homeland Security and EAC are ordered to report on the security of electronic systems used in the voting process (including registration), I suspect sweeping change is around the corner.
While we agree this EO does not accomplish everything we need, we like the sounds of “sweeping change around the corner”.
As we read over the EO, several things caught our attention. If you ever doubted that Trump’s agenda is our agenda, or vice versa, we will show you a few examples.
Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic. The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.
Under the Constitution, State governments must safeguard American elections in compliance with Federal laws that protect Americans’ voting rights and guard against dilution by illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error. Yet the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote.
Currently, South Dakota is relying on the “honor system” for accurate voter registrations, and Total Vote has no current mechanism for verifying citizenship in place.
This EO will require the DHS to share information with the States so they can properly verify voters.
Section 2 – Enforcing the Citizenship Requirement for Federal Elections will require:
- Documentary proof of citizenship
- Local election official to record which documents were accepted as proof of citizenship
- DHS to provide resources to verify citizenship, free of charge, for new or currently registered voters. (how many non citizens will be removed now??)
- DHS, in coordination with the DOGE Administrator, shall review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities as required by 52 U.S.C. 20507, alongside Federal immigration databases and State records requested, including through subpoena where necessary and authorized by law, for consistency with Federal requirements.
- The Attorney General will prosecute election and voter fraud.
- The head of each Federal voter registration executive department or agency (agency) under the National Voter Registration Act, 52 U.S.C. 20506(a), shall assess citizenship prior to providing a Federal voter registration form to enrollees of public assistance programs.
As much as the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) wanted all their employees and agencies off the hook for any liability for providing voter registrations to unqualified voters in SB68 (Citizenship bill signed into law yesterday), President Trump just put them all back on the hook! BOOM!
SB68, SB73, and SB75 are all now signed into law and will be in place 7/01/25 to support the Trump agenda!
Section 3 – Providing Other Assistance to States Verifying Eligibility
Ok, this is where we want to say “we told you so” but won’t.
Back in 2023, Rep. Mulally’s bill was hog housed by Helene Duhamel and the verbiage regarding cross checking the voter rolls with the Social Security Index and Master Death file was added to SB140. Because of the committee testimony of Jessica Pollema, the requirement was added in an effort to remove deceased voters in a timely manner.
To this day, the Secretary of State’s office has not and will not produce any evidence or documentation of the modification or implementation into the Total Vote System of cross checking with the SSA Master Death Index. Instead, Christine Lehrkamp gaslit a sitting Legislator with this response:
“There were no updates necessary to our TotalVote system. There are folks that make false claims about dead people voting or dead people being on the rolls. Not once has anyone given a name of a deceased person that voted. Our auditors cannot just remove a voter because someone says they are deceased. Auditors have to have proof. And that proof has to be an exact match to the data in the voter’s record (DOB,name, DL# or last 4 of SSN). An obituary does not have a DL# or SSN in it so making an exact match is difficult. It could take months before a death record gets to Vital Records, especially if someone passed away in another state. Our voter file is checked against the Vital Records database every day. If there is a match the auditor gets an alert in their system. The auditor will review and decide if there is a true exact match. If there is an exact match, the auditor will mark the voter as deceased and the voter is removed.”
This SOS employee refused to address the actual question which asked if they were cross checking with SSA Master Death file. Why did they deflect? Because they are out of compliance and have been out of compliance for nearly TWO YEARS now. And the Board of Elections failed to write any rules on how the records were to be match. Are you surprised?
- The Commissioner of Social Security shall take all appropriate action to make available the Social Security Number Verification Service, the Death Master File, and any other Federal databases containing relevant information to all State and local election officials engaged in verifying the eligibility of individuals registering to vote or who are already registered.
Hey Monae, Rachel, Christine and Tom – now you will be Federally required to comply, and we are watching.
- The Secretary of Defense shall update the Federal Post Card Application, pursuant to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, 52 U.S.C. 20301, to require:
(i) documentary proof of United States citizenship, as defined by section 2(a)(ii) of this order; and
(ii) proof of eligibility to vote in elections in the State in which the voter is attempting to vote.
Remember our article on the UOCAVA impact on the 2024 election in D15?
Remember we told you Monae Johnson sent out improper legal advise to all county auditors saying this:
“When a voter registers, you should take their registration at face value. The information given may appear to you as wrong or even impossible to be true, but you should accept it and if it appears to be a perjured statement, then turn the information over to the appropriate law enforcement authority. It is not your decision to reject a voter registration form based upon your personal belief as to what the facts are.” – Monae Johnson
“This office is not responsible for enforcing residency requirements.” – Rachel Soulek
Also all auditors have been taught that they cannot verify or question any UOCAVA or FVAP voter applications, which is inherently FALSE!
Well, no more passing the buck!
This Executive Order is now federally requiring:
proof of eligibility to vote in elections in the State in which the voter is attempting to vote.
Good thing SD Canvassing already helped out the state by writing and lobbying for HB1066 and HB1208! However, that does not exempt all prior federal elections where we had tens of thousands of voters casting votes who never met the eligibility requirements of the state to vote.
Section 4 – Improving the Election Assistance Commission
- The EAC is directed to cease funding for all states out of compliance with federal law.
- The EAC has 180 days to bring all voting systems to VVSG 2.0 standards or decertify them. (Is this even possible?)
- Requires an audit of the HAVA expenditures. (did Monae Johnson file the proper paperwork for her re-directed HAVA funds spent on the Total Vote system upgrade? We cannot find any updated paperwork filed with the EAC.)
Section 5 – Prosecuting Election Crimes
- To protect the franchise of American citizens and their right to participate in fair and honest elections:
provide the Department of Justice with detailed information on all suspected violations of State and Federal election laws discovered by State officials, including information on individuals who:
(i) registered or voted despite being ineligible or who registered multiple times;
Has anyone heard of a mail forwarding service or all those unverified UOCAVA voters that consistently vote 9-1 for the Democrats?)
(ii) committed election fraud;
Remember when Monae Johnson ordered all county auditors to TURN OFF the ballot image save option?
Remember when we told you about all the missing electronic records in Minnehaha County from the 2020 and 2022 elections?
Remember when Lincoln County Auditor Sheri Lund was ballot harvesting in the USF parking lot while she was a candidate on the ballot in that election?
Remember when every single county that had a drop box in 2020 deleted the surveillance video?
Shall we go on?
(iii) provided false information on voter registration or other election forms.
All we have to say is personal mail box. See our analysis posted HERE.
(iv) intimidated or threatened voters or election officials;
Remember when Tom Deadrick said we have NO documented instances of that happening in South Dakota?
(v) otherwise engaged in unlawful conduct to interfere in the election process.
Calling all petitioners.
Section 6 – Improving Security of Voting Systems
- The Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate actions to the extent permitted by 42 U.S.C. 5195c and all other applicable law, so long as the Department of Homeland Security maintains the designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure, as defined by 42 U.S.C. 5195c(e), to prevent all non-citizens from being involved in the administration of any Federal election, including by accessing election equipment, ballots, or any other relevant materials used in the conduct of any Federal election. (How does this apply to those Serbian Dominion employees?)
- Read 42 USC 5195 HERE. Does this reference continuity of government?
- The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, in coordination with the Election Assistance Commission and to the maximum extent possible, review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in the voter registration and voting process. ….shall assess the security of all such systems to the extent they are connected to, or integrated into, the Internet and report on the risk of such systems being compromised…..
None of the voting systems or so-called non-voting equipment (Bpro) meet FISMA standards and should be banned for national security reasons. We hope President Trump appoints new commissioners to the current EAC rubber stamping outfit who will properly assess all voting systems to the levels required for national critical infrastructure.
Section 7 – Compliance with Federal Law Setting the National Election Day
It’s quite possible President Trump may issue a future executive order mandating one day of voting, a return to Election DAY.
We had SB105 ready to go making Election Day a state holiday but it was tabled. We also drafted SB188 limiting absentee balloting, but the SD Legislature still believes 45 days of absentee voting is just fine.
Can you believe this is just the beginning?
President Trump’s agenda is our agenda, Our agenda is President Trump’s agenda.
Who else do you know that can say that?
Are we really, truly about to enter the Golden Age of America?
