The Urgent Case for Election Reform

The Urgent Case for Election Reform

Written by David E. Smith

Illinois and the Nation Must Prioritize Election Integrity

President Donald Trump’s prime-time address this week presents a timely opportunity to launch a genuine national, bipartisan effort to strengthen election integrity. Unfortunately, top Democratic officials and their allies in the dishonest media have already rushed to criticize the president, dismissing his concerns about voter fraud and election meddling as “false” or “unsubstantiated.”

On his personal X page, JB Pritzker posted a statement in response accusing the President of “spewing lies” and attempting to “gaslight the American people” with “baseless claims” and “shameless propaganda.“

Yet, for years, grassroots volunteers, local advocates, and concerned citizens across Illinois have sounded the alarm on serious, systemic vulnerabilities in our election systems. When we pointed out duplicate registrations, mail-in ballots cast under suspicious circumstances, and voter rolls cluttered with the deceased, our concerns were all too often dismissed by bureaucrats and left-wing media types as “conspiracy theories.”

President Trump is now exposing some of the alarming problems for all to see—sharing the intelligence community’s own reports that verify our concerns.

In his televised national address on Thursday evening, President Trump declassified critical intelligence revealing the massive scale of foreign interference targeting America’s voter systems. Chief among the revelations was a staggering cyberattack orchestrating what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history. According to an article by The Epoch Times:

“Over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,” President Trump announced from the East Room of the White House. He clarified that this stolen data included “names, addresses, phone numbers, [and] political party preferences.”

According to White House transparency reports, Chinese actors compromised voter rolls in at least 18 states. This massive data breach directly explains the mechanics behind the voter-identity theft schemes we witnessed first-hand. Armed with the personal records of millions of legitimate voters, bad actors have been equipped with the exact blueprints needed to manipulate mail-in ballots.

Despite this unprecedented declassification of over 10 million pages of intelligence documents, including emails and texts, detailing how U.S. elections have been compromised and remain insecure, National Public Radio posted an article with the headline, “In primetime speech, Trump doesn’t provide evidence for illegal voting.“

How in the world can anyone claim “no evidence” with a straight face?

Before the media decry our concerns, they should check the record. Official U.S. Senate Intelligence documents and investigative reporting show that Illinois’ voter databases were directly breached in 2016 and left completely exposed on the open internet in 2024. Moreover, President Barack Obama explicitly warned in a 2018 speech about foreign adversaries ‘hacking’ our election infrastructure. But pointing out that bipartisan reality would require a level of honest journalism we rarely see today. So just who are the ‘deniers’ here?

The Problems in Illinois

In response to these national revelations, the Illinois Election Integrity Program (IEIP)—a project spearheaded by Carol Davis of the Illinois Conservative Union (ICU)—issued a direct call to action for Governor J.B. Pritzker and state legislative leaders. The vulnerabilities declassified by the President are not abstract national security worries; they perfectly mirror the boots-on-the-ground realities we have documented in Illinois since 2020:

The “Already Voted” Mail Ballot Identity Theft Scheme: During the 2020 election and subsequent cycles, legitimate Illinois voters arrived at their polling places on Election Day only to be told that they had “already voted” by mail. These voters were forced to use provisional ballots, many of which were ultimately discarded. Armed with the declassified knowledge of China’s 220-million voter file theft, this pattern points to deliberate voter identity theft executed using stolen personal data.
Decaying and Unclean Voter Rolls: State election authorities have repeatedly ignored demands to clean up voter lists. These vulnerabilities are precisely what open the door to illicit manipulation.
Opaque Voting Equipment and Auditing: Citizen observers in Illinois have consistently documented machine glitches, shifting tabulation practices, and a stubborn resistance from local jurisdictions to provide public access to cast vote records and chain-of-custody documents.
The Bureaucratic Stonewall: Rather than investigating anomalies reported by poll watchers, Illinois state bureaucrats have systematically slow-walked public records requests and denied citizen inquiries.

“Last night the President provided the American People with legitimate receipts that validated what we have been documenting and warning about in Illinois since at least 2020,” said Davis.

“The shadow government knew. They lied and hid the truth… Now we must repair the damage they caused—so every citizen in Illinois can believe in our elections again.”

Illinois’ History of Negligence

Our fight to secure the state’s election systems has been ongoing, and we have brought the battle straight to the courts. In March 2024, Judicial Watch filed a federal lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc. et al v. The Illinois State Board of Elections) on behalf of Illinois Family Action (IFA) and Breakthrough Ideas, challenging the state’s systemic failure to maintain its voter rolls under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.

The lawsuit was triggered because the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) attempted to “pass the buck” to local jurisdictions rather than taking centralized responsibility for purging ineligible names.

The federal government took notice. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in our lawsuit, with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stating:

“It is critical to remove ineligible voters from the registration rolls so that elections are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud. Under the NVRA, states have the responsibility to conduct a robust program of list maintenance.”

Our warnings were further validated during congressional hearings when U.S. Representative Mary Miller (R-Quincy) pointed out that 19 separate counties in Illinois reported zero removals of deceased individuals over a key reporting period. As Rep. Miller dryly asked, did officials actually expect the public to believe that “no one died in 19 counties” over a two-year span?

These are not harmless clerical errors. In an era where foreign adversaries like China hold the detailed personal profiles of 220 million Americans, a dead or moved voter left on an unmaintained roll is a direct invitation for cyber-enabled voter fraud.

The SAVE America Act and Local Reform

To secure our future, we must fight for reform at both the federal and state levels.

Federally, we must continue to demand the passage of the SAVE America Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility), championed by U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and U.S. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX). This commonsense legislation is built on a basic, unassailable premise: only U.S. citizens should decide the outcome of American elections.

The SAVE America Act provides straightforward safeguards:

Mandatory valid photo ID to vote in federal elections.
Documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
An explicit requirement for states to actively purge non-citizens from their voter registries.

As Carol Davis pointed out, these requirements are supported by roughly 80% of the American public. “While more can be done to ensure transparent and honest elections, the SAVE America Act is a very big step forward. This is ‘must-pass’ legislation.”

Yet, when the SAVE America Act was brought to a U.S. Senate vote as an amendment, it fell short in a 48–50 vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats to block the measure. We cannot let up the pressure. We must demand that our federal lawmakers stand up for the sanctity of the vote.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to President Trump, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, and Tammy Duckworth asking them to support election integrity by voting in favor of the SAVE America Act. This legislation would provide reasonable safeguards that ensures only eligible citizens are added to voter rolls.

Christians and all concerned citizens must remain engaged. Free and fair elections are essential to preserving our constitutional republic.

While we push for federal safeguards, Illinois cannot wait for Washington. The Illinois Election Integrity Program is officially calling on Governor Pritzker and members of the Illinois General Assembly to immediately benchmark Illinois’ election code against the Model Election Laws Handbook.

We must act this session to implement:

Strict mail ballot qualifications and public, transparent processing of mail-in ballots.
Proof of citizenship and rigorous, database-verified voter roll maintenance.
Secure, hand-marked paper ballots alongside a complete ban on vulnerable, foreign-connected voting machine technology.
Full transparency of all election records, granting citizens the legal standing to audit and enforce the law.

These are reasonable, common-sense strategies to safeguard our elections, and there should be broad bipartisan agreement on them.

If our citizenship means anything, and if the rule of law is to survive, we must secure the ballot box. Without confidence in the process, the very foundation of our constitutional republic crumbles. It is time for Illinois to stop passing the buck, clean up its rolls, shut the door on foreign exploitation, and restore trust to the voters.

To take action today, contact your state representatives and ask them to support the state-level reforms outlined by our good friends at the Illinois Conservative Union.

Fact-Checking Trump’s Address on Chinese Election Interference
(The Daily Signal)

After Birthplace Citizenship Ruling, China Won’t Need Hackers To Meddle In U.S. Elections
(The Federalist)

Surprise, Surprise: Friday Morning Network Shows Hated Trump’s Election Integrity Address
(MRC)

This content was composed and finalized by the author.
IFA staff and AI tools were used for proofing and clarity.