UVA political expert disputes Trump election security claims

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - President Donald Trump used his prime-time address Thursday night, July 16, to argue the country’s election system needs major changes.

The White House released sets of newly declassified documents Thursday. They include reports on voting systems, China’s access to American voter data, and an investigation into allegedly fraudulent voter registrations.

“This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference,” Trump said.

Larry Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics, disputed that characterization.

“It is a mockery. The whole commentary is about how inaccurate and misleading it was. And pointless, except for his agenda. Which is to reduce the Democratic vote,” Sabato said.

In his speech, Trump said China carried out a large-scale compromise of American voter information.

“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 US voter files,” Trump said.

He said that information included names, addresses, phone numbers, and political party preferences, and that China assigned a dedicated unit to exploit the data.

Sabato said the released documents do not support the severity of Trump’s claims about China’s access to voter data.

“The documents that Trump released makes clear that China gotten no specific proprietary information, information that mattered, that wasn’t on the public record anyway. They could have gotten it another way if they wanted it,” Sabato said.

Trump cited a declassified intelligence assessment on the security of electronic voting systems.

“We assess that centralized election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, poll books, and other official election websites are most vulnerable to exploitation, and adversaries could use access to these systems to disrupt election processes,” Trump said.

Sabato said the claims about voting machines do not hold up.

“The voting machines are not connected to the internet so hacking is impossible. Also, you can’t hack paper,” Sabato said.

He said existing safeguards address the broader concerns Trump raised.

“You can steal paper, you can insert additional ballots, but that’s why we have election observers from both parties,” Sabato said.

Trump referenced an FBI investigation into an alleged voter registration fraud operation in Michigan. He also cited a Department of Homeland Security review of state voter rolls, which he said identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in federal elections.

He used that figure to push for congressional passage of the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

“The only reason you wouldn’t do it is you want to cheat,” Trump said of opposition to the bill.

Sabato said the legislation would have broad consequences.

“It would be terrible if it actually passed. It would have drastic effects on our elections,” Sabato said. “What it’s really going to do is reduce voter turnout.”

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