It shouldn’t take more proof to catch a fish than to vote

The November of my senior year in high school, I stayed up until midnight watching the 2020 election. The campaign season and election were nerve-racking, especially amid the backdrop of the pandemic. When I finally fell asleep, the election remained a toss-up. Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada were all leaning red, but that did not last, and former President Joe Biden was announced the winner four days later. After the disputed election results, questions quickly spread about the legitimacy of the vote count.Since 2020, we have seen nationwide failures in election integrity, alongside a fall in public trust in elections. Rightfully, elections can be shrouded in questions due to flawed laws and the refusal of governments to accept bills that would ensure election integrity. Because of state and federal election fraud, the Trump administration continues to pressure governments into securing their elections, but with inconsistent success. Still, trustworthy elections are necessary for the preservation of the United States. Without strict laws, we will see a decline into election anarchy. Despite Michigan being a swing state, its election laws are not conservative. Many swing and liberal states have blatant holes in their election laws because their system is designed for a high-trust society. Thanks to demographic change, Michigan has become home to a more tribalistic, low-trust society full of people with an archaic understanding of democracy who proudly have no issue with cheating. Hamtramck, Michigan, was awarded the title of being the first American city to elect an all-Muslim city council and has since been plagued by ballot stuffing and voter fraud. In 2023, two Hamtramck City Councilmen, Mohammed Hassan and Muhtasin Sadman, were charged with election law forgery and forging a signature on an absentee ballot application (both felonies), as well as making a false statement on an absentee ballot application (a misdemeanor). Video evidence shows Sadman and Hassan, along with four others, collecting absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens, and then filled in the candidates of their choosing. In Michigan, as long as an absentee ballot envelope is signed by the correct voter, election officials have no way of knowing whether that voter filled out the ballot inside. Despite the forgery, they received a slap on the wrist: one year of probation. They were only convicted of making a false statement on an absentee ballot application. Despite being convicted criminals, they were still given city council seats. Hamtramck’s ballot drop box, ironically located across from City Hall, saw repeated visits from the two candidates leading up to the August primary election. Not learning from his co-councilman, Abu Musa was caught on surveillance footage stuffing ballot boxes before the 2025 primary election. Surveillance footage captured Abu Musa sitting in the passenger seat, handing ballots to another city councilman, Mohammed Alsomiri, stuffing three stacks of absentee ballots into a ballot drop box. Just days later, Musa won his August 5 primary election with 75% of his vote coming from absentee ballots, and without the absentee vote, he would have achieved a distant eighth place. Despite police confirmation that he illegally stuffed the ballot box, he was later awarded the position of mayor pro tempore, showing that integrity means nothing in Islamic politics. In response to the outcry, Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj remarked, “State laws are clear that your ballot should only be handled by you or a family member. But everyone’s cousins around here.” Thanks to the 2023 and 2025 election fraud, the Michigan attorney general is currently investigating five of the six current city councilmen for “conspiracy to unlawfully obtain access to absentee ballots with the intent to illegally vote the ballots.”Just across Lake Superior, a Minnesota voter registration fraud case emerged in which two Somalis, Abdullahi Ahmed and Mohamed Ahmed, pleaded guilty in federal court to submitting approximately 600 fraudulent voter registration applications across 13 Minnesota counties, including Ilhan Omar’s district. These applications contained fabricated names, addresses, and personal details intended to register fictitious voters affiliated with the Democratic Party. Unsurprisingly, they had connections to Somali nonprofit groups that receive state grants for voter outreach. Patterns suggest there is massive, systematic Somali voting fraud, with these groups historically being involved in similar voter registration fraud cases. To further expose the absurdity of Minnesota election law, conservative media influencer James O’Keefe exposed Minnesota’s abuseable laws by showing that to give someone the right to vote, all you have to do is pledge that someone lives in your precinct and show a driver’s license purchase receipt, which can be easily forged, leaving the state open to unmitigated voter fraud. He presented the ludicrousness by having his friend wear a burqa and, without any action, being gladly allowed to vote. Viewers pointed out that it takes more proof of residence to obtain a fishing license than to vote. The Minnesota secretary of state responded by calling it “outrageous conduct,” and I agree. It is outrageous that Minnesota permits casual, supervised election fraud. Even if the voucher and voter commit fraud, there is no way of knowing until after an election is called. Fraudulently won elections cannot be overturned. Despite the incessant claims that the 2020 election contained not even the slightest chance of error, that lie has started to unravel. Even during Biden’s administration, Fulton County officials admitted they did not properly sign tabulator tapes and misplaced documents during the 2020 election.Alongside the admission of guilt, the Trump administration decided to further investigate the situation. Many self-titled “election experts” claimed that the federal government was opening up investigations because they want to undermine confidence in the 2026 midterm elections. But abhorrently, the FBI searched the county’s election hub and discovered that approximately 315,000 votes cast were certified without the signatures on tabulator tapes from poll workers. This neglect left room for election fraud, as there is no way to confirm that the number of voters matched the total number of votes. Someone could have turned in fake ballots or stolen ballots. For decades, states have admitted to failures in voting security. In the past, New Jersey, Oregon, and California found noncitizens in their voting rolls, and with DHS putting voter rolls under further scrutiny, they identified 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote. That review of just four states’ records found 190,832 noncitizens registered in California; 35,152 in New Jersey; 15,903 in Nevada; and 14,576 in Pennsylvania. This comes as no surprise. Rightfully, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared, “If you are an illegal or you’re voting illegally, we will hunt you down, we will find you, and we will prosecute you. The American people must have confidence in our elections. Election security is not a partisan issue.” PROSECUTORS BUSTED THE BIDEN DEEPFAKE WITHOUT AN AI LAW. THAT’S THE POINTI want to err on the side of Hanlon’s philosophical Razor, that we should “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity,” but the systematic failure to address real election issues seems to be more than just stupidity. Most Democratic states have glaring issues in their election system that seem as though they purposely do not want to fix, as we have seen with Michigan and Minnesota. The public would benefit if our elections were scrutinized, helping election winners take office and investigations into the myriad of flaws in elections succeed.With the 2026 midterm elections in November, active measures to prevent the decay of our democratic process are necessary. We have safeguarded our government institutions for 250 years, but without immediate intervention, they could die. New, mandatory safeguards need to be implemented to ensure the survival of U.S. election integrity.Grayson Ryland is a regional field manager at the Leadership Institute.