President Donald Trump in his State of the Union deal with on Feb. 24, 2026, doubled down on his false claims that the U.S. elections device is compromised. He asserted that “the cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant.”
Those pronouncements practice the January 2026 FBI seizure of 2020 ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, and the president’s contemporary name for the Republican Birthday celebration to nationalize elections. The Trump management could also be suing 24 states and Washington, D.C., for voter lists to observe voter registrations.
In his speech, Trump requested Republicans to move the SAVE The united states Act. Authorized by way of the Area on Feb. 11, 2026, the measure will require that citizens supply documentary evidence of U.S. citizenship, successfully finishing all on-line voter registration. “They want to cheat. They have cheated,” he stated of Democrats.
Those calls unfold mistrust within the U.S. electoral procedure, regardless of intensive proof appearing that voter fraud is unusual, particularly by way of noncitizens.
All this has resulted in hypothesis about how a lot additional the Trump management and Republican Birthday celebration may move to tilt the 2026 midterm and 2028 presidential elections of their prefer.
After many years of operating across the world on democracy and peace-building, I do know that efforts to undermine elections aren’t unusual. Voters of many affected nations have discovered quite a lot of ways to lend a hand give protection to the integrity in their elections and democracy that can be useful to American citizens lately.
Global electoral help
Leaders, even in established democracies akin to India, have used more and more subtle and wide-ranging method to govern elections of their prefer. The ones method range from prison adjustments that suppress votes to harassment and prosecution of the opposition, to selling standard disinformation campaigns.
Those strategies have advanced regardless of global efforts to counter rigged elections and reinforce election integrity. Those countering efforts are known as electoral help, and so they beef up societies to expand electoral techniques that mirror the need of the folk and cling to democratic ideas.
Electoral help has been proven to enhance transparency and election management in nations akin to Armenia and Mexico. It has additionally progressed voter registration and training in nations akin to Ghana and Colombia.
It’s most commonly equipped by way of global nonprofits, such because the Nationwide Democratic Institute and The Carter Heart within the U.S. Multilateral organizations such because the United International locations additionally supply electoral help.
Area Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-Los angeles., speaks to newshounds in regards to the SAVE The united states Act along Republican management and supporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2026.
AP Picture/Tom Brenner
5 global responses to electoral manipulation
Listed below are 5 spaces of electoral help that experience proven some good fortune across the world.
Early caution and group resilience: Early caution efforts observe threats of violence and intimidation in opposition to election officers, applicants and citizens. They search to mitigate dangers and get ready for crises. This occurs from the early levels of an election thru election day in nations akin to Sri Lanka and Liberia.
Regulation enforcement, civic teams and election officers normally adopt those efforts in combination. However the place such direct cooperation with govt government isn’t possible, civic teams can lend a hand by way of endeavor chance checks and monitoring coercion and threats. They are able to additionally lift alarms with officers and the media.
Signs, or established metrics, can observe subtle coercion techniques such because the misuse of presidency budget for marketing campaign functions. Additionally they can observe vote purchasing, like civic teams in North Macedonia did throughout 2024 parliamentary and 2025 native elections.
For those efforts to achieve success, it’s important that networks of relied on leaders urge early motion to place in position better safeguards lengthy earlier than election day. Elevating alarms and urging motion was once performed effectively by way of non secular leaders in Kenya throughout basic elections in 2022.
Actual-time disinformation and native media response: Actual-time fact-checking and debunking of false or manipulative data has confirmed important to election integrity in nations akin to Mexico and South Africa.
A extremely arranged and fast-moving method involving media, era corporations and government effectively countered disinformation to verify a aggressive democratic election in Brazil in 2022. A coalition of Brazilian media shops, as an example, fact-checked political claims and viral rumors throughout the election length, the usage of cutting edge gear akin to on-line apps.
Neutrality, transparency and techniques reform: Amid efforts to sow doubt in elections, expanding transparency and moral requirements can lend a hand construct consciousness and deepen consider.
Quite a lot of gear, akin to codes of behavior that element moral requirements, may also be formulated for applicants, media and companies. This has been performed in Nigeria and the Philippines.
Global teams, together with the the Global Basis for Electoral Programs, printed type commitments for advancing authentic and credible elections in 2024, which were used for preelection checks in Bangladesh.
Moreover, main era corporations akin to Google and Meta in 2024 helped draft the global Voluntary Election Tips for Era Corporations. Meta additionally helped goal false content material and deepfakes throughout Australia’s 2025 election.
The neutrality of election officers is significant to take on mistrust. In New Zealand, prime ranges of public consider in elections align with powerful neutrality laws for public officers. The secret’s to expand public consciousness of such commitments and the way they may be able to be helpful to carry election officers, media and companies responsible.
Extra profoundly, the design of the electoral device may also be related to ranges of public consider and polarization. New Zealand, South Africa and Northern Eire, as an example, reformed from winner-take-all elections to proportional illustration elections to handle deep inner divisions and dissatisfaction with unrepresentative effects.
Huge-based mobilization and civic campaigns: Vital voter turnout that delivers massive profitable margins make efforts to govern effects harder.
In Zambia, as an example, a landslide victory for the opposition candidate within the 2021 presidential elections was once pushed by way of prime adolescence turnout and other people switching events in city spaces.
Mobilization efforts can span from public campaigns to virtual gear and voter registration and training. Those efforts can encourage key teams, akin to adolescence, minority or out of the country citizens. Participation of diaspora teams in Poland’s 2023 parliamentary elections was once a key issue within the opposition’s win.
Proactively constructing public consciousness of election security features, known as prebunking campaigns, has demonstrated leads to expanding consider in elections in Brazil and the U.S. Moreover, civic training has proven to have sure affect on voter selection of pro-democracy applicants over their most well-liked birthday party.
Strategic coalitions and nonpartisan tracking: Nonpartisan tracking and commentary of an electoral procedure is a key software within the electoral help software equipment. Efficient tracking continuously comes to coalitions of nonpartisan civic teams, which Senegal has used, and faith-based organizations, as within the Philippines, to verify good enough protection of polling stations and constant utility of requirements.
Key gear, akin to parallel vote tabulation, or “quick counts,” which give impartial and statistically correct studies at the high quality of balloting and counting procedure, have helped check authentic election leads to Ukraine, Ghana and Paraguay.
Global commentary by way of entities such because the Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe assesses whether or not elections meet international requirements. The place it identifies severe flaws or fraud, such scrutiny can lend a hand justify mass protests or mobilization, akin to in Serbia’s parliamentary and native elections in 2023, cause new elections, akin to in Bolivia’s basic elections in 2019, or beef up global condemnation, akin to in Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary elections. Additionally they make tips on reforms, akin to adjustments to elections regulations and techniques, to enhance integrity and align with democratic ideas.
