Former President Donald Trump is sounding alarm bells about Pennsylvania's new law allowing automatic voter registration, Breitbart reported. Trump called it a "disaster for the Election of Republicans" on his TruthSocial account Sunday.
The Keystone State becomes the 24th in the nation to implement the practice. Under the new provision, anyone obtaining or renewing a driver's license in the state of Pennsylvania will be registered to vote without filling out an application or taking additional steps.
Trump is crying foul on this terrible idea. "Pennsylvania is at it again!" he began.
"The Radical Left Governor, Josh Shapiro, has just announced a switch to Automatic Voter Registration, a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!" he said of the state's Democratic governor. "This is a totally Unconstitutional Act, and must be met harshly by Republican Leadership in Washington and Pennsylvania," Trump added.
The former president also blamed the leadership at the Republican National Committee for worrying about "meaningless Debates where I am up by more than 50 points" rather than issues like this that will directly impact the 2024 presidential election. He then went on to slam his opponents using the nicknames he's given them, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is his closest competitor.
"Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and others, are far more important than ‘Aida,’ Sloppy Chris, Lyin’ Mike Pence, Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley, Ron (‘Dead Campaign’) DeSanctimonious, and the others," Trump said of his GOP opponents. "Start suing now, & get the right lawyers this time!" he added.
"The Pennsylvania Republican Party must likewise not let this happen. It will be a disaster for our Nation, which is being destroyed by these Lunatics, Marxists, & Fascists, whose only real ability is to CHEAT on Elections," Trump said. "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he ended his post.
Shapiro announced the change last week on National Voter Registration Day. "By expanding voter registration at our DMVs, we’ll save taxpayers time and money, reduce the number of costly paper registrations, and streamline voter registration for Pennsylvanians," claimed.
The Pennsylvania Democrat gave himself a pat on the back for making the move a "reality" in his state that often decides elections. When confronted with Trump's objections, Shapiro's spokesman Manuel Bonder attacked him, according to Patriot-News.
"The former president’s obsession with spreading lies about our elections is dangerous — and that’s why Governor Shapiro defeated him and his enablers over 40 times in court as Attorney General after the 2020 election," Bonder said in a statement. “But facts matter — and it is abundantly clear this commonsense, nonpartisan step to securely streamline voter registration and enhance election security is within the Governor’s executive authority," he added.
"The Governor will remain focused on defending our democracy and empowering eligible Pennsylvanians to vote, no matter who they choose to support." Unfortunately, as Republicans in his state pointed out, Shapiro did this without legislative approval.
However, the governor's office claimed that the power to do this is implicit in federal and state law as well as with the state legislature. "The General Assembly has given the Secretaries of the Commonwealth and Transportation broad authority to implement this requirement, which specifically includes the authority to determine the form of the combined driver’s license and voter registration form," Bonder claimed.
"Any suggestion that the Governor and the Secretaries lack the authority to implement AVR is frivolous." Regardless of its legality in implementation, it's easy to see why Republicans would object.
Trump is right that the Democratic Party is intent on registering people to vote because they are experts at practices like ballot harvesting. Republicans are losing this fight and must find a way to beat them at their own game.
