A certain law student used to spend his summer vacations in the 1960s intimidating Latino voters in his native Arizona. Little did those voters suspect that the perpetrator of such a criminal act would become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. William Rehnquist was part of the conservative movement's long tradition of preventing vulnerable voters, especially Latinos, from exercising their constitutional rights.

Rehnquist died in 2005, but his ghost is still alive and well today in the worst voter suppression campaign since the Jim Crow Era. This subterfuge is fundamentally based on the following fable: An undocumented immigrant leaves his home, risks his life and crosses an inhospitable desert to enter a strange country in search of a better life, even though he knows that he will be received with all kinds of hostilities. Once here, he commits his entire bet to vote illegally, even though his reward would be practically nil.

The truth is that the probability of this happening is infinitesimal. A study cited by the Washington Post concluded that in one billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014 nationwide, 31 cases of voter fraud were detected, 0.000000031%. Another report from the Department of Justice concluded that in federal elections from 2002 to 2004, 0.00000013% of fraudulent votes were detected. The State of Kansas reviewed 84 million votes cast in 22 states, of which 14 turned out to be fraudulent, 0.0000017%.

Study after study over decades proves that allegations of voter fraud boil down to imposing a solution in desperate search of a problem. And with the most crucial congressional elections in decades just around the corner, Trump and his Republican Party are revving up their suppression machinery.

In August 2025, at Trump's request, Texas altered its electoral maps to favor conservative candidates, thus gaining five additional seats in the Federal Congress, to the detriment of Democratic and minority voters, a maneuver called gerrymandering. Five more Republican states did the same, against only one Democratic state, California. By law, this redistribution must be done every ten years upon completion of the National Census, and not after five years as is being done now.

Likewise, spurred by record levels of disapproval and polls predicting a Republican defeat in the November 3 congressional elections, Trump is urging the Republican majority in Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. The initiative aims to reduce illegal voting by non-citizens - something extremely unlikely or non-existent - by requiring the presentation of a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Only half of the population has a passport, and getting one can cost almost $200, a new obstacle for millions of Latinos burdened by the high cost of living. Likewise, married women who have adopted their husband's surname will have enormous difficulty proving their identity with the birth certificate.

In case all this does not work to avoid an electoral debacle, Trump has also announced that he will deploy his ICE agents in voting centers as a weapon of intimidation against people of color, especially Latinos.

If you are a citizen over 18 years of age, your right to vote is enshrined in the Constitution. To register to vote and find out where to do so, visit the Naleo “Go And Vote” page.

Don't let this fraud called voter fraud silence your voice.

Javier Sierra is a commentator on economic, environmental and social justice issues.