President Donald J. Trump has announced he will soon issue an executive order addressing security in U.S. elections. Reflexively, Democrats and many in the media denounced it sight- unseen. If President Trump is for it, they reason, they must be against it. But by refusing to upgrade the security of our election systems in principle, the left is defending an election administration system that is indeed under attack and is indeed vulnerable.

Cases of attempted election fraud that have recently come to light help demonstrate the evolving nature of fraud as well as vulnerabilities in current election administration that will be exploited unless we remain vigilant against election meddling, both foreign and domestic.

On the foreign front, on the eve of the 2024 election, the director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint statement detailing the multifaceted, pervasive efforts by Iran, Russia, and China to disrupt the presidential election. In July 2025, suspected Iranian hackers breached the Arizona Secretary of State Office server and manipulated candidate profiles on the site. Last year in Wood County, a ransomware attack, likely by a foreign nation, seized the county’s IT system and hobbled county operations.

And on the domestic front, last month, a security camera filming a ballot drop box in Michigan captured a local city council member stuffing stacks of apparent absentee ballots into the drop box days before the election. Michigan law prohibits casting a ballot on behalf of anyone other than a close relative or someone with whom you share a residence, and the drop box stuffing remains under investigation. This represents the simplest (and oldest) type of fraud – stuffing the ballot box. But one has to wonder — how did he get all those absentee ballots?

Fortunately, Ohio has been at the nation’s forefront of efforts to prevent fraud and keep elections honest. Over the apocalyptic protests and predictions of many on the left, voter ID requirements passed by the state Legislature in 2022 have proven to be an invaluable safeguard against fraud and minimally disruptive to the voter. Similarly, the General Assembly passed a law to end early voting on the Monday prior to Election Day to give our county boards of elections a much-needed day to prepare for Election Day. Since both of these laws went into effect, voter turnout has remained strong, no one has been disenfranchised, and naysayers who predicted otherwise have been proven wrong.

Taking election security seriously, as Ohio does, matters to voters. Ensuring a fair, honest and predictable election process instills confidence in voters and keeps voter turnout strong. According to polling conducted by the bipartisan Democracy Defense Project around the 2024 presidential election, 91% of Ohio voters were confident that their votes in that election would be accurately cast and counted — a higher level of confidence than voters reported in most other key battleground states, including Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Unfortunately, however, not every state prioritizes election security as Ohio does. For example, New York requires no photo identification, or even unique identifying information, to vote. The state has no restrictions on who can deliver the ballots of others to a voting location or how many ballots they can return — a practice known as ballot harvesting — and ballots are placed in unsecured, unmonitored drop boxes. There is a reason why banks train cameras on their ATMs.

A number of states allow individuals to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day, allowing for no time to verify a person’s identity or to check if they have already voted. Wisconsin does not check the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement database to see if noncitizens are registering to vote. Nevada and California mail absentee ballots to all registered voters whether they requested one or not, tantamount to rolling out a red carpet to fraud.

The president already has taken steps to protect the security of our vote for states that believe our vote is sacred and should be protected. Earlier this year, he pledged to share a number of federal databases to help states determine if an individual is a U.S. citizen. To date, only the federal government knows who its citizens are, and state access to this information will help clean up their voter rolls and prevent noncitizens from registering or voting in elections. Article V of Ohio’s Constitution explicitly states that only U.S. citizens can vote in elections; we should be grateful to soon have a tool to enforce it.

President Trump’s executive order is expected in the coming weeks, and when it is issued, we should expect a debate over the merits of the specific provisions and directives within it. But until then, make no mistake: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and attempts to steal elections are evolving and ongoing. President Trump, equipped with intelligence information that only he and his administration are privy to, has pledged to keep elections secure and our votes protected. I support him in this effort, and as Ohio’s secretary of state, I will work closely with him and his administration to that end.

Robert Sprague, Ohio’s 49th treasurer of state since 2019, previously served as a state representative for the 83rd District and as Findlay’s city auditor and treasurer.