People who illegally vote need to be arrested, prosecuted, fined, sentenced to jail time and even deported if appropriate.

That is current law in California.

Several years ago, a lawyer friend of mine and I were discussing election security. He was advocating for tighter rules and procedures. I kept asking how many people cheat in elections. Even today, years later, our political discussions have the same focus.

After the President’s speech last week we learned that the Chinese expressed interest in our election in 2020. “Adoption of the Save America Act will make all the cheating disappear. Just pass this bill,” says the President. That, and ending absentee voting, will end the long history of rigged elections in our country.

But here is my dilemma. How many people have been arrested, prosecuted and sentenced for voter fraud? Not very many.

Every United States attorney in the country works for President Trump and the administration. How many voters who cheated have they charged?

And it’s not a simple matter of blue states versus red states, since parts of every state trend blue or red depending on the communities they make up.

If rampant cheating is occurring, as claimed for the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections, show us the numbers! How many arrested? How many convicted? How many sentenced and, if appropriate, deported?

So, I'm perplexed. If we have rampant cheating, we must also have inept prosecutors and enforcement efforts. Are our elections officials all corrupt? Why haven’t we heard of the outcome of the efforts of thousands of Department of Justice agents, the FBI and the thousands more state and local officials involved in election security?

If there really is mass cheating and ballot counting at the levels talked about, every one of the thousands of government employees charged with ballot security should be fired. Clearly

our election enforcers must be the least competent officials in our government.

Unless there isn’t really much cheating at all.

Voter suppression is when government makes it more difficult for people to legally vote. Remember in 2008 the miles-long lines at the polls in many of our cities as the clock neared the 8 p.m. close? Using the Voting Rights Act, folks went to court and got orders to keep the polls open past the close, since the local election officials weren’t prepared to handle the load. It could have been honest errors. Enough ballots weren’t sent to the precinct. Or the polling booths didn’t work. Or it could be much worse. Perhaps the county officials didn't really want to make it easy for folks in certain areas to vote. If you don’t want folks from a certain area to vote, short that area of ballots or voting booths. Make them wait; many will give up and go home. Which is exactly why Congress originally approved the Voting Rights Act.

But the Voting Rights Act lapsed when the Supreme Court said it needed to be reauthorized by congress.

So, what does the save act and other presidential voting changes do? They require current voter photo ID, proof of citizenship and limiting mail balloting. For women who changed their names after getting married or divorced, they need to have reregistered or bring a copy of their marriage license or divorce papers to the polls. Oh, and their citizenship papers.

But how does any of this address illegal voting? A better approach would be to give folks a reward for turning in illegal voters. That would stop mass illegal voting in its tracks, if it is actually happening. And the fact that the government hasn’t supplied any evidence that it has happened anywhere near the scale that is claimed is telling.

The problem isn’t illegal voting. The problem is that some folks don’t think other folks should vote at all.

The voter registration affidavit in California makes it clear that you pay a huge price for voting illegally. The best way to prevent cheating is to give examples of what happens when someone does cheat.

Until the government gives us the proof, all the noise about the save act is just that…noise.

So I call upon our authorities to arrest illegal voters. The vast majority of American voters want this done.

But don't make voting more difficult for legal voters because you can’t find any illegal voters.

And if this is a real problem, tell us the numbers. Give us the proof.