Lost amid a flash flood of recent news, President Donald Trump’s executive order to make American elections more fair and less likely to be corrupted by ideology-driven election officials is possibly a game-changer. If Trump’s order withstands the inevitable onslaught of legal and political challenges it will face, it will make a huge difference in future elections.

The ink had barely dried on Trump’s reform than the New York Times, setting the tone for the national media, ran this headline: “Trump Is Trying to Gain More Power Over Elections. Is His Effort Legal?”

So what does Trump’s order, dubbed “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” actually do?

Mainly, it seeks to ensure that those who vote are indeed American citizens – as required by current law, which states ignore or routinely fail to enforce – and that votes received after Election Day don’t get counted, since such votes are highly susceptible to cheating.

To do this, anyone filling out a federal voter registration form will need “documentary proof of citizenship” (for virtually all people, this requires doing nothing, since they are already recorded as U.S. citizens in federal databases).

It will require states to clean up their voter rolls, or lose federal funding for their elections, and encourages sharing of information across databases with the federal government.

It (again) bans foreign contributions to federal, state, or local elections, a law that already exists on the books but is rarely enforced.

It also requires, and this is important, paper ballots, or “a voter-verifiable paper record,” and bans voting systems using barcodes or QR codes, which can be tampered with, for vote data.

And it also reverses a number of Biden executive actions (“Bidenbucks,” anyone?) that, essentially, “turned federal agencies into Democratic voter turnout centers.”

Or, as our buddies over at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity put it: Trump Orders Clean Elections – What a Concept.

None of these moves should be controversial at all. Fair elections are the underpinning of our republic. Without them, our nation fails.

And yet, you can see where this debate now is headed.

Democrats, under former President Joe Biden, allowed literally millions of illegal entrants into our country, counting on them being susceptible to far-left ideas and special victimhood status now espoused by the party of the far left.

Free health care! Welfare for all! Free or heavily subsidized housing! Subsidized food! Gang members, murderers, child traffickers and other felons welcome! The list goes on and on.

No wonder our borders became clogged with “undocumented” immigrants under Biden and his congressional allies, former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

Trump is now dealing with the problem in two ways: One, his Department of Homeland Security, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have essentially shut down illegal immigration across our southern border, simply by enforcing current laws. And, two, Trump is deporting criminals who are here illegally as fast as law enforcement can find them.

The issue of non-citizen voting is no small problem. A study by three scholars in the journal Electoral Studies estimated an alarming amount of illegal immigrant voting: “We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and congressional elections.”

Any surprise, then, that Democrats are in a panic about this common-sense executive order that, basically, simply requires following current law?

If nothing else, this will simply make our elections fairer and more transparent. It should also end the now quadrennial routine of each party claiming that the other cheated to win an election. It restores Americans’ right to vote, without having their vote negated by rampant cheating.

“Perhaps some people think I shouldn’t be complaining, because we won in a landslide, but we’re going to straighten out our elections,” Trump said. “This country is so sick because of the election, the fake elections and the bad elections, and we’re going to straighten it out one way or the other.”

Exactly. These reforms have been long, long overdue. Americans would be wise to strongly back Trump on this issue, and to look askance at those who want few or no controls at all. It’s your right to vote, after all, that’s at stake.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board