White House's Lauren Bis to Newsmax: 'Ballot System Is Ready for Midterms'
White House Press Secretary Counters Ballot‑Tracking Concerns, Urges Passage of SAVE America Act
WASHINGTON — In a Wednesday appearance on Newsmax’s “National Report,” White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Lauren Bis responded to a whistleblower’s warning that the United States Postal Service’s new ballot‑tracking system could jeopardize the November 2024 midterm elections. Bis dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and urged lawmakers to adopt the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship for federal election registration.
Bis said the new system, which uses barcodes to track mail ballots, had been in development for months and that state election officials were well‑prepared for its rollout. “This is the rule election officials had months to prepare for,” she said. “President Trump takes the security of our elections very, very seriously.”
The whistleblower’s complaint, filed by a former Postal Service employee, alleged that the agency had rushed a Federal Ballot Mail Portal and skipped standard testing. It warned that if a single barcode on a ballot in a batch of 10,000 fails to scan, the entire batch could be returned to the state, potentially delaying vote counts. Bis countered that “there was a bunch of litigation brought from the left,” and that the Supreme Court had “recently overruled and stepped in and said that we were right on this.”
The complaint was released on Tuesday, the same day the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 1490, which denounced socialism in “all its forms” and endorsed the GOP‑backed SAVE America Act. The resolution passed 220‑192, with eight Democrats voting in support of the measure and two lawmakers voting present. Bis criticized the House Democrats, saying, “yesterday couldn’t even condemn socialism; over 190 of them refused to vote against it.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D‑Conn.) had issued the whistleblower complaint, prompting Bis to push back on the allegation that the Postal Service had cut corners. She noted that the Supreme Court had lifted a 6‑3 injunction in August that had blocked key portions of former President Trump’s March executive order on mail voting, although the underlying legal challenge remains unresolved.
The interview followed a CNN report that Homeland Security Investigations would intensify election‑fraud probes in nine states through mid‑October, including Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, and Connecticut. Bis described the effort as “a nationwide push,” adding that the administration would hold anyone caught illegally voting “accountable.”
In addition to the ballot‑tracking issue, Bis referenced recent federal prosecutions of foreign nationals who allegedly attempted to cast U.S. ballots. On August 28, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Honduran national Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores with fraudulent voter registration and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. Earlier that month in Massachusetts, the Justice Department charged Chinese national Yupeng Sun with impersonating another man to cast a presidential ballot at Malden City Hall. “The mainstream media and Democrats say this never happens. It clearly does. We keep bringing receipts and the proof,” Bis said.
Bis urged Congress to adopt the SAVE America Act, which would mandate documentary proof of citizenship for federal election registration. She reiterated that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in U.S. federal elections and that penalties include fines and imprisonment.
The White House’s stance on the Postal Service’s ballot‑tracking system and election security measures comes amid a broader debate over election integrity, with Republican lawmakers emphasizing the need for safeguards while Democratic officials call for reforms to prevent disenfranchisement. The outcome of the SAVE America Act and future court rulings will shape the 2024 election landscape.
