Vermont’s Attorney General, Charity Clark, is back at it, jumping on a 19-state lawsuit against President Trump’s March 25, 2025, Executive Order(EO), “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”. It’s her ninth crack at Trump, per her own office’s count—less a stand for justice, more a tired partisan rerun. The EO calls for proof of citizenship to vote and Election Day deadlines for mail ballots, but Clark brands it a constitutional outrage, a voter-suppression plot. She’s kicking up dust, ignoring the real flaws in our elections—like the ones that robbed Bennington County voters in 2024. Her focus is off, and Vermonters are the ones stung.

The EO is straightforward: register for federal elections with a passport, birth certificate, or REAL ID—no more “trust me” checkboxes. Mail ballots must land by Election Day, not wander in late. States that dawdle face Justice Department heat or slimmer federal funds. It targets gaps we can’t shrug off. Non-citizen voting’s not a fairy tale; Virginia is probing cases now. Kyle Becker’s report exposes a nastier problem: in 2024, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued millions of Social Security Numbers(SSNs) to non-citizens, including illegal immigrants. Vermont’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) driver’s license application, with automatic voter registration, lets those non-citizen SSNs snag driver’s licenses, quietly adding names to voter rolls unless they opt out. It’s a rigged setup—automatic registration games the system, bloating rolls with unverified names, priming them for mail ballots that dodge scrutiny. The Department of Government Efficiency linked some of these SSNs to non-citizens on 2024 voter lists—a flare Clark ignores.

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Her lawsuit, filed April 3 in Massachusetts federal court, leans on Article I, Section 4—states and Congress, not the President, set election rules. But then she spins a fable about millions of voters blocked by ID rules. Rubbish. The REAL ID Act’s been rolling out for 20 years, and in less than a month — after May 7, 2025, you can’t fly without one or a passport—both valid for the EO’s voter ID. Vermont’s 600,000 folks mostly have driver’s licenses; town clerks have handled REAL ID vital records requests since 2005. Her budget moans? States had decades to prep. It’s not a wall—it’s a dodge.

Clark is sidestepping the real battle. My “Election Steals” series, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four laid bare numerous issues including shaky verification and mail-in risks. Vermont’s partial audits are far from ironclad, and the machines are untrustworthy. Tulsi Gabbard gave an update in a cabinet meeting Wednesday where she stated there is evidence that electronic voting machines have been tampered with to manipulate outcomes in the United States. The SSA’s SSN blunder, feeding DMV’s auto-registration, is a live wire—non-citizens could slip through, and Clark’s mute. Worse, she’s deaf to what hit Bennington County in 2024. The Bennington-1 House race saw 40 Pownal voters handed wrong ballots due to a checklist error, in a race with a razor-thin margin. That’s not a slip; it’s a scar on democracy. Clark’s suing over fantasies while real voters—our neighbors—lost their voice.

The EO is not perfect. It’s a heavy tool, maybe too stiff. But Clark’s not here to fix elections—she’s here to sling mud and gaslight us on Vermont’s election security when we have universal mail ballots with no chain of custody. Nineteen Democratic AGs, no Republicans? That’s a posse, not a cause. Her nine Trump lawsuits—citizenship, budgets, whatever—reek of agenda. If integrity mattered, she’d face SSA leaks, DMV tricks, or Bennington’s fumble. Instead, she chases ghosts, leaving Vermonters to mop up. Truth matters—elections must echo the people’s will, not bureaucrats’ errors or politicians’ ploys. Clark’s fight isn’t for Vermonters; it’s for her. Vermont deserves an AG that deals with the state’s judicial crisis, not one tilting at windmills.

Joe Gervais 

Joe Gervais, @joegervais, is a former Army Officer with an eclectic career ranging from decades in Sales and Marketing in the tech industry to running a sawmill and serving the global church as a missionary.