Trumps election-security address was a wasted opportunity

Election security is a legitimate issue, but President Donald Trump’s primetime speech on the issue was a dud that won’t even help pass the SAVE Act that aims to address the problem.And even most Americans who share his concerns would’ve preferred to hear more about the economy or the war.Trump himself didn’t seem to have his heart in it.His points didn’t always hit home, either: The Chinese have gathered more than 200 million voter files? OK, but what can they do with the info?It “includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences,” the president reports.

But much of that is available in the phone book, and more can be purchased from a host of sources.And if he’s that upset about it, shouldn’t he be raising hell with his Xi Jinping?Our electoral system has major vulnerabilities: States like California have gone bananas regarding how they distribute, collect and count ballots; many fail to prune their rolls of people who’ve died or moved away.But there’s still no hard evidence of voter fraud extensive enough to make a difference in any election, barring a very few extremely local races.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.

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We too favor tighter election protocols, voter-ID laws and other provisions of the SAVE Act, but Republicans don’t have the votes to get it through the Senate and they won’t get them anytime soon.Most important: Election security is nowhere near the top of the list of America’s priorities right now.The public’s attention, even to our president, is a limited commodity.A major address demands a major issue, and rehashing horror stories about changes to Michigan voter-registration rules in 2020 ain’t it.In less than four months, Americans will decide what the last two years of Trump’s presidency are going to be a...