Nationalizing elections

NPR - NPR's Miles Parks says the administration has spent much of Trump's second term encroaching on states' responsibilities for elections. "But this is the clearest we've heard the president just come out and say he wants to take over in some places," Parks says. The president has no role in elections under the Constitution. States run their elections, but Congress can pass laws setting national regulations. Democrats have been vocal about the possibility of federal interference in the elections. Parks says he has also heard from some Republican election officials that they have been preparing for that possibility. 

The Guardian - Trump framed the issue as a means to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting. Claims that noncitizens are voting in numbers that can affect an election are untrue. But it raises concerns about potential efforts by the president to rig the November midterm elections.

The comments come less than a week after FBI agents served a criminal search warrant to obtain nearly 700 boxes of ballots and other election material from Fulton county, Georgia, long a target of Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

On Tuesday, the Guardian exclusively reported that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.

What did the president say? That immigrants “were brought” to the US to vote. “They vote illegally … We should take over the voting in at least many – 15 places – the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” he said on the podcast of Dan Bongino, the short-lived FBI deputy director.

The Hill - Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he does not support President Trump’s proposal for Republicans to “take over” voting procedures in more than a dozen states and “nationalize” the midterm elections, declaring the president’s call to action blatantly unconstitutional.

“That’s not what the Constitution says about elections,” Paul said in an interview Tuesday with MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, when asked about the president’s statement that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”

Paul noted the U.S. Supreme Court limits states in some ways, such as by barring them from setting different rules for some issues, including term limits. But he said the Constitution gives states the power to determine the time, place and matter of elections.

“The Supreme Court did rule that, for example, Washington state can’t set term limits on federal officials if Georgia doesn’t. It has to be a uniform election law,” the Kentucky Republican said.

“But as far as the time, place and manner of elections, that, under the Constitution, is a state activity,” he continued. “So, I’m not for nationalizing it.”

“Look at some of the places — that horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that,” the president said. “The federal government should get involved.”

Those comments followed a statement he made to conservative commentator and former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino in a podcast that aired Monday, in which he said Republicans should “take over” elections.

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,’” he said. “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Those statements received pushback from several high-profile Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Thune told reporters that voters should be required to show identification to prove they are citizens but he does not support the federal government seizing the power to run elections.

“I’m supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places,” he said. “I think that makes sense. … But I’m not favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue.”

“I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power,” the senator added. “And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one. In my view, at least, that’s always a system that has worked pretty well.”

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he does not support President Trump’s proposal for Republicans to “take over” voting procedures in more than a dozen states and “nationalize” the midterm elections, declaring the president’s call to action blatantly unconstitutional.

“That’s not what the Constitution says about elections,” Paul said in an interview Tuesday with MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, when asked about the president’s statement that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”

Paul noted the U.S. Supreme Court limits states in some ways, such as by barring them from setting different rules for some issues, including term limits. But he said the Constitution gives states the power to determine the time, place and matter of elections.

“The Supreme Court did rule that, for example, Washington state can’t set term limits on federal officials if Georgia doesn’t. It has to be a uniform election law,” the Kentucky Republican said.

“But as far as the time, place and manner of elections, that, under the Constitution, is a state activity,” he continued. “So, I’m not for nationalizing it.”