While speaking on a podcast, President Trump suggested that the Republican party should “nationalize” federal elections, claiming that the current election processes are “crooked.” This type of rhetoric should not be taken lightly by the American people and should cause alarm to the public.
Trump stated, “The Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
The President’s comments faced immediate backlash from democrats and voters across the country. In response, officials from the White House and Capitol Hill attempted to clarify the President’s words, claiming that he was referring to proposed voting legislation that requires proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
When asked to elaborate on what Trump meant by nationalizing elections, Press Secretary Karoline Levitt said, “[The President] believes there has obviously been a lot of fraud and irregularities that have taken place in American elections.”
Levitt referenced the The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also referred to as the SAVE Act. The bill passed in the House and is currently being held up in the Senate.
Democrats are strongly against the bill as it requires voters to provide proof of citizenship by birth certificate, passport or real ID. This could make it extremely difficult for many Americans to register to vote and imposes unnecessary barriers for voter registration impacting low-income Americans, elderly voters and married women whose last name may not match their birth certificate.
In addition, the bill requires citizens to provide documentation in person, which eliminates other popular forms of voting, as many citizens do not have the time to go to the polls. Less common forms of identification can be very hard to obtain causing these restrictions to discourage voter participation and harm citizen engagement. Even if this legislation had been intended to prevent election fraud, it is not necessary, as there is no concrete evidence that non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections.
Despite the efforts made by administration officials to euphemize Trump’s rhetoric, Trump later reaffirmed his belief that elections should be nationalized.
In a recent interview in the Oval Office, Trump reinforced his statement saying, “The state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the government doesn’t do them anyway.”
This statement effectively undermines any explanation given by officials. It is clear that Trump intends to try and expand federal control over elections, which is cause for serious concern.
Referring to the states as “agents” of the federal government contradicts American democratic values and the Constitution. States are not “agents” for the federal government, they are sovereign governments with enumerated powers, including the right to administer elections.
Nationalizing elections would cause centralized power within the government. This concentrated power is explicitly what the constitution was made to prevent. This centralized power is very dangerous and a threat to the American checks and balances system.
This rhetoric espoused by Trump could be attributed to the upcoming midterm elections that will take place in November. The Democratic party is expected to win the majority of the votes and only need to win three republican-held districts to take control of the House.
In the interview within the Oval Office Trump went on to say, “We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes. We have stated that I won that show, I didn’t win.”
Trump continues to deny the outcome of the 2020 election, insisting that there was election fraud involved, without any evidence. Recently, the FBI raided an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, while exercising a search warrant to look for 2020 election ballots. This action follows many prior investigations into alleged election fraud but have failed to substantiate claims of misconduct.
The actions and statements made by the Trump administration suggests that they intend to overstep states enumerated election powers. The resulting distrust between federal and state governments is extremely detrimental to the foundation of American democracy.
It is critical that states protect their constitutional right to conduct elections in order to preserve the balance of power and prevent an authoritarian overreach that could threaten American voting rights.
