What does it mean when the president urges Republicans to "nationalize the voting"?

0:00I want to play you a phone call. OK, all right. So, Mr. President, everybody is on the line. And just so, Secretary of State and two other individuals. This is from January 2021, when President Trump was contesting Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. OK, thank you very much. Hello, Brad and Ryan and everybody. We appreciate the time and the call. In this call, President Trump is speaking with Republican Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state. And he tells him to re-evaluate the 2020 election results in his state. So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11 ,780 votes.

0:43This call was a big deal. It was cited in Trump's impeachment that year and a central piece of evidence in a now-defunct criminal prosecution in Fulton County, Georgia. Raffensperger refused, by the way. But the call is important for another reason. The president had to ask an election official to launch an investigation in his state. He couldn't order them to. Okay, thank you, Brad. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Bye. States have the sole power to administer elections. But now this, a new declaration from the president. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places.

1:27The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. That was the president speaking on Dan Bongino's podcast last Monday. And in a later interview with NBC, Trump doubled down on his comments and listed Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit, all Democratic cities, as targets for federal involvement in elections. His Department of Justice seized ballots cast during the 2020 election from a Fulton County Election Center late last month. Also in recent days, Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist, said on his podcast War Room. We're going to have ice surround the polls come November. Consider this. The president has repeatedly questioned the integrity of election systems, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

2:10Now he is calling to nationalize voting. Why do state governments run elections? And what happens if that power is under threat?

2:30From NPR, I'm Emily Kwong.

2:42It's Consider This from NPR. Wendy Weiser is the vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a think tank and voting rights advocacy group. And I asked her what it would mean to nationalize the vote. One thing that's really important for people to know is that actually the president has no role in running elections in our country. In our country, elections are run by the states and 10 ,000 local jurisdictions across the country. And the Constitution makes it clear that it is states that regulate federal elections. Congress can pass laws overriding that, but the president has no role.

3:22So the midterms, they're basically around the corner. What are local officials doing to protect state-run elections? Election officials are doing what they always do, which is preparing furiously to ensure free and fair elections and planning for every possible disruption that might come their way. The Trump administration has been trying to gather up all of the sensitive voter information from the voter rolls across the country. The law requires states to maintain and secure that information. And most states and most state officials, Republican and Democratic, have refused to turn over that sensitive voter information.

4:07Isn't it also protected by U.S. privacy laws, that data? It is protected by state privacy laws. And so most states have said, no, you cannot have that information. You can have, there's certain amounts of voter file information that can be made publicly available or available for inspection. The administration has actually sued now more than 20 states and D.C. to try to get that. And the courts have actually been backing up the states. They have said the administration doesn't have access to the sensitive voter data. They have no legal authorization. Going back to Steve Bannon's comments on his podcast, when he says we're going to have ICE agents surround the polls, what do we need to understand about a comment like that?

4:50This is a threat. It is prohibited for there to be any troops or any armed federal agents of any sort anywhere near where voting or elections are being conducted. There is very clear federal law, both civil and criminal laws, that prohibit intimidation of voters. And yet I think the deployment of the National Guard in various cities has made people question, like, maybe agents can appear at will at the wish of the president and his administration. That's certainly a valid concern. I am confident that courts will move quickly if that happens to try to prohibit it. But I do think election officials, voters, communities are planning just in case, in case the administration does not follow the law, to make sure that voters and all voters feel safe in their communities and participating.

5:49And voters can also plan ahead. Think about voting early or voting by mail if they're worried in their communities. But this would be clearly unlawful and inappropriate. Republican lawmakers are working to advance their own voting law, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or SAVE Act, which would require voters to show passports or birth certificates in order to vote. If this act passes, first of all, do you think it could pass? And second of all, how would it affect voting? The SAVE Act is a vote suppression bill. It would block millions of American citizens from voting. It requires you to show a passport or birth certificate, as you said, in order to register to vote.

6:37And 21 million eligible American citizens don't have ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don't even have a passport. Many of us don't even know where our birth certificate is. the SAVE Act would really append elections and block millions of Americans. It is a real risk. I think there's going to be likely a vote on the House floor this week or next, and Americans should pay attention. This is their representative, so this is an opportunity to make their voices heard. What is the accumulative effect of the administration's questioning of election security, particularly in this midterm year.

7:21This is shaking voters' confidence in the system. It's actually creating fear among election administrators nationwide who are working really hard, but they are now under a lot of direct threats from the federal government. But I do want to reinforce that our elections are still strong. We still have, they are still administered, We have a backbone of election workers across the country who know their jobs. We have election state and federal election laws that are on the voters' side here. And we have many, many people and entities who are working very hard to secure the elections and to ensure that the election is free and fair.

8:08That's Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you for having me. This episode was produced by Henry Larson and Kai McNamee, with audio engineering by Damian Herring. It was edited by Sarah Robbins and Ahmaud Dahman. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan.

8:38It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Emily Kwong.