MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump said this week that Republicans should take over voting in a number of places and nationalize elections. On the podcast of his former FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, Trump made a number of false claims about noncitizens voting before pushing for more federal control of elections.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We should take over the voting in at least many - 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Just to be clear, that would be super illegal without some change in the law. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the president was referring to a bill that he wants Republicans to pass in Congress, and the president repeated his desire while appearing with Republican lawmakers.
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TRUMP: If a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it because, you know, if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway.
MARTIN: Miles Parks covers this issue for NPR, so we're going to ask him to fact-check all this. Miles Parks, good morning.
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So let us start with what President Trump said. What do you make of it?
PARKS: I mean, it feels like another one of those moments where Trump says the quiet part out loud, right? I mean, for much of his second term, we've reported on this idea that his administration has been encroaching on state responsibilities when it comes to elections. But this is the clearest we've heard the president just come out and say he wants to take over in some places. In terms of where exactly he's talking about, these 15 places, that's still a little bit unclear, though he did mention Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia - all places controlled by Democrats, all places with high minority populations and all places that election conspiracy theories have really focused since 2020.
MARTIN: I want to ask you about some of the other ways that the president has sought to influence elections. But first, can you just give us a little background, a little history here? What does the Constitution say about a president's role in elections?
PARKS: He has basically no role. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Elections Clause, says that states run elections, though Congress can pass laws to make national rules.
MARTIN: So how has President Trump been pushing that boundary?
PARKS: A few different ways. I mean, shortly after he took office, he signed an executive order that's been blocked by the courts for trying to overstep his presidential authority in elections. The Department of Justice is asking every state for unredacted versions of their voter lists, seemingly to try to police how they're maintaining those lists. The majority of states haven't complied. And then most recently, we saw this raid in Fulton County last week - Fulton County, Georgia - where federal agents seized election equipment and ballots related to Trump's loss there in 2020. And local officials I talk to see a trend here. Here's how Maine's secretary of state, Shenna Bellows - she's a Democrat - put it at an event on Friday.
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SHENNA BELLOWS: We know the 2020 election was safe and secure, as was the 2024 election, and so will be the 2026 - as long as the federal government stops its unconstitutional and unlawful interference.
PARKS: The states are sovereign, she said, and Trump needs to, quote, "back off."
MARTIN: So Secretary Bellows is a Democrat. Are only Democrats concerned about this?
PARKS: Democrats have definitely been more vocal on this issue, but I've heard from Republican election officials as well this year who say that they are actively preparing for the idea of federal interference in this year's midterms. It's also worth remembering that in 2020, there were many, many Republican election officials that stood up to Trump's pressure campaign. So over the next nine months, this is definitely going to be something I'm watching - how Republican election officials engage with some of this rhetoric, especially since states' rights, the idea of states' rights in elections has been a big conservative value over the years.
MARTIN: That is NPR voting correspondent Miles Parks. Miles, thank you.
PARKS: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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