President Donald Trump dropped an idea for elections on Wednesday that will no doubt send whatever is left of Democratic sanity out the door.
Trump urged Republicans to “nationalize” elections in order to prevent widespread voter fraud. Currently, each state is responsible for managing elections, including those for federal candidates. Trump advocates for the federal government to take control of voting procedures to avoid any potential cheating. “The state acts as an agent of the federal government in elections,” Trump said while addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “I don’t understand why the federal government doesn’t handle them anyway.”
It’s not the first time Trump called for nationalizing elections. During a Monday appearance on the Dan Bongino Show, he said, “the Republicans should declare, ‘We want to take charge. We should oversee voting in at least 15 areas.’ The Republicans should nationalize the election process.”
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He argued further that allowing illegal immigrants to vote in blue states could affect election outcomes. “If Republicans don’t get them out, we will never win another election as a Republican.”
When asked about Trump’s proposal, House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged issues with the electoral process, particularly in states governed by Democrats.
“What you’re hearing from the President is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things and making sure that they are free and fair elections,” Johnson said. “We need constant improvement on that front. I don’t know what the ultimate solution is going to be. I’m not going to get ahead of the negotiations here, but I think that is something that’s going to be a continuing theme here.”
Johnson added:
It’s something that we’ll continue to push, and we hope the governors will insist upon that same thing as well. In some of the states, like in California, for example, they hold the elections open for weeks after election day. That’s just one thing that bothers so many people. We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on election day in the last election cycle. Every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost. In no series of ballots that were counted after election day were our candidates ahead on any of those counts.
Of course Democrats are going to pooh-pooh and tut-tut this, but the facts – like the president said – are the facts.
– In 2020 at a major ballot counting facility in Detroit, workers actually put up large pieces of cardboard so that the counting inside would be shielded from view;
– Late last year, election officials in Georgia admitted that 315,000 ballots were improperly counted because they were never signed off on by a poll worker, a requirement in the peach state;
– Blue state after blue state has refused to keep its voter registration rolls up to date, as required by a 1993 “Motor-Voter Law,” lending them to massive fraud when you add mail-in voting;
– Trump’s DOJ is having to sue blue states for their voting roll information because they are refusing to turn it over voluntarily, which reeks of vote fraud cover-ups.
What would it look like to nationalize elections?
It could involve implementing federal voter ID requirements, prohibiting mail-in voting, and establishing federal oversight for vote counting in certain states. Essentially, this would give the federal government full authority over how Americans cast their votes in national elections.
However, numerous critics have voiced their opposition to this idea. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has spoken out against the proposal, as reported by The Hill, arguing that he does not support the GOP taking charge of voting procedures. Likewise, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has pushed back, asserting that such a plan would contradict the Constitution, which grants states the right to manage their own elections – though the Constitution does give Congress some election regulatory authority, as well.
However, some Republicans support the idea, and have introduced the “Make Elections Great Again Act,” which mirrors Trump’s idea, Newsweek reported. The bill would require voter ID laws and prohibit universal mail-in voting.
Rep. Bryan Steil (WI-1) said, “Americans must have faith that their elections are conducted with integrity, which includes sensible voter ID laws, accurate voter rolls, and verification of citizenship.” So far, 38 GOP lawmakers are backing it.
