From today’s CNN News:
A wide array of election experts say President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to “nationalize the voting” is an alarming and potentially dangerous escalation of his continued efforts to transform how US elections are administered.
Trump’s remarks were notable both for their ambiguity and for what they could mean if interpreted literally – especially coming from a president who already tried to overturn one election and is now trying to exert powers that are unprecedented in American history, nearly a dozen election officials, lawyers and nonpartisan experts told CNN.
The executive branch has some powers with elections, like sending Justice Department voting-rights monitors to polling places, which it did last year in California and New Jersey. But Trump’s comments Monday that Republicans “should take over the voting” and “nationalize the voting” would bring the federal government’s role to a level never seen before in this country, which experts said usurps powers the Constitution grants to the states.
“There is one small problem – the Constitution prevents federalizing elections,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told CNN. “It’s very alarming that Trump continues to use his platform to undermine American elections. These attacks are largely failing, but we need to take these comments seriously.”
The White House has since sought to downplay Trump’s remarks by claiming Tuesday that he was merely expressing support for the SAVE Act, pending legislation that would require people to prove their citizenship before registering to vote. (The bill is meant to combat illegal voting by undocumented immigrants, which studies have found occurs on a microscopic level.)
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