WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he was “not in favor” of federalizing elections a day after President Donald Trump said on a podcast that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”
“I’m not in favor of federalizing elections,” Thune told a reporter who asked him about Trump’s remarks. “That’s a constitutional issue,” he added.
Elections for members of Congress are run by the states, in accordance with the Constitution’s Article 1, which also allows for Congress to pass federal regulations. States run voter registration, counting ballots and fraud prevention, among other election responsibilities.
Thune, the top Republican in the Senate, emphasized that he is “a big believer in decentralized and distributed power.”
“It’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,” he added. “So it, in my view, at least, that’s always a system that’s worked pretty well.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked separately about Trump’s stance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that “it’s always been the responsibility of the states to administer elections and it’s a system that works well, so long as the states make it a priority to ensure the integrity of our elections. And we have real concerns about some of the blue states, frankly, that have not been doing that well.”
He said that Trump was “expressing that frustration” and added, “We’re looking for solutions.”
Johnson then touted the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require that states obtain proof of citizenship during voter registration. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. Election experts and advocates have said that voter ID laws can make it harder for citizens to cast ballots because not everyone has the required documents equally accessible.
Trump said in a Monday interview on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s podcast that his party should push to nationalize elections. Trump’s comments came in the middle of an extended rant about election fraud. Trump has for years falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, though there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places,'” Trump said during the interview. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump then repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election in Georgia, referencing the FBI search at a Fulton County election office last month.
“We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes — we have states that I won that show I didn’t win. Now you’re going see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things,” he said.
The FBI told NBC News last month that it was “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center. The county said that the FBI was looking for records related to the 2020 election. Georgia and Fulton County specifically have been a focus of Trump’s since his 2020 loss.
Jane C. Timm contributed.