‘Shocking’: Former Washington secretary of state calls out Trump’s calls to nationalize local elections

Handing control over elections to the federal government would be unthinkable to former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed.

But in a recent podcast appearance, the president of the United States said he wants to do just that.

“The Republicans should say: ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” President Donald Trump said on a podcast with former deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.

The president did not indicate which states’ elections should be overtaken by the federal government. Last week, the FBI raided Georgia election offices as part of an investigation into Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

Reed, a longtime election administrator, said the president’s suggestion was “shocking.”

“The delegates who wrote the U.S. Constitution, they very clearly didn’t want one central national authority to have control over elections. They made it very clear that the manner of holding elections was up to the states,” he said.

The Constitution states explicitly that “times, places, and manner” of holding elections “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

Cornell Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, said the founders set up this decentralized system specifically to prevent fraud.

“That is one of the great protections we have in the United States against rigged or tampered elections. It is very difficult to tamper with elections because we have at least 50 election systems,” Clayton said.

Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart echoed this concern over local control of elections.

“I suspect that we would be very regretful of making this choice if this is indeed the road that we go down. Because when you do have issues that might result in fraud, your recourse is D.C., and good luck with that,” said the Republican, who is running to be the Spokane County auditor.

If Congress were to pass a law nationalizing elections, the effect would “likely do the opposite” of what Trump intends, Cathcart said.

Reed, a Republican who served three terms as Washington’s secretary of state, said any nationalization of elections is “obviously not going to happen” but the suggestion by a president is an overreach of the federal government.

“One of the founding principles of the Republican Party is local control. Abraham Lincoln said government closest to the people is best, and that has been true throughout the Republican Party’s history until now,” Reed said.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said local control of elections could not be “nationalized” by the federal government.

“The Constitution is very clear the operation of elections rests with the states. We will continue to operate by the laws of the state of Washington,” she said.

Asked what her office would do if Trump attempted a federal takeover of elections, Dalton said the state would use legal means to rebuff any such attempt.

“We have an excellent attorney general who protects the state’s interest,” she said.

If the federal government administered federal elections for Congress and president, that could result in a “two-tiered voting system,” according to Cathcart.

“You could end up in a situation where you’ve got multiple ballots: one that’s representative of federal and another that’s representative of state and local. And I’m very concerned about how all of that could result in further erosion of confidence in elections and also participation in them,” he said.

If elected as auditor, Cathcart said he plans to expand postelection auditing to “reassure the citizenry” elections in Spokane County are being run legitimately.

“There’s a pretty high percentage of individuals who question or have lack of confidence in elections, and that’s just not OK,” he said.

Clayton believes Trump is trying to fuel those concerns in his voters, rather than trying to actually change how elections are run in the country.

“This is all about the midterms,” Clayton said. “Donald Trump is very concerned that he’s going to lose the midterms, and he’s conditioning the public to think that it’s going to be problems with the midterms. If he loses, he will say it was rigged, and he will rile up his supporters. And we need to be ready for that.”