Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump asks Supreme Court to let him curtail mail-in voting

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Trump asks Supreme Court to let him curtail mail-in voting · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration is now formally asking the Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: to let them tighten rules for mail in voting. This
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  Speaker 1: is about an executive order that was signed by the
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  Speaker 1: President earlier this year. It's an order that's been challenged
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  Speaker 1: in the courts by nearly half of the states. All
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  Speaker 1: of this is unfolding with just ninety nine days until
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  Speaker 1: election day. Let's bring in Sana and cheap. Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: analyist Joan Biscubic Joan, always good to see you. Can
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  Speaker 1: you walk through what this means the timetable here, because
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  Speaker 1: the time crunch is real.
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  Speaker 2: The time crunch is real, as you say, just ninety
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  Speaker 2: nine days, and we know that President Trump is trying
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  Speaker 2: several measures to try to affect what happens in November
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  Speaker 2: in the midterms. This particular action today involves his March
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  Speaker 2: directive that would involve the US Postal System and the
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  Speaker 2: Department of Homeland Security screening state roles. The directive requires
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  Speaker 2: the states to submit lists of eligible voters and then
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  Speaker 2: for those two federal entities to try to screen whether
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  Speaker 2: there are some non citizens who can be poised to vote.
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  Speaker 2: That's his whole theme here is to try to take
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  Speaker 2: non citizens out of the voter pool. As you know,
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  Speaker 2: there are very few non citizens who have been found
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  Speaker 2: to have voted at all. And I'll mention the New
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  Speaker 2: Jersey situation in a few seconds, but really this has
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  Speaker 2: not been a problem that the country has had in
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  Speaker 2: the past. But the president is trying to head off something.
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  Speaker 2: And twenty three Democratic led states have said, look, election
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  Speaker 2: procedures are the domain of the states. This is not
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  Speaker 2: something that the White House should be infringing on. And
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  Speaker 2: so far lower courts have agreed. And what we have
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  Speaker 2: is an order from the US Court of Appeals based
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  Speaker 2: in Boston over the weekend that would halt this policy
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  Speaker 2: going forward, not for state officials to start to keep
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  Speaker 2: using their time to meet this directive. Today, just a
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  Speaker 2: few minutes ago, Casey the Trump administration, the US Solicitor
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  Speaker 2: General representing Donald Trump here, has come to the court saying,
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  Speaker 2: you know, prevent the effect of that order from the
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  Speaker 2: first circuit. Let these procedures go into effect. Nothing's really
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  Speaker 2: happened yet. In fact, that's the government's argument at this point,
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  Speaker 2: is that it's premature to interfere because right now the
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  Speaker 2: federal government is just putting in several regulations to try
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  Speaker 2: to prevent non citizens from voting, and we saw just
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  Speaker 2: you know, in recent days, New Jersey has acknowledged that
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  Speaker 2: some four hundred non non citizens did vote, but that
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  Speaker 2: is just a real outlier situation. This has not been
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  Speaker 2: a problem. So what will probably happen, Casey, is the
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  Speaker 2: Justices will ask for some sort of response from the
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  Speaker 2: Democratic challengers and we'll see if they want to intervene
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  Speaker 2: at this point and effectively force the states to start
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  Speaker 2: to keep to turnover roles and potentially have these procedures
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  Speaker 2: in place for the November election.
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  Speaker 1: Casey, all right, Joan Miscubic reporting Press Jones, thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much. Our panel is also joined now by professor
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  Speaker 1: of constitutional law at Georgetown University Michelle Goodwin. And Michelle
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  Speaker 1: I actually I do want to put this to you
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  Speaker 1: because I mean, you heard Joan walk through kind of
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  Speaker 1: the immediate ramifications of this particular situation. But how unprecedented
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  Speaker 1: is it or is it unprecedented for an administration to
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  Speaker 1: try to make such dramatic changes to the way in
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  Speaker 1: which Americans are allowed to or able to vote, with
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  Speaker 1: such a compressed time frame before they're supposed to do so.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's great to be on with you and also
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  Speaker 3: my good friend Joanes. So it's absolutely unprecedented. We've never
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  Speaker 3: seen an executive order like this Trump order, which Joan
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  Speaker 3: referred to notably in that first Circuit Court of Appeals
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  Speaker 3: which upheld the injunction from a lower court. One of
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  Speaker 3: those three judges was Trump appointed. That court said that
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  Speaker 3: this is null and void just on its face, and
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  Speaker 3: it is because it's extraordinary. We have known and held
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  Speaker 3: for it's been now centuries that the domain of elections
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  Speaker 3: are left two states to control, to monitor, they're responsible
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  Speaker 3: for that. This is not something that is just of
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  Speaker 3: the last year or two of this administration. This is
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  Speaker 3: something that has been fundamental to the United States and
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  Speaker 3: its rule of law and politics. And so what we see,
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  Speaker 3: I think one of the ways of seeing this has
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  Speaker 3: been a longer arc of Donald Trump with suspicion about
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  Speaker 3: US elections. We saw that suspicion in twenty twenty with
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  Speaker 3: more than sixty court challenges by Donald Trump under the
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  Speaker 3: presumption that there was something that was miss in that
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  Speaker 3: election and that he should have prevailed. It's worth noting
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  Speaker 3: that he lost every one of those challenges except for one,
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  Speaker 3: which was not a matter of whether he won or not,
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  Speaker 3: But it was just during COVID to allow for those
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  Speaker 3: who were overseeing those who were handling the elections to
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  Speaker 3: be able to come six feet within those that were
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  Speaker 3: handling it. So it's dead on arrival. But we're not
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  Speaker 3: really sure what might happen with the United States Supreme Court.
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  Speaker 1: Sochihin Hosa, how do you how do you think through this?
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  Speaker 2: Both?
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  Speaker 1: I mean you were at DOJ, but you've also worked
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  Speaker 1: as a democratic operative. What is going on?
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  Speaker 2: Like?
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  Speaker 1: What is the president trying to accomplish here, because they are,
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  Speaker 1: it seems, trying to use the postal service and how
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  Speaker 1: should we put it?
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  Speaker 4: Innovative ways?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, compared to how it's been used in the past.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, innovative ways. It's very clear that he is
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  Speaker 5: trying to limit voting in some kind. Here is what
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  Speaker 5: I would caution the administration and Republicans. If we are
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  Speaker 5: ninety ninety day to the election, this cause total chaos.
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  Speaker 5: There are election officials who are already very very stress
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  Speaker 5: under circumstances. Under stress circumstances, they get threats all of
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  Speaker 5: the time. We may end up having a democratic president
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  Speaker 5: in twenty twenty eight, and the Trump administration wants to
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  Speaker 5: continue to try to meddle elections. There might be a
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  Speaker 5: Democratic administration that then might try to medal with elections too.
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  Speaker 5: My hope is that that doesn't happen. But we can't
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  Speaker 5: start the precedent of whether it's Republican or Democratic presidents,
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  Speaker 5: anyone the federal government meddling in elections when it is
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  Speaker 5: when they do not believe that they're going to win.
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  Speaker 1: This is a state.
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  Speaker 5: These are left to the states, and it's under the Constitution.
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  Speaker 5: And I think that this is setting a very dangerous
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  Speaker 5: precedent overall to make our election system more political based
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  Speaker 5: on one party or another.
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  Speaker 6: Well, I don't disagree on the making our election system
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  Speaker 6: more political. I mean, we really do need to watch
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  Speaker 6: out for that. We have to have as Americans trust
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  Speaker 6: in the system. Problem with that is, and I'll leave
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  Speaker 6: New Jersey to the side, because there were six four
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  Speaker 6: hundred people who voted, six thousand who are eligible to
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  Speaker 6: vote that really weren't eligible to vote. But I'll look
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  Speaker 6: at some of the Republican states that actually participated in
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  Speaker 6: this program and they have found individuals that are registered
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  Speaker 6: to vote that according to the DMV. Because a lot
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  Speaker 6: of states use motor voter is the way that they
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  Speaker 6: do registration in the states now as being non citizens.
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  Speaker 6: So they sent out letters to three thousand plus Alaskans
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  Speaker 6: in the one case that I know about, and they're
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  Speaker 6: following up on that. So there is some Again, these
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  Speaker 6: are small numbers, I will grant you that, but I
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  Speaker 6: don't know that it's absolutely wrong for us to take
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  Speaker 6: a look at the system and go, you know, sometimes
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  Speaker 6: people make mistakes, software has glitches. We saw that New Jersey.
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  Speaker 6: Let's fix it.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, states should be fixing them, and that's what they're
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  Speaker 5: doing in New Jersey. In other places, we haven't seen
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  Speaker 5: mass voter fraud or people who are registered, who are
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  Speaker 5: registered to vote, actually vote, who are non citizens, so
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  Speaker 5: things like that. But it's up to the states to
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  Speaker 5: do that, not up to the President of the United States.
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  Speaker 3: And lets yeah clear that if we care about American voting,
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  Speaker 3: then we would actually go back to the Voting Rights Act,
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  Speaker 3: that John Lewis Voting Rights Bill. There's a lot to
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  Speaker 3: be said about shoring up American elections, making sure that
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  Speaker 3: Americans can vote. Right now, we have Americans that are
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  Speaker 3: poised to be in lines for five, six seven hours
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  Speaker 3: waiting to vote. We have states that have passed laws
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  Speaker 3: that you cannot even give someone a water or a
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  Speaker 3: sandwich while they're waiting in line for five or six
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  Speaker 3: or seven hours. So of the things that we could
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  Speaker 3: be talking about in terms of more robust American elections
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  Speaker 3: that are fair and equal for all participants, this is
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  Speaker 3: not it. But there certainly is more that we could do.
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  Speaker 1: Well in Christmas hol to Sanderson, I mean, this is
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  Speaker 1: of course a uniquely Trumpian fixation, right. The president has
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  Speaker 1: been fixated on mail and votvoting, I think in no
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  Speaker 1: small part because of the role it played in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty during COVID when he lost his election. But I mean,
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  Speaker 1: the New York Times points out that Republicans made huge
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  Speaker 1: gains in mail in voting in twenty twenty four. They
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  Speaker 1: wrote that it eroded a key Democratic advantage in nearly
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  Speaker 1: every state the tracks party registration. The Republican rise in
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  Speaker 1: the use of mail voting was almost always accompanied by
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  Speaker 1: a drop in registered Democrats casting a mail ballot, and
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  Speaker 1: it allowed Republicans to make significant inroads and battleground states
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  Speaker 1: like Pennsylvania, red states like Florida, and blue states like Connecticut.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, this Florida is a great example of a state
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  Speaker 4: one that counts its ballots extremely quickly. They know seen
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  Speaker 4: a thing or two. But Florida was also a place
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  Speaker 4: where the Florida Republican Party for a long time built
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  Speaker 4: up a massive advantage by figuring out how do you
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  Speaker 4: use mail in balloting and absentee voting to get your
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  Speaker 4: voters registered and created a scenario where Florida became a
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  Speaker 4: reliably red state. So it is not to say that
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  Speaker 4: mail in voting always benefits one party or another. It
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  Speaker 4: is a tool that you can use to figure out
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  Speaker 4: how do I maximize turnout for my side. And what's
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  Speaker 4: really interesting is in an election like twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 4: for a long time, Democrats had said, you know, the
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  Speaker 4: more people who vote, the better we do, and Donald
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  Speaker 4: Trump turned.
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  Speaker 5: Out on its head.
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  Speaker 4: He found a way to get lower propensity voters to participate,
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  Speaker 4: and that creates exactly what you saw on the security question.
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  Speaker 2: Though.
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  Speaker 4: What's interesting is if you ask voters about something like
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  Speaker 4: voter ID, you find eighty percent say they support voter ID,
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  Speaker 4: but if you ask about mail in voting, you find
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  Speaker 4: about seventy percent say they support mail in voting. A
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  Speaker 4: majority coalition says like, both of these things can be
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  Speaker 4: good things, and we should have a system that has them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough, just very quickly.
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  Speaker 7: What Trump is doing here is the one thing that
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  Speaker 7: Congress will not be able to do. Yes, the same
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  Speaker 7: act is not going to also pass the Senate, but
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  Speaker 7: at least on the House side, Republicans, a majority of
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  Speaker 7: them would be okay with again incentivizing the states, giving
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  Speaker 7: states money to try and figure out voter ID. None
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  Speaker 7: of this mail voting is something that Republicans just do
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  Speaker 7: not want to talk about.
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  Speaker 1: On Kapito for sure,