Washington Monthly: “Trump Has Little Power To Make Drastic Voting Changes”
An excerpt from my piece in the Washington Monthly earlier this week:
“Donald Trump has bold ideas for changing our elections. While most of his proposals would make our voting rules worse, there’s a silver lining. Given the decentralized nature of our election system, he has little official power to implement the new rules he supports. . . . To be sure, Congress has passed some of the most critical voting rules in our history. . . . But states still dictate the day-to-day aspects of election administration. That decentralized process has flaws, especially as it can lead to unequal treatment of voters. Yet, it also can stand as a bulwark to the incoming president’s initiatives to narrow the scope of voting rights.
. . .
State legislatures and state courts may become even more crucial in upholding the ideals of democracy. Republicans, especially, must speak up to support the election rules they prefer, such as early voting.
Elections have consequences. Given that Trump cannot do it by himself, state legislators should know the consequences if they go along with Trump’s ideas to curtail our democratic processes.”