LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The push by President Trump to ban mail-in voting and voting machines comes days after his meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Here's Trump quoting Putin when talking about their Alaska meeting with Sean Hannity of Fox News.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He said, your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting. He said, mail-in voting, every election - he said, no country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.
FADEL: To be clear, there's no evidence of this, and Russia isn't exactly the example of free and fair elections. One organization already fighting the executive branch over voting access is the Brennan Center for Justice. It's a nonpartisan law center that, along with the ACLU and others, is suing the administration over a March executive order that calls for federal voter registration forms to require proof of citizenship. The Brennan Center argues that exceeds the president's authority. Wendy Weiser is vice president of democracy at the Brennan Center, and she joins me now. Good morning.
WENDY WEISER: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
FADEL: Thank you for being here. Wendy, I want to start with what Trump said yesterday, that he plans to ban mail-in voting and voting machines. Can he do that?
WEISER: Absolutely not. And that's the thing I want to make clear. Any executive order along the lines of what he suggested yesterday on his Truth Social post and afterwards would be blatantly unconstitutional and beyond the president's authority. Like, this Truth Social post is a significant escalation over what we've seen before because it's the first time the president has gone so far as to flagrantly claim the authority - the presidential authority - over elections. He said that he is in charge of elections. The states are his agents, not only for setting the rules for elections, but also for the counting and tabulating of ballots. He has no authority to rewrite our nation's elections laws. The Constitution very clearly gives that power to regulate elections only to the states and to the Congress, not to the president. So that is outside the scope of something he can do.
FADEL: Now, we've seen the president do and say things that people have said are unconstitutional, and yet he still tries or does them. What if Congress were to act with legislation that mirrors the president's plan? Could he do it then?
WEISER: Well, it is Congress that can actually exercise power to regulate elections, and Congress actually does have quite broad powers to regulate federal elections as long as they preserve and respect our constitutional rights and freedom to vote. That would not be the president. That would be Congress.
FADEL: And if mail ballots - mail-in ballots were not allowed, if some of these voting machines were eliminated, what would that mean for voters and the vote?
WEISER: Well, in the first instance, it would just wreak havoc in the upcoming elections. It would upend voting systems used by tens of millions of Americans for years all across the country. But more to the point, it would be a significant shift in the power - in the balance of power and in the constitutional order in our country for the president to claim authority over federal elections and to tell the states what to do and how to run those elections.
FADEL: And really quickly, is there any evidence that mail-in ballots - 3 in 10 Americans cast their ballots in 2024 with mail-in ballots - are an issue, that they are the reason that an election could be rigged?
WEISER: Absolutely not. This has actually been a method of voting in place in the United States for decades and decades. This has been examined extensively and audited all across the country for years, and there has been absolutely no evidence of significant fraud in mail-in voting. It is secure. It has multiple layers of protections in place to ensure that only eligible Americans are voting. And it works.
FADEL: Wendy Weiser is vice president of democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. Thank you for your time.
WEISER: Thank you for having me.
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