ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President Trump announced this morning on his social media site that he plans to sign an executive order eliminating mail-in voting and possibly voting machines ahead of next year's midterms. Legal and voting experts say it would be very difficult to upend how states run their elections. But more importantly, they say, the president lacks the legal authority to do this. NPR political correspondent Ashley Lopez is here in the studio to tell us more. Hey, Ashley.
ASHLEY LOPEZ, BYLINE: Hey there.
SHAPIRO: Start by telling us more about the president's plan. What did he say this morning?
LOPEZ: Yeah, so Trump said on Truth Social that he plans to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines in the country. He made some unfounded claims about them being inaccurate and leading to voter fraud. Notably, though, Trump said that he plans to sign an executive order ahead of midterm elections next year aimed at addressing these concerns. He talked a bit about it at the White House today.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We, as the Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots. We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they're corrupt.
LOPEZ: Trump also said this morning that states are agents of the federal government and that he therefore has the power to tell them how to run elections.
SHAPIRO: But that's just false. It's not true. So what is the truth?
LOPEZ: Yeah. I spoke to several legal experts about this, and they said, yep, this is not true. There really aren't multiple takes on this. The Constitution is quite clear that the regulation of elections is the power of the states and only Congress can change that. And, I mean, you can imagine why the founders structured it this way. I spoke to UCLA law professor Richard Hasen about this, and he said any effort by the president to force states to run their elections in a particular way would be illegal. He said all the president has the power to do is enforce the laws that are passed by Congress.
RICHARD HASEN: So unless the president has some theory under which he could try to ban certain kinds of voting machines or try to ban mail-in ballots by enforcing some existing federal law, he would need the cooperation of Congress - which I think he'd be unlikely to get - to have any kind of federal interference with how the midterm elections will be run.
LOPEZ: And what Hasen told me is, like, look, if Trump wants to lead this political movement to rethink how our elections are run, he is absolutely free to do so, but he is not within his rights to tell election officials whether they should allow their voters to cast mail-in ballots or use voting machines.
SHAPIRO: Do you know why he's talking about this now?
LOPEZ: I mean, well, Trump and his supporters have been maligning both vote by mail and voting machines for years now, particularly since he lost the 2020 election. In fact, Newsmax, a right-wing media company that touted many of Trump's claims in that time, just recently settled a defamation suit from a voting machine company called Dominion Voting Systems to the tune of $67 million.
SHAPIRO: Wow.
LOPEZ: And it's clear that Trump is at least a little nervous - right? - about next year's midterm elections, which is why he has asked Republican states like Texas to redistrict ahead of next year. Although I should say, while it is unusual for a president to request that, experts told me it is not illegal, unlike what he is proposing today.
SHAPIRO: Well, beyond the legal hurdles, how feasible would it logistically be to get rid of mail-in voting ahead of next year's election?
LOPEZ: Well, that is another big problem with this plan, right? You know, after Trump signs an executive order, it will more than likely be litigated, which takes time. And even if that process moves quicker than expected, primary elections are not that far away. Election administrators are already prepping and budgeting for those elections. So to eliminate mail voting in particular - which is a way that a third of the electorate has been recently casting their ballots - is tough to imagine. And, I mean, that's not even mentioning the time and cost it will take to replace voting machines across the country.
SHAPIRO: Reporting there from NPR's Ashley Lopez. Good to see you, and thanks.
LOPEZ: Yeah, thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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