Emily Kwong

But now this, a new declaration from the president.

That was the president speaking on Dan Bongino's podcast last Monday.

And in a later interview with NBC, Trump doubled down on his comments and listed Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit, all Democratic cities, as targets for federal involvement in elections.

His Department of Justice seized ballots cast during the 2020 election from a Fulton County election center late last month.

Also in recent days, Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist, said on his podcast, War Room, We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November.

Consider this.

The president has repeatedly questioned the integrity of election systems, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Now he is calling to nationalize voting.

Why do state governments run elections?

And what happens if that power is under threat?

From NPR, I'm Emily Kwong.

It's Consider This from NPR.

Wendy Weiser is the vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a think tank and voting rights advocacy group.

And I asked her what it would mean to nationalize the vote.

So the midterms, they're basically around the corner.

What are local officials doing to protect state-run elections?

Going back to Steve Bannon's comments on his podcast, when he says we're going to have ICE agents surround the polls, what do we need to understand about a comment like that?

And yet, I think the deployment of the National Guard in various cities has made people question, like, maybe agents can appear at will at the wish of the president and his administration.

Republican lawmakers are working to advance their own voting law, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which would require voters to show passports or birth certificates in order to vote.

If this act passes, first of all, do you think it could pass?