JACKSON, Miss.—President Donald Trump’s suggestion for nationalizing elections is a “terrible idea,” Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said at a Stennis Institute Press Forum on Monday.
Watson, who oversees elections as secretary of state, explained his stance to Magnolia Tribune reporter Dan Tyson by citing the U.S. Constitution.
“The Constitution is pretty clear on the delineation of the powers there,” Watson said at a Monday press forum at Hal and Mal’s in Jackson, Mississippi. “When you look at the elections clause or you look at the different types of federal legislation dealing with (Help America Vote Act of 2002), the National (Voter) Registration Act, et cetera—all of those are focused on the states clearly running the elections.”
For years, Trump spread lies and conspiracy theories, claiming that he won the 2020 election by a “landslide” and has alleged the election was rife with voter fraud despite a lack of evidence. He repeated these claims during an appearance on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s podcast on Feb. 2, where he suggested Republicans should move to nationalize elections.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump said.
Those remarks are reminiscent of comments he made on Truth Social in August about the states’ roles in voting and elections.
“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” Trump wrote in an August social media post. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”
There is no evidence of Trump’s fraud claims about the 2020 election.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order attempting to install sweeping new election rules, including requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote and requiring all mail-in ballots be received by Election Day. A federal judge has permanently blocked the proof-of-citizenship provision. Another judge shot down Trump’s attempt to enforce mail-in ballot changes. Trump has not yet signed a new executive order to enforce his latest intentions.
During the press forum, Watson clarified that he supports the U.S. House’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would require people registering to vote to show a passport or birth certificate to prove U.S. citizenship. The legislation would also require voters to provide a valid photo ID when voting, which is a law Mississippi already has in place. This Trump-backed bill comes during the same year as the midterm elections for U.S. Congress.
“I think that’s a good move, and I think that’s something within their power,” Watson said.
The U.S. House passed the SAVE America Act by a 218-213 vote on Feb. 11. The bill has stalled in the U.S. Senate.
Republicans attempted to pass the same legislation last year, with the House approving it, but the Senate killed it.
In 2021, Watson stated his opposition to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand voting access with a new federal voting-rights law. He warned of “woke college and university students now who will automatically be registered to vote whether they wanted to or not.” He later said he “regretted” his word choice but accused critics of taking his comments out of context and doing “a hatchet job” on him.