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02/03/26
DASS Statement on Trump’s Threats to ‘Take Over the Voting’ After Administration Officials are No-Shows at NASS
WASHINGTON D.C. — Yesterday, President Donald Trump called for Republicans to “take over the voting” in an appearance on conspiracy theorist (and former Trump official) Dan Bognino’s podcast. Chelsey Wininger, Executive Director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, issued the following statement:
“Donald Trump is calling for the end of free and fair elections in America. His previous attempts to intimidate Secretaries of State and other election officials have failed, and now he is clearly trying to interfere with how states run elections. Trump’s obsession with his 2020 loss has led to him personally ordering federal law enforcement agents to investigate election administrators. This is authoritarianism, plain and simple. The Constitution must be upheld, and states must continue to run our elections.
“Voters are tired of these lies. Trump and his officials must answer the long list of questions Democratic Secretaries have about these attempts to wrest power from state and local election administrators. Trump’s lack of respect for the rule of law, and his lackeys’ refusal to answer for the actions of their agencies, are a major threat to our democracy, voters’ privacy, and our collective freedoms.”
ICYMI, here’s what Democratic Secretaries had to say when it became clear Attorney General Pam Bondi, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canceled their scheduled appearance at the conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS):
“The Constitution places the states – not the federal government – in charge of our elections,” said Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. “Everything this administration has been doing, from the voter rolls to Fulton County to these ICE invasions, pushes the boundaries of the Constitution and really sow[s] fear and chaos among the citizenry and in our elections. And so, it’s time for them to stop – to back off, and to restore the checks and balances because the states are sovereign.”
“It’s really concerning that we’re continuing to relitigate 2020,” said Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas. “There have been lawsuits, there have been recounts, there have been hearings – it is clear that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but he can’t get over it. It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars to be going on this vanity quest for the President.”
“It’s very difficult to defend what they’ve been doing around constitutional norms,” said Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore. “And so, in this year of the semiquincentennial, we should all lean into those founding documents. Article 1, Section 4 gives the states the power to administer elections – place, time, and manner.”
“I’m disappointed, but, what I had hoped to make clear today is that it’s the American people who deserve answers – not Secretaries of State,” said Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas. “The American people need to know why the federal government needs their private information – basically without their consent – and asking us to break state law to get it.”
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