Can Trump Nationalise US Midterm Voting?
Can the Republicans take over the midterms in 15 places as President Trump proposes?
Reuters reported that in a podcast interview on 2 February 2026, President Donald Trump stated that Republicans should “take over the voting [...] in at least [...] 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
President Trump did not specify which 15 places. He did say: “We have states that are so crooked and [...] that I won that show I didn’t.”
Can the Republicans “nationalise the voting,” whether in 15 places or at all?
The US Constitution specifies that the members of the US House of Representatives and (since 1913) of the Senate must be elected by the people of each State.
Elections are scheduled to be held in early November 2026 for all seats in the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate seats.
The Elections Clause in the Constitution stipulates that the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof”.
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Elections Clause expansively, as impliedly authorising the prescribing of a complete code for congressional elections, including requirements for registration, supervision of voting and prevention of fraud.
The Elections Clause (after stating that the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof) adds, “but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations”.
The Clause thus grants Congress, according to the Supreme Court, the power to override state regulations on the times, places or manner of holding elections including any of the implied matters, by establishing “uniform” rules for federal elections binding on the States.
This power granted to Congress to establish uniform rules for federal elections means that Congress cannot establish federal-election rules that will apply in only 15 states or places.
The Supreme Court said that Congress’s power under the Elections Clause may be exercised at any time and to any extent which it deems expedient, and, to the extent that it is exercised but no further, its regulations supersede those of any State which are inconsistent with them.
But the Supreme Court declared that the Elections Clause is expressly restricted to the regulation of the times, places, and manner of elections. The Elections Clause does not permit the prescribing of voter qualifications for congressional elections.
The Constitution stipulates that, in elections of members of the US House of Representatives and US Senate, the electors in each State “shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature”.
This means that, if and when any of the 50 States prescribes qualifications for electors of the most numerous branch of its legislature (usually the lower house of its legislature), those qualifications will also apply to that State’s voters in federal elections.
I am indebted to VoteRiders for the following, a non-partisan, non-profit body which provides public information about different States’ voter-ID requirements.
Only ten States strictly require voters for the lower house of the State legislature to produce photo ID when voting.
Another four States also require ID but accept ID without a photo. (For example, Arizona accepts two non-photo IDs that show the same name and address as the voter’s voter registration, such as a recent cellphone invoice or unexpired vehicle registration certificate.)
Sixteen States have a non-compulsory photo-ID requirement to vote for the lower house of the State legislature. (Thus, Texas requests photo ID but a voter can vote without it if she presents another form of ID such as a birth certificate or current utility bill and signs a form declaring a reasonable impediment out of her control that stops her from getting an accepted photo ID, such as lack of transport, lack of a birth certificate, disability, conflict with her work schedule, or family responsibilities.)
Eight other States also have a non-compulsory ID requirement, but non-photo ID is acceptable.
And finally, twelve States do not as a rule require voters to show ID when voting. (Hence, in California, voters need only verify their identity when they register to vote, by providing their driver’s-licence or State ID-card number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Failing these, a voter must, the first time she votes, show an accepted form of ID, which may include a non-photo document with her name and address, such as a student ID, public-housing card, utility bill, bank statement, government cheque or paycheque, voter notification card, or vehicle registration.)
To repeat, in elections of members of the US House of Representatives and Senate, the Constitution stipulates that the electors in each State “shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature”. The Constitution does not grant Congress power to prescribe qualifications for electors (voters) of members of Congress.
Congress (while not prescribing qualifications for voters) has prescribed procedural requirements that States must follow when registering voters. The 1993 National Voter Registration Act stipulates, among other things, that States which require voter registration for federal elections must offer simplified registration procedures for any eligible person who applies for or renews a driver’s licence (hence the Act being nicknamed the “Motor Voter” Act), and obliges States to use a uniform federal form to register voters for federal elections.
The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act prohibits aliens from voting in elections of the US President or of members of the Senate or House of Representatives. Contraventions attract a fine or imprisonment for a year, or both.
Reportedly, some States have in recent years examined the scope of voting by noncitizens. Texas, the month before the November 2024 presidential election, verified the citizenship of persons who were registered to vote and identified 2,724 potential noncitizens registered to vote. In November, the State had over 18,600,000 registered voters. So fewer than one in every 7,000 registered voters in Texas was a potential noncitizen.
In Ohio, a citizenship audit identified 597 noncitizens who were registered to vote, of whom 138 appeared to have cast ballots and were referred to the State’s attorney general for prosecution.
Despite all this, in January 2026 a Bill to amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act was introduced in the US House of Representatives, cosponsored by about 108 Republican members of the House.
The Bill probably exceeds Congress’s powers under the Elections Clause to prescribe only the times, places and the manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives (including requirements for registration and prevention of fraud). The Bill also probably infringes upon the Constitution’s rule that, in elections of members of the House of Representatives and Senate, voters in each State shall have the qualifications required for voters of the State legislature.
The Bill will prohibit states from accepting and processing applications to register to vote in a federal election unless the applicants present documentary proof of US citizenship.
The Bill specifies what documents are proof of US citizenship. These are, chiefly: A driver’s licence or ID card that meets federal standardisation requirements; a valid US passport; a US military ID card together with a military-service record showing that the holder’s place of birth was in the US; a valid federal or State photo-ID card showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the US; any other federal or State government-issued photo-ID card (accompanied either by a birth certificate by the State or local government in which the applicant was born and showing the applicant’s place of birth and full names of a parent of the applicant, or by a US hospital birth record indicating that the applicant’s place of birth was in the US).
Individuals voting in federal elections must present an eligible photo-ID document.
Critics say that low-income and minority voters are less likely to have these required voter-ID documents, and that this will lead to less voting participation by those groups.
In 1975, the Vienna-based Organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was founded to address issues regarding elections, among other things. The OSCE comprises all 57 North American, European and north Asian countries. Its Office for Democratic Institutions & Human Rights sent a mission at the invitation of the US government to observe the US mid-term congressional elections in November 2018.
The mission reported in February 2019. Regarding voting rights, it estimated that 6,1 million persons with criminal convictions, half of whom had served their sentences, were disenfranchised, with racial minorities disproportionately affected. As to voter registration, the mission estimated that the total number of citizens of voting age was above 250 million of which an estimated 50 million were unregistered, and noted in some places that low-income voters, racial and linguistic minorities, native Americans and citizens with disabilities faced greater obstacles in registering as voters. Voter identification, the mission found, was politically divisive, and identification rules in some states could present obstacles particularly for vulnerable groups. The mission recommended that measures to ensure electoral integrity, while important, should be designed so as not to disenfranchise eligible voters.
Gary Moore, a practising attorney for 30 years, is a Senior Associate at the Free Market Foundation.
 | A guest post by
|