Trump administration requests to access voting engines Ensuring election officials: NPR

Scott Detrow, Host:

President Trump has made it clear that he is not a fan of voting engines, and now his administration actions that destroy many election officials. Now Mees Mees Milen Miles Parken now in Mes. Hello, miles.

Miles Parks, Byline: Hey, Scott.

Detrow: I am confused here. I thought the majority of the country would vote on paper instead of machines. How often does this happen?

Parks: that’s correct. So more than 98% of Americans voted for paper balls in 2024.

Detrow: OK.

Parks: But when we talk about voting machines, this can mean a few different things. In some cases, refer to what people refer to when they say that things are called those devices for ballot papers. These are machines where people use a touchscreen and then print a paper ballot that indicates their answers. They can make it so that it is less likely for human errors, for example when someone writes a squiggle instead of coloring the small dot.

Detrow: Yes.

Parks: In other cases, voting machines refer to how votes are tested. These are the scanners that election officers actually use to count the ballot papers. Voting machines can therefore mean a few different things.

Detrow: Yes. So Miles, the reason you are today is that the Trump government has lately taken steps with regard to these voting equipment, voting machines. Tell us about what’s going on.

Parks: Yes, so the most recent incident took place last month in Missouri, where officials from the Ministry of Justice contacted Local District Clerk in Missouri and actually asked to inspect voting equipment they used in 2020. There are very strict rules about this, so the clerks have politely refused these requests. But we saw similar requests from a consultant in Colorado that they worked on behalf of the Trump government, although the administration has distinguished itself from those efforts. But election officials see those things and are now quite panic, especially in view of the fact that President Trump has also plagued an executive order that forbids voting machines. It is very unclear what that looks like in practice, but it is clear that he does not trust these machines at all.

Detrow: When it comes to the things he claims, is there a truth for one of them?

Parks: There is not there. And there are – as we always talk about – so many cases in which evidence could have come every five years since 2020, right?

Detrow: Yes.

Parks: I mean, there have been lawsuits. For example, FOX News paid a tuning equipment manufacturer nearly $ 800 million to arrange a defamation after 2020. And then I always go back to Georgia, where a lot of the machine shed is really centered …

Detrow: right.

Parks: … in 2020 because voters use electronic marker devices for their paper ballot papers. But after the 2020 elections – people always forget this – the Republican State Secretary held an audit there where they had every paper ballot by hand, and it confirmed what the machine said.

Detrow: he said that. I remember the press conferences where he and his top officials said this time and time again. And yet, this idea – this false idea grew and has still held our politics years later. What do you think of the way civil servants say, no, here is the clear response. Is it just that people don’t trust them? Like, what’s going on here?

Parks: It’s a good question. I think it is very difficult to cut the noise at a very heated political moment. But I will also notice that wrong information about voting machines is really effective because the machines themselves are very complicated. I was talking about that with Jennifer Morrell, who is a former election officer from Colorado in Utah.

Jennifer Morrell: You know, you have heard people say that you cannot trust the black box. I understand that, right? If you can’t see it and you don’t understand how it is used or screened or verified, I can understand the skepticism.

Detrow: Has she, or just has someone else with whom you have spoken, an idea of, such as, what should happen to actually rebuild this trust?

Parks: I think it is due to extreme transparency. You know, nobody should just trust that voting machines work. There must be processes that include the paper ballot papers that mark people where you can go back and check the results to ensure that they work. And more and more states, Morrell told, implement this kind of rigorous audits.

Detrow: I think Miles, a last thing I wonder, President Trump – he is president of the United States. He won the 2024 elections with a decisive margin, and yet he is still so focused on these 2020 elections that he lost and said he did not lose. Is there a thought of you or the world that treats you why this fixation remains?

Parks: I mean, it’s hard to use the President Psychoanalies. However, I will also notice that the fixation did not start alone with 2020, right? I mean, he won in 2016 and also spread false information about non -citizens who vote in that election. So I will say that he is clearly fixed on problems with the election system. But I think people who study voice and election officials with whom I have spoken are really looking ahead to many of these things at how it can affect 2026 and 2028. And I think everyone is pushing that doubt about an election system, the kind of subtext is that the election system must change. So the fear is that this is in fact a way for President Trump or allies of President Trump to change the system in ways that can promote them.

Detrow: That is NPR voice correspondent, Miles Parks. Thank you very much.

Parks: Thank you, Scott.

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