Trump's threat to take over elections is rankling Republican-controlled states like Idaho too

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published March 25, 2026 at 9:02 AM PDT

A voter fills out his ballot at the Owyhee County Museum on Election Day, in Murphy, Idaho, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. (Otto Kitsinger/AP)

President Trump has threatened to “take over” elections, and his Department of Justice has demanded copies of states’ complete voter registration lists.

Those voter rolls include personal information like birthdays, partial Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. Many states have resisted the federal government’s demands to hand them over, citing privacy laws and legal precedent giving states the power to run elections.

It’s not just Democrats. Idaho is one of several Republican-controlled states fighting the administration’s election power grab.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with ProPublica’s Jen Fifield, who reported on the “fiercely independent” Republican-controlled states’ fight with the federal government.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.