What A Day - A Committee Protecting U.S. Elections Is Under Threat

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Last week's Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act is big news. But there are tons of other ways that the Trump Administration and the GOP are trying to make it harder for you to vote. Take the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, or TGDC. It's supposed to be a nonpartisan federal committee that determines the standards for voting equipment used in elections across the country. But back in April, a group of election officials sounded the alarm. The Trump Administration has been blocking new appointees to the TGDC and won’t say why — which is a big, big concern with midterm elections just a few months away. So to explain what’s going on with our nation’s voting apparatus, we spoke to Jacob Knutson, a reporter at Democracy Docket.And in headlines, Trump tells Congress that the war in Iran is currently not a war, Tucker Carlson gives a long and winding interview to the New York Times, and we send a bittersweet goodbye to Spirit Airlines.Show Notes: Check out Jacob's piece – https://tinyurl.com/4rjytz3b Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Monday, May 4th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. The show that just learned it is something in common with First Lady Melania Trump via President Donald Trump speaking in Florida on Friday. And she hates when I dance to at the end to... She hates when I dance to what sometimes referred to as the gay national anthem. You know that. She hates it. I also hate when he dances to YMCA by the village people, which is not the gay national anthem. As we've discussed, the gay national anthem is Dancing on My Own by Robin.

On today's show, the war on Iran that wasn't a war but became a war is currently not a war, according to the Trump administration. And grab a glass, we're pouring one out for Spirit Airlines. But let's start with voting. Republicans spent their weekend defending last week's Supreme Court decision that struck down a Louisiana congressional map. It's a decision that, in effect, could entirely defang the power of the Voting Rights Act, which ensures that states cannot redistrict non-white voters out of public. political power. But on Fox News Sunday, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott told host Maria

Bardo that the decision was actually great for Americans, because it'll help us hire members of Congress more fairly. The Supreme Court just applied a principle that most Americans already understood, and that is, for example, in a hiring decision in the United States, everybody knows that employer cannot engage in racial discrimination. Now the court is just making clear that that same hiring decision, when voters hire who the member of Congress is going to be, that cannot be racial discrimination. The fact of the matter is for decades, the Democrats have been using racial discrimination to draw these crazily drawn lines. Discrimination against minority voters, on the other hand, is apparently fine, provided you don't make that discrimination too explicit.

The Supreme Court decision is big news. but there are tons of ways that the Trump administration and the GOP are trying to make it harder for you to vote. Take the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, or TGDC. It's supposed to be a non-partisan federal committee that determines the standards for voting equipment used in elections across the country. Those standards are known as the voluntary voting system guidelines, and they're intended to keep our election safe and secure, something I thought Donald Trump was very worried about. But back in April, a group of election officials sounded the alarm. The Trump administration has been blocking new appointees to the TGDC and won't say why.

Without those experts in place, we could see voting machines that are more likely to get breached by hackers or just plain don't work. And that's a big, big concern with midterm elections just a few months away. And with the Trump White House looking to, quote, take over how Americans vote. So to explain what's going on with our nation's voting apparatus, I spoke to Jacob Knutson. He's a reporter at Democracy Docket. We talked before the Supreme Court announced a decision in Louisiana versus Calais. Jacob Knudsen, welcome to Waddeh. Thank you for having me.

You read about some serious problems with a committee I had never heard of before, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee. Before we get into the issues, what is this committee supposed to do for American democracy? Yeah, so it's a somewhat, well, I would say it's a very obscure. Yeah, it's real obscure, Jacob. It's a very obscure and technical committee, but it's a very obscure. incredibly important to American democracy. It's made up of experts on, you know, the nuts and bolts of democracy. These experts who include, you know, election officials, engineers,

disability advocates, they help the U.S. Election Assistance Commission come up with the standards and guidance to certify voting systems used in all U.S. elections. What struck me was that in your article in Democracy Docket, you showed that experts who would normally get on this committee, the experts you were just talking about, are being blocked. What's happening and who is blocking them? I went to EAC meetings in Chicago, where election officials across the country learn that the Trump administration was suddenly blocking all pending appointments to the technical guidelines development committee, this committee we're talking about. Without explanation, they have been left completely in the dark about

these blocks. And it shocked many of the officials there. One of the, the, the one of the, them next to me described the blocks as fucking crazy. So anyway, it was so shocking because this really has never happened in the committee's two-decade history. These rejections also come at a time when the EAC is attempting to implement parts of Trump's anti-voting executive order, which demanded changes to voting machine standards. Just to clarify, is this blocking of experts happening across the board so it's no one is being appointed? Or are they, only permitting experts from states or institutions Trump likes? So it's a little unclear at this point if the blocks have been completely, you know,

across the board blanket or if they've been selective. The election officials in Chicago were told that they were blanket. Some of the organizations that are supposed to have representation on this, on this committee that I reached out to, they haven't received confirmation on whether their appointees have been blocked or confirmed. You know, one of the officials who were blocked, her name is Mandy Vigil, she is a New Mexico state election official. She was blocked, and she happens to be a Democrat. So it appears to be politically motivated.

Yeah, that doesn't look good. But let's get into the consequences of all of this, starting relatively short term. What could this mean for, say, the midterms we're going to see in November? or looking a little further out for the 2008 presidential election. If these experts aren't appointed, does that mean the committee just doesn't exist? Like, what does this all mean? Yeah. So the committee still has a working quorum by like a hair.

So it's still able to function and still able to offer the EAC expertise on voting machine standards. In the short term, it's an extraordinary violation of procedure that the fact. federal government hasn't explained to its state partners. For the long term, this could lead to the adoption of bad policy. By design, developing new voting system standards is a very slow and deliberative process because, you know, even minor changes can have cascading effects that impacts voters with specific needs. So like a good example is the U.S. Access Board is a federal agency that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities. By law, it is supposed to have two representatives on the committee, and it currently has zero formal representatives. And that's really

concerning when we're talking about voting. Right. You mentioned that the states don't have to take the EAC's advice, but that they generally do. Is this the first time that something like this has happened? Has it pretty much like a nonpartisan, bipartisan effort for the last 20 years or so? So as far as I can tell, this has never, ever happened before. And it's a little, it's, it's, it's really unclear at this point who exactly is making the final decisions on the rejections. Officials in Chicago last week said they came from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is a part of the Commerce Department. But it appears that these approvals were pending before the Commerce Department's office of the White House liaison, which is, you know, a direct connection

between the Commerce Department and White House. So that gets me to President Trump, a president who claimed that rigged voting machines are to blame for his losing back in 2020. And now he's interrupting the process of updating and improving said machines. In your view, is this a move of a president who's like crazy clever or a move that's really counterproductive to a scheme to somehow help Trump and his party? I think it's really counterproductive, and I think it also reflects that he really doesn't understand how these processes work. If you are gutting the committee that works on this stuff, yeah, it's very countertuitive if your aim is to change the voting machine standards.

It's a little more technical because the EAC can act even without the recommendation of the committee, but then the EASC, see we'll be acting potentially even against the recommendations of this committee. That would be a very bad look. Jacob Knutson, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me and talking about very obscure federal entities. That was my conversation with Jacob Knudsen, reporter at Democracy Docket. We'll link to his piece in the show notes. We absolutely want your vote of approval. And you can give it to us by subscribing, leaving a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watching us on YouTube, and sharing with your friends. More to come after some ads.

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growing at fastgrowingtrees.com, using the code WOD to check out. Fastgrowingtrees.com code Wad. Now is the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Use WOD to save today. Offer is valid for limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Here's what else we're following today. The war in Iran has now lasted more than 60 days. And after 60 days, the war powers resolution of 1973 states that the U.S. has to withdraw forces if Congress hasn't, quote,

authorized hostilities, which is probably why Trump sent Congress a letter Friday saying that the 60-day clock stopped on April 7th, because that's when the, quote, ceasefire began. And he doesn't need their approval after all. So now, according to the Trump administration, we are now not actually at war with Iran. Here's acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, speaking with Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday. Is the United States at war with Iran? No. I mean, what President Trump said this weekend is absolutely true. My job, as the acting attorney general, is to make sure that the president, that we all are doing the right thing legally, and we absolutely are.

I like how he both answered the question and also tried not to. On Sunday, Trump announced that an effort called Project Freedom will start today to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. On true social, he said he wanted to help, quote, neutral and innocent countries, so, quote, they can freely and ably get on with their business. New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia Navarro went to Maine to sit down with Tucker Carlson for a lengthy interview published over the weekend. And boy, did it go a lot of different directions. Navarro pressed Carlson on his relationship with President Trump, his friendly interview with white nationalist online guy, Nick Fuentes, and his views on how the media, including him, apparently, uses race as a distraction. It got strange. You spend a day with Trump and sort of like you're in this kind of dreamland.

It's like smoking hash or something. It's interesting, very interesting. And there may be a supernatural component to it. I'm not a theologian, but it's real. And anyone who's been around him can tell you it's real. Who do you think is more morally repulsive? Ted Cruz or Nick Fuentes. Who do you think is more morally repulsive?

Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz is a sitting U.S. senator who has called for the killing of people who did nothing wrong. Whole populations who advocated for this war. Nick Fuentes is like a kid. He's like 26 or 70. He has no power except his words. Here you have a public official who we pay, who has actual power, who's voting for things, who's making policy decisions.

And those decisions would include, in fact, they are focused on the murder of people who did nothing wrong. And yet no one thinks it's a big deal. Well, this is just totally fine. Nick Fuentes said something naughty that I disagreed with. He made fun of things that I don't think, I would never make fun of them. He's a white nationalist who's denied the Holocaust. I am personally very uncomfortable with Carlson's view that Holocaust denial by a guy who once compared interracial marriage to a man having sex with a dog is simply naughty. And then I noticed, and this is measurable actually by Alexis Search of New York Times stories, that the term racist, racism, white supremacy, those exploded in New York Times stories and not just the New York Times, but the rest of the legacy media.

and my interpretation of this fact is that the media was used to distract the population with racial conflict. But you were part of the media, Tucker. Well, I've already said I have been part of many distractions. It took me a long time to recognize this. What did I learn from all of this? Personally, I do not think that I would feel as if I were in a, quote, dreamland if I spent all day with Donald Trump. Maybe I'm just built different. Spirit Airlines, America's second worst airline, according to the Department of Transportation,

shut down on Saturday, in part due to the increase in oil prices as a result of Trump's war in Iran. The Trump administration had floated a bailout of the airline, but that reportedly fell through despite Trump saying on Friday that discussions between Spirit and the White House were continuing. Thousands of flights were canceled over the weekend, leaving passengers stranded across the country. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News's Maria Bartroma that he knew the real culprit. was supposed to be doing a deal to save this company. Can you tell us what happened? Sure, Maria. So this is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration. Elizabeth Warren, who loves to write letters, sent a letter to the Justice Department,

to the labor, to the transport department saying that they should oppose the merger with Sparred Airlines. JetBlue wanted to buy them for $3.8 billion. If JetBlue had merged with Spirit, we would have all these jobs that were lost yesterday. We had 30 airport, 30 regional airports who have lost service. And I can tell you what happened here. It wasn't Treasury. It was commerce. It was trying to put something together.

But the reason we were here was because the merger, the Biden administration, opposed the merger. Maybe don't send your most nervous administration official to try and explain why Donald Trump, The president of the United States is not responsible for an airline he suggested bailing out, ultimately shutting down. And that's the news. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Trump's approval is plummeting!

And tell your friends to listen. And if you're under reading, and not just about how according to a new Washington Post poll, Trump's approval on inflation is 27%. And his approval on the cost of living is just 23%. Like me, What Today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and I have a basic rule. If you have an approval rating that's low enough to stay on its parents' health insurance plan,

that's not good. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Four, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.