What A Day - Can Trump Purge The Voter Rolls Now?

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

The Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling today lifting restrictions on a controversial federal voter database. The order grants President Donald Trump a win, for now, in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting. So what does this mean for the midterms? To find out, we spoke with Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action.Show Notes: Check out Democracy Defenders Action – democracydefendersaction.org 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 email [e-mail]

Voters should know Donald Trump is scared of you. Don't be scared of him. Your vote is safe. Our hardworking, nonpartisan, election officials around the country have got your back. And as do the voting rights and civil rights groups like ours. And we will make sure that your vote can be cast and counted. It's Friday, September 25th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Wad today.

New York City Mayor Zeramamani called bullshit. After Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu called out the mayor at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. Netanyahu's remarks caused many in the assembly to walk out. Here's some of what the Israeli leader, who's in the middle of a critical election campaign, had to say. We've taken innumerable steps to protect the civilian population. Is this genocide? Of course not. It's the opposite of genocide.

So to all those that are spreading these lies about my country and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the anti-Semitic mayor of New York, I say this, shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth. Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York.

In response, Mamdani said that Netanyahu was lying about him, but added, quote, yet no lie can change the fact that he remains a subject of an international criminal court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity. But let's talk about a real love fest. Back in Washington, President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner at the White House. Among those in attendance were Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, and Jeff Bezos.

They dined down seabass and cherry confi. In a related note, CNN found today that Americans feel worse about the economy than at almost any other time in modern history. As the Federal Reserve contemplates raising interest rates again before the midterms, and mortgage rates skyrocketed past 7%, rising for a fifth straight week, which seems bad. Speaking of things that seem bad, the president is going on a red state rally tour this fall. According to the New York Times, Trump is expected to visit Oklahoma and Alabama

to shore up the GOP's prospects this fall, which might be a bad sign in and of itself, because why would a Republican president need to shore up GOP chances in Oklahoma and Alabama? But I want to talk about elections and a big Supreme Court ruling that will change, what information the Trump administration can get about you. Joining me is Norm Eisen,

co-founder of Democracy Defender's Action. Norm Eisen, welcome back to Wad today. Great to be back with you, Jane. So the Supreme Court ruled today that the Trump administration can use a massive online system to allow states to hunt for ineligible voters. First, what did the Supreme Court actually rule

and what is the system? What are we talking about? Well, the Supreme Court's actual ruling is much less than it might seem. They did allow states to utilize the so-called save database. This is a junk-flaught, inaccurate database that the federal government has produced, supposedly allowing the identification of ineligible voters. But it's over-inclusive. So that's the bad news.

But the good news is folks shouldn't overreact because the Roberts Court on page 6 of its own opinion said, oops, because we have a 90-day quiet period under federal law when states are not allowed to do mass. purges of people off of their databases, the whole thing is not really going to apply. So everybody can take a deep breath and know that for the hundreds of millions of American voters, you can vote with confidence, vote early, and vote however suits you by mail or otherwise, your vote will be safe, free and fair.

Let's back up a second. How did this case get started? Because we've heard over and over and over again about how the Trump administration is convinced that there are thousands of non-citizens voting, thousands of ineligible people voting. They accused Nevada of letting some 15,000 non-citizens vote. It turns out that number was actually zero. So how did this case begin? How did we get here? our democracy champions, pro-voter groups, brought suit to stop this saved database. It would be better named the shit database. It's so junkie. And the courts below, as is so often the case, agreed that there's no. legal basis for this. It's so unreliable. For various reasons, the courts below said this should be

enjoined. Today, the Supreme Court on its so-called shadow docket without full briefing and hearing and the way it used to do business said, no, we don't like that injunction. We're going to lift the injunction. But but, but we're not changing this 90-day federal law quite. period. So there's a lot of hoopla and concern, but voters should realize their vote, this cycle is safe. And then we'll have some more fights about what this means going forward, including we have a lot of other ways to try to stop it. And I should add that if any voter is concerned on an individual basis that somehow they've been swept in here. Let me and the rest of the civil rights and voting rights community know there may be some odds and ends, as you've pointed out, these tiny numbers where states are saying someone was ineligible to vote.

Let us know, and we're prepared in appropriate cases to consider all legal options, including litigation for any individual voters. But those are going to be isolated cases, Jane, because of this nine. day quiet period, you can't do wholesale purges of voter lists. Now, you know this. The federal government is not really supposed to be getting involved in polling places in states and localities. It's technically illegal for the federal government to interfere at the polls. But this administration, you know, and I want to go a little bigger than today's decision, this administration keeps hinting otherwise, saying that they want to send ICE.

officers to the polls. And then Tom Homan saying earlier this year, who could possibly have a problem with that? What's going on here? Because I'm so glad that you keep making the point that like our elections are free and fair and people should feel safe to vote. But the federal government keeps saying, no, not really. Not exactly. No, I don't know why you're worried, but it's still, you know, they keep kind of edging towards you shouldn't vote because it's not safe. Well, the federal government, Trump administration, led by the election denier in chief, is afraid of our votes because they know a massive blue tsunami is coming. So they are doing everything they can to attack voters in voting. But the good news is that that's been repudiating.

by the courts. We just won the big U.S. Postal Service case. That was the coalition case. I and many others litigating in multiple courts. Supreme Court said, no, Donald Trump, you can't break in mail-in voting. We had a big win this week on the ballot seizure issues. Again, we at Democracy Defenders Fund in action litigated, supported the California AG all the way up to the California Supreme Court. No, No, valid seizures are not legal. So we have a case to stop ICE and the federal law enforcement from going to the polls. That's on file. So voters should know Donald Trump is scared of you.

Don't be scared of him. Your vote is safe. Our hardworking, nonpartisan election officials around the country have got your back. and as do the voting rights and civil rights groups like ours. And we will make sure that your vote can be cast and counted. We want voters to know they should vote with confidence. We'll get back to my conversation with Normaism in just a moment. What a day is brought to you by Willie's Remedy.

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Use Code Waad to get 10% off your next order at bookshop.org. That's 10% off at bookshop.org with Code Wad. Let's get back to my conversation with Norm Eisen. I actually wanted to mention that case in California, because that came up yesterday, and we saw that, that the California Supreme Court ordered a county sheriff to return nearly a million votes that he seized from election officials as part of an investigation into voter fraud that state officials had no basis in anything. This is that Chad Bianco, the Republican sheriff of Riverside County. And so he'd taken roughly 650,000 votes.

He got complaints from activists in the county saying that vote tallies in last year's special election didn't match the ballots received. So he just took all these votes. So can you tell me a little bit more about this case and just about how like this is a, you know, California is a blue state and yet you still had a Republican sheriff saying, I'm taking these ballots and there's nothing you can do about it. Obviously, that's not true. But, you know, this is happening at a lot of different places. Crazy. Calf. Chad was shut down under the California Constitution. You can't do this. The AG, Rob Bonta, has the power to stop a sheriff from doing this. He did. That led to litigation.

We, Democracy Defenders Fund, were very proud to support. We filed a brief saying this is the power of the AG to prevent this. And Democracy won. And the reason that Democracy won was this kind of a ballot seizure, which we know is something Donald Trump might contemplate, was held to be illegal. Of course, not a sheriff, not president. Nobody else has a legal basis to seize ballots in an election like this. Indeed, this was the second win against ballot seizure at Democracy Defunders Fund. We also represent the Fulton County, Georgia.

You may remember they grabbed the ballots there. There was litigation afterwards. And a Trump appointed judge quashed the criminal subpoena to try to get more information effectively blocking that investigation. That's what the California Supreme Court did here. Thanks to AG Rob Bonta, we supported him with briefs making the point. No, you cannot seize ballots in this way. And we now have a very important precedent from the California Supreme Court

that we're going to use in the 2026 election and beyond to protect our vote. So the greatest danger is voter confusion. Donald Trump is afraid of your vote. Don't let him confuse you. Vote with confidence. Vote early. Vote however you. like, mail in or otherwise, know that your vote will be safe, free and fair. Election officials have

your back. The courts have your back. And we in the voting rights, civil rights, and democracy movement have your back voters. So you mentioned that Trump could try this again. What do you expect this administration to try over the next month and a few days, given that in Virginia, people are already voting early? There are a host of people who have already gotten ballots. They've already started sending them back. So what do you expect the Trump administration to try or Republican governors and state houses to attempt in states across the country to try and limit the rights of Americans to vote? Well, I expect that there'll be continued efforts to sow confusion. I think that that is mostly a PR tactic because all of the main things that they may try have now,

been stopped by courts. Effort to break mail in voting, that was rejected by the Roberts Court. Trump's ballot seizure ploy, now we have this California Supreme Court president stopping him. If he tries to send National Guard to the polls, we litigated this at Democracy Defenders Fund. We were part of the many litigating this. The Supreme Court said, no. You can't send the National Guard. It handcuffed his use of the National Guard. I sit the polls. We've already filed a case to stop ICE at the polls.

So expect more confusion, intimidation efforts. Voters can do the ultimate act of pro-democracy resistance by tuning that out. Voting early, voting with confidence, voting however they prefer, mail in or otherwise, knowing their vote and the count and the certification will be safe, free and fair. We're not going to let Donald Trump overturn our election or scare us out of voting. And frankly, we're seeing that already. Voter enthusiasm and participation is sky high. So the Trump plan, his fear of having a true.

national referendum on his cost crisis. American people can't afford the cost of being alive. It's driven by his corruption. 81% of Americans say the corruption is driving the cost crisis. They're turning out, and he can't stop us. Norm, as always, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks, Jane. That was my conversation with Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defender's Action. Before we go, the reviews are in. The chemistry between Nina Parker and Lewis Vertel is undeniable. Every Wednesday on Keep It, they serve as your guides through the mystical journey of pop culture.

They bring you the need-to-know entertainment news, juiciest celebrity gossip, and all the hottest tricks you can handle, plus some you probably can't. This week, they're chatting with the stunning and talented Diyara Kilpatrick about her mystery romance series. Watch now on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Give Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville something to do and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, not just about the Republican senator who has been yelling about furries. Yes, furies!

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