WATCH: Padilla Leads Charge on Stopping Trump’s Attempts to “Take Over” Federal Elections

"It is not a voter ID bill; it is very much a voter suppression bill. It is very much a voter purge bill, and has so much more in that piece of legislation that should concern people."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California's former Secretary of State, convened a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum titled "Protecting the Future of American Democracy: Stopping the Trump Administration's Attempted 'Takeover' of Elections."

In his opening remarks, Padilla blasted Trump's escalating threats - echoed last night during his State of the Union Address - to assert control over elections and push for the passage of voter suppression legislation like the SAVE America Act. Trump has continued to base his election-rigging efforts on disproven conspiracy theories of widespread voter fraud. The President has also called on Republicans to "take over the voting" and attempted to implement his unconstitutional election executive order, among other anti-voter actions. Padilla delivered the Democratic Spanish language response to Trump's State of the Union Address last night, pushing back on his relentless attacks against the right to vote.

Padilla also raised the alarm on Trump and the Department of Justice's (DOJ) pressure campaign to seize unredacted voter registration lists from all 50 states, including sensitive personal information like their social security numbers, party affiliation, and voting history. He warned about DOJ's possible coordination with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) insufficiently tested and faulty Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program to potentially purge voters from the rolls. Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pushing him to hand over the state's voter rolls as part of an exchange for the Administration calling off its dangerous deployment of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and agents to Minneapolis.

• "We long ago passed the part where they're saying the quiet part out loud. When [Trump] uses language like he wants to 'take over' the elections on the tail end of years and years of The Big Lie, months and months of their effort to weaponize not just the Department of Justice anymore, but the Department of Homeland Security to obtain the voter files and the personal information of voters in every state in the nation."

• "We know the threat is real. We know that the executive order effort that he attempted last year to control how we do elections was ruled unlawful, but they followed that up with legislation making it harder for eligible Americans to register to vote, to stay registered to vote, to be able to cast their ballots."

• "[The SAVE America Act] is not a voter ID bill; it is very much a voter suppression bill. It is very much a voter purge bill, and has so much more in that piece of legislation that should concern people. And so sadly, today's topic couldn't be more timely."

Padilla also blasted Republicans in Congress for refusing to push back more forcefully on the Trump Administration's attacks on our democracy and the administration of elections. He emphasized that in the face of Republicans' voter suppression efforts, Democrats need to keep up the fight to make it easier, not harder for eligible Americans to register and cast their ballots.

• "The Chair of the Rules Committee, Mitch McConnell, has been outspoken, and continues to be, by the way, on his disagreement that the federal government should get involved with elections administration, including an Op-Ed he published in the Wall Street Journal just last year."

• "But that belief seems to be fading on the Republican side of the aisle, again, making conversations like today that much more important, not just timely. So even if just Democrats have to band together to make sure we're putting a spotlight on this challenge, on this concern for our country and for the American people, then we'll continue to do just that, and keep the spotlight on and the heat on to remind us we should be working to make it easier for eligible people to register and vote, not the opposite."

Video of Senator Padilla's full opening remarks is available here.

The panelists at today's forum include Mo Ivory, a Fulton County, Georgia Commissioner; Rob Bonta, California's Attorney General; Norm Eisen, Founder of Democracy Defenders and Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic; and Stephen Richer, Former Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder, Fellow at the CATO Institute, and CEO of Republic Affairs.

Read Fulton County Commissioner Ivory's opening testimony, as prepared for delivery, here.

Read California Attorney General Bonta's opening testimony, as prepared for delivery, here.

Read Democracy Defenders Founder and Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norm Eisen's opening testimony, as prepared for delivery, here.

Read Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer's opening testimony, as prepared for delivery, here.

The Rules Committee Democrats' spotlight forum series continues to underscore the dangers of the Trump Administration's unprecedented attacks on election security, integrity, and funding required to smoothly administer elections and protect American democracy. The first spotlight forum last May focused on Congressional Republicans' Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and Trump's illegal anti-voter executive order, both of which threaten to disenfranchise millions of eligible American citizens. The second forum last July focused on Trump's disturbing voter suppression tactics.

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