Politics and views in the United States

Watchdogs call the SAVE America Act voter suppression. A California court pauses a sheriff's election investigation. Vance returns from campaigning for Hungary's right-wing president and Wisconsin passes first-in-the-nation data center referendum.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

People are really scared right now because so many women changed their name because they got married.

There's so many trans people who have changed their name.

So I think people are realizing this is a significant voter suppression act.

Helen Humphreys with Connecticut Citizen Action Group says the Save America Act would end up denying people their civil rights.

The strict national voter ID bill would require people to prove citizenship in person to register or cast a ballot with documents like a birth certificate or passport.

Many people don't have those documents on hand, and few still have them ready in their current name.

The bill wouldn't allow people to use driver's licenses, but it's currently stalled in the Senate.

Humphreys also warns a presidential executive order effectively limiting absentee ballots to people who are sick, on vacation, or in the military would hurt rural voters.

A quarter of them vote by mail.

Courts are considering if that order usurps authority granted to Congress or the states.

The House Oversight Committee still intends for former Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about Justice Department files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Five Republicans joined Democrats to subpoena her last month, but Bondi argues it no longer applies since she was fired.

The California State Supreme Court is freezing an election fraud investigation by a county sheriff and GOP candidate for governor.

In February, Sheriff Chad Bianco seized 650,000 ballots after a group of citizens who said they did their own research alleged the number of votes cast last fall didn't match the paper record.

Election officials flatly deny that.

Bianco says the probe isn't based on conspiracy theories.

The only option where we were going to find the truth was to count those ballots.

So we went to a judge.

Well, it's no different than any other investigation that we start.

The state attorney general says Bianco exceeded his power and is asking the court to permanently end the probe.

Port Washington, Wisconsin voters approved a first-ever referendum targeting data center construction.

It passed nearly 2-1 and says big future projects that receive tax breaks have to be approved by voters.

A local chamber of commerce is suing, arguing it could hurt regional investment.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in that state are considering legislation to allow mentally competent adults with less than six months to live to end their lives.

Opponents argue life should always be preserved, even for the terminally ill.

But Chris Riley, with aid in dying group Compassion and Choices, calls it a form of health care.

When somebody is terminally ill or within that six-month time period, for them to be able to have that option is also palliative care because it lets them know that they are the one that being able to make that decision at that point in time because everything else is so out of their control.

Two states have already passed similar legislation this year.

Vice President J.D. Vance has returned from campaigning for Hungary's Russian-friendly right-wing populist leader, Polsho Viktor Orban, the longtime prime minister, behind by double digits.

He's recently been accused of assisting Iran during the war, but Vance says the alliance of the U.S. and Hungary represent a, quote, defense of Western civilization.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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