Politics and views in the United States

Trump slams mail-in voting, as the Senate considers restricting it. Minnesota clergy sue to access detention centers and LGBTQ Idahoans face slew of discrimination bills. 

TRANSCRIPT

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

It's crooked as hell, where the ballots are sent to, in many cases, Democrats.

Republicans don't get theirs and they're calling frantically to get their ballot.

A Democrat will get three, four, five, six, and even seven ballots.

President Donald Trump again falsely claiming that mail-in voting leads to widespread fraud.

The Senate is set to vote on two controversial election bills.

The SAVE Act would require representing a birth certificate or passport in person to register and would force states to hand over unredacted voter data to the Attorney General.

The MEGA Act would create a national voting surveillance system and ban mail-in voting entirely.

Neither bill now has the 60 votes needed to pass, but some Trump allies are calling on the Senate to alter filibuster rules to pass them.

The Constitution says states set voting policies.

Democratic Washington and Republican Utah conduct elections completely by mail, with essentially no history of fraud.

And watchdogs say requiring birth certificates passports could disenfranchise married women who take their husbands' names.

Meanwhile, Utah Democrats could net another congressional seat after a federal judge rejected a bid by state Republicans to toss the map there.

A new district unifies the Democratic stronghold of Salt Lake City, which had previously been distributed among several Republican-leaning ones.

Several courts have now agreed that the GOP map conflicts with a voter-approved ballot initiative, banning partisan gerrymandering.

An immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota is being wound down after federal agents killed to protesters.

The Minneapolis advocates say officials are still regularly violating constitutional rights at a detention center there.

A lawsuit filed over the weekend argues that the Trump administration is unlawfully barring faith leaders from the Whipple Federal Building.

This follows numerous accusations from detention centers nationwide that prisoners are consistently barred from contact with lawyers and family and are being denied due process.

Irina Vanderman with Groundwork Legal says in spite of the wind down, arrests are still happening.

What's at stake here, of course, is absolutely instrumental in this moment in time, but must extend even beyond Operation Metro Surge, just because the Whistle Building continues to be used by the federal government.

LGBTQ Idahoans may be subject to more discrimination, as state lawmakers consider a slate of new bills.

One would ban local housing and employment, sexual orientation, or gender identity anti-discrimination ordinances.

It would overturn protections in two counties and 12 municipalities.

Christina Bruce-Benyon with the Wattsmith Center for Human Rights says the lawmakers may decide to in effect devalue an entire part of the population.

When you get to that point, that is really down the path of dehumanizing a group of people.

And when we dehumanize a group, it becomes easier to justify violence or even efforts to eliminate them.

Supporters of the bill say local ordinances that protect LGBTQ people are being used push those values on people who have religious objections to them.

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

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.