Politics and views in the United States

Delaware rules corporations can vote in local elections. The Texas Senate race heats up, with attacks from both candidates and a federal judge refuses to halt President Trump's executive order on a national voting database and mail-in voting.

Transcript

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

Well, a person isn't used in the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.

When discussing the 2010 Citizens United case, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he wasn't concerned about political spending by corporations qualifying as protected speech.

And a new decision from Delaware will in fact let corporations vote in one small town.

State Superior Judge Craig Carsnitz ruled Fenwick Island didn't violate the state's constitution by letting business entities equal to nearly an eighth of the town's population vote in municipal elections.

He added by law a person is anything formally recognized as having personhood and quote anything that can initiate and be subject to legal proceedings.

Former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sinunu cites his own state's Senate race as an example of big money distorting politics.

Over $50 million will be spent on both sides and 98% of all that money will come from outside New Hampshire because it's all the big super PACs.

They have a base interest, maybe a philosophical interest with Republicans, but those dollars are not represented of what the people want.

Sununu also cites the rise in populist candidates who run in part on their shock value.

Attacks already starting between the candidates for Senate in Texas might qualify.

Before winning Tuesday's runoff, State Attorney General Ken Paxton was already attacking Democratic State Representative James Tallarico, calling him Tallafrico and labeling the seminarian as anti-Christian and a vegan.

But Tallarico quickly fired back.

You know, I'm an eighth-generation Texan.

I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.

Before Tuesday's vote, polls put Tallarico ahead of Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn.

But Pew's survey data finds nationally, nearly three-quarters of Republicans and nearly two-thirds of Democrats view the opposing party as immoral, up sharply over the last decade.

A federal judge will let President Donald Trump's executive order on voting go forward for the present.

The order calls for Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to create state-by-state approved citizen voter registries and for the U.S. Postal Service to develop lists of eligible voters so only they can vote by mail.

The White House has also called for the National Guard to monitor polling places, something an NPR Marist poll finds nearly half of Americans favor.

New York is among states considering legislation against federal interference and issues at the polls, including intrusion by national law enforcement.

Susan Lerner with Common Cause New York says state voters are worried about voter intimidation.

When people read deliberate misstatements by the president about vote by mail or about who is eligible to vote, people become concerned.

And of course, we've seen various folks claiming there should be some sort of federal enforcement at the polls.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation blocking ballot seizures by police less than a week before the state's primary elections.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots from the state's redistricting referendum last year.

Critics say that was motivated by unfounded vote fraud conspiracies.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacific Network and Public News Service.

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