The Forward Party has denounced calls to “nationalize” U.S. elections after President Donald Trump urged Republicans to take control of election administration in multiple locations during a recent podcast interview.
Trump made his remarks earlier this week while appearing on the podcast of former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, where he called on Republicans to “take over the voting” in “at least 15 places.” According to a transcript of the conversation, Trump did not specify which states or cities he was referencing but argued that elections should be nationalized, repeating his long-standing claim that he won the 2020 presidential election “in a landslide” and using that as a justification.
To that end, Trump pointed to recent federal activity in Georgia’s Fulton County, where the FBI seized ballots and other 2020 election records, saying the public would soon “see some interesting things come out” of the investigation. He also referenced the case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was charged by authorities in Colorado with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts stemming from her role in a 2021 election security breach, framing her prosecution as retaliation for challenging “somebody who was dumping ballots into a box.”
In response to Trump’s comments, the Forward Party issued a statement on February 4 opposing any federal takeover of election administration and warning that such proposals could undermine both trust in the election system and electoral competition.
“America’s elections are not rigged at the ballot box,” the statement read. “They are rigged by discriminatory rules and barriers created by the two-party system that shut out independent and third-party voices.”
The party retorted that the U.S. Constitution assigns responsibility for administering elections to the states and that centralizing authority in Washington would lead to the concentration of power. “Nationalizing elections would put too much control in one place, make it tougher for independents and third-party candidates to compete, and give Americans more reasons to doubt the process and the results,” the statement continued.
The Forward Party also warned that consolidating election systems at the federal level could make elections more vulnerable rather than secure, arguing that a decentralized system, administered across many states and localities, is significantly harder to “hack or manipulate” than a single centralized alternative.
“We need real election reforms that expand choice, fairness, access, accountability, and trust,” the party instead suggested. “A federal takeover is not reform. It is just another way to rig the system in favor of those already in power.”
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