States asked the Trump admin. to affirm they, not the Feds, run elections. They were met with silence

Trump administration officials declined to affirm states’ authority to run elections during a private meeting with state election chiefs Wednesday, according to an election official who was on the call.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) said she asked Heather Honey, a senior “election integrity” official in the Department of Homeland Security, and other top Trump administration officials about recent comments from President Donald Trump urging the federal government to “take over the voting.”

“When we asked about state sovereignty and whether they could make public statements reinforcing the state’s authority over elections, there was stunned silence,” Bellows told Democracy Docket.

Honey and an official from the U.S. Department of Justice instead told Bellows that they’d be happy to follow-up with her “one on one.”

The Constitution gives states the authority to administer elections. 

The lack of a response from Trump administration officials comes as secretaries of states and other top local election officials prepare for the possibility that President Donald Trump and his administration will try to interfere in the midterm elections. 

Wednesday’s unusual briefing was organized by the FBI to discuss preparations for the midterm elections, and also attended by Honey, a DOJ official, and U.S. Election Assistance Commission chairman Thomas Hicks and commissioner Don Palmer. The FBI gave prepared remarks about the election but did not stay on the call for questions, according to the election official.

The state election officials on the call grilled Trump administration officials on other concerns about the role the federal government plans to take in the upcoming election — including fears that Trump will send armed federal agents to polling stations. 

Honey, both EAC officials, and the DOJ official all said that the Trump administration will not be dispatching ICE agents — or any other armed federal agents — to polling places for the midterm elections. 

Still, some state election officials were not persuaded that the Trump administration won’t try to meddle with voting in some way. 

“I did not walk away from this meeting reassured that the federal government wouldn’t try to interfere in state sovereignty over the election because they could not provide that reassurance in their comment,” Bellows said.

Democracy Docket first revealed that Honey had been given a top voting post at DHS last year. A prominent election denier and ally of Cleta Mitchell, Honey has a long record of promoting lies about the 2020 election, including one spread by Trump.