Oct 24, 2026 · 23 min · 9 segments
Popok is joined for a special "voter protection" briefing by HuffPo's own Paul Blumenthal to discuss what he found in his new article, "Donald Trump is Learning the Hard Way that He Can't Steal This…
Michael PopokHost
Paul BlumenthalGuest
Yeah, and I like the group of people that you got together on these particular points.
You know, one of the things our audience is starting to hear more of, you know, in the beginning of the administration, when we weren't talking about Voting Rights Act, it was the power of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Everything was under the APA, you know, and I joke that when I took administrative law in law school, that was the one where I got a really tall thermos of coffee.
every case I've been reporting on that matters over the last few weeks, including today, is about a allegation or a court finding a violation of the Voting Rights Act, what's ever left of it.
And you and I have been together and you've done a lot of writing on the Voting Rights Act.
And we've talked about how it's been completely decimated, went through a meat grinder by the far right of the Supreme Court.
But there are fundamental parts of it that have to do with voting and intimidation that are still on the books, right?
And how are they, based on the group that you met with, the election law scholars and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, people who live and breathe and do this for a living, voting rights and voting protection, what are they saying is their strongest tool in their toolbox using the Voting Rights Act?
So, I mean, I guess, you know, the Legal Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit with LULAC, the Latino advocacy organization, along with some other groups, sort of a preemptive strike to say that it's illegal to have ICE or other law enforcement organizations at the polls and you know they use a provision of the voting rights act to argue this along with there there are also other laws that ban law enforcement from interfering with voting from intimidating voters um and you know that lawsuit hasn't gone anywhere yet but i think the important thing that they said to me is that the point of it really is to have it before a judge in case ice or law other law enforcement national guard whomever appears at a polling place so that they have a ready case ready to go immediately.
So, I mean, I think that that's like shows how a lot of groups are prepared for this.
And I think that's one of the reasons that we can be, you know, not not assured that nothing nefarious will happen, but to know that, you know, the people who work to protect voting rights, to protect voting, to make elections secure are ready for this.
Yeah, and I like the group of people that you got together on these particular points.
You know, one of the things our audience is starting to hear more of, you know, in the beginning of the administration, when we weren't talking about Voting Rights Act, it was the power of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Everything was under the APA, you know, and I joke that when I took administrative law in law school, that was the one where I got a really tall thermos of coffee.
every case I've been reporting on that matters over the last few weeks, including today, is about a allegation or a court finding a violation of the Voting Rights Act, what's ever left of it.
And you and I have been together and you've done a lot of writing on the Voting Rights Act.
And we've talked about how it's been completely decimated, went through a meat grinder by the far right of the Supreme Court.
But there are fundamental parts of it that have to do with voting and intimidation that are still on the books, right?
And how are they, based on the group that you met with, the election law scholars and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, people who live and breathe and do this for a living, voting rights and voting protection, what are they saying is their strongest tool in their toolbox using the Voting Rights Act?
So, I mean, I guess, you know, the Legal Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit with LULAC, the Latino advocacy organization, along with some other groups, sort of a preemptive strike to say that it's illegal to have ICE or other law enforcement organizations at the polls and you know they use a provision of the voting rights act to argue this along with there there are also other laws that ban law enforcement from interfering with voting from intimidating voters um and you know that lawsuit hasn't gone anywhere yet but i think the important thing that they said to me is that the point of it really is to have it before a judge in case ice or law other law enforcement national guard whomever appears at a polling place so that they have a ready case ready to go immediately.
So, I mean, I think that that's like shows how a lot of groups are prepared for this.
And I think that's one of the reasons that we can be, you know, not not assured that nothing nefarious will happen, but to know that, you know, the people who work to protect voting rights, to protect voting, to make elections secure are ready for this.
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