Politics and views in the United States

A Republican Senator slams a House GOP effort to sneak voter ID into a budget bill, North Carolina makes it easier to reject ballots, and an independent probe starts into a Houston ICE shooting.

Transcript

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

If I see a reconciliation bill come from the House with another failed attempt to confuse this election, I will use every device I have available to slow down the wills of government until people cop a clue and do the math.

Retiring North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis is vowing to stop a hard right House effort to add voter ID legislation to a budget bill immune from a filibuster.

President Donald Trump and allies in the House are trying to force through the Save America Act.

In a primetime address, Trump again falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen, in large part by non-citizen voting.

The Homeland Security Department alleges that it's found hundreds of thousands of non-citizens registered to vote.

That directly contradicts the results found by Republican election officials in states including Ohio and Utah, who examined their roles and found essentially none.

Democracy watchdogs warn strict ballot rules and voter ID requirements would suppress legitimate votes.

The GOP-led state election authority in North Carolina is making it easier for county officials to throw out a contested ballot from a voter who files a form rather than showing a ballot ID.

State Democrats hope to elect Tillis' successor, but Republicans control dozens of those county election boards.

Democratic state board member Jeff Carman says the new rule feeds into voter fraud conspiracies that have no bearing in reality.

We're supporting a lie.

There's not significant voter fraud in our state, and this rule feeds into that lie that there's a ton of voter fraud.

The board will meet again next month to approve polling hours and early voting locations for counties that can't agree on them.

But the process has been marred by controversy, with GOP operatives pressuring counties to cut polling place hours and locations in minority communities and on college campuses.

The Republican Party is raising much more money than the Democratic Party nationally, but fundraising reports show Democratic House challengers often outpacing GOP incumbents, confirming polls that show Democrats are more motivated.

Nine of the ten best fundraising by battleground candidates was by Democratic challengers and incumbents.

State Senator Sarah Trongariot, running for an Iowa House district that includes Des Moines and counties to its south, raised $2.2 million.

Scranton, Pennsylvania Mayor Paige Cognetti is challenging first-term Congressman Rob Bresnahan in a blue-collar, Republican-leaning district.

Cogniti raised a little more than $2 million, about a million more than Bresnahan.

Polling indicates Democrats have a strong chance of flipping the house.

Texas Rangers are now investigating the death of Lorenzo Salgado Ararujo, a Mexican national shot by ICE officers in Houston.

After a video surfaced contradicting the DHS description of the killing, the agency pointed to bags of white powder found in the vehicle.

A lawyer for the family says it was just salt.

Domingo Garcia, with the League of United Latin American Citizens, warns that immigration is being turned into a "political piñata."

Everybody wants anybody committing a crime, whether they're legal or not legal, to face consequences.

What we don't want is poorly trained individuals that are masked and unmarked cars on the streets of Houston or any other city in America committing crimes themselves.

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

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.