Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell isn’t necessarily sweating President Donald Trump’s threats to use the federal government to take over the administration of elections in the United States.

“There is no ‘nationalizing’ the elections,” McDonell told reporters at a March 6 tour of a printing facility of the county’s new ballot vendor, WPS Data Solutions. “That’s not a thing.”

In recent podcast appearances and interviews, Trump has called upon congressional Republicans to end mail-in voting and “take over the voting” in “at least 15 places.” Swing states such as Wisconsin are likely targets.

“I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway,” Trump told reporters on Feb. 3. Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution gives the states the authority to administer their own elections, though it also grants Congress authority to pass legislation affecting the administration of federal elections.

Other local officials and candidates have expressed more concern. Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joel Brennan has proposed mobilizing law enforcement and the Wisconsin National Guard to “defend” Wisconsin’s authority over election administration. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told Isthmus in February that she’s concerned about the threats.

“I worry constantly about federal interference into local elections,” Rhodes-Conway said, adding that “one of the ways we push back against federal interference is just to vote in huge numbers.”

Added Rhodes-Conway: “The city of Madison is here to help facilitate every eligible voter being able to vote, and we're going to do our damnedest to protect those ballots once they're cast.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not address Trump’s calls to “take over” voting when provided a list of questions from Isthmus, but says in a statement that the president has urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require presentation of proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote. 

Trump cannot simply mandate that the federal government take over election administration in a state or local jurisdiction, says Derek Clinger, senior counsel and director of partnerships at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

To do so would require federal legislation, which Clinger says seems unlikely. Current focus among congressional Republicans is largely centered around passing the SAVE America Act, he says. The measure passed the U.S. House by a 220-208 vote on Feb. 11 but is struggling to gain approval in the Senate; Trump has pledged not to sign any legislation until it is enacted.

Some Senate Republicans are withholding their votes because they believe the Save America Act “provides too much federal control” over elections, Clinger says. Actually “taking over” administration would be a further step with even less support, he adds.

“American elections have pretty much always been run by the states, with just a few key exceptions where Congress has passed laws impacting that,” says Clinger.

Voting administration procedures vary by state. In Wisconsin, voting administration is performed at the county and municipal level. Counties print out ballots and distribute them to cities, villages and towns within their boundaries. Those municipalities are then charged with overseeing polling places, voter registration, “and any other duties that may be necessary to properly conduct elections or registration,” according to a 2018 memo prepared by the Wisconsin Legislative Council.

Conservatives have placed particular scrutiny on election administration in Madison and Milwaukee, the state’s largest and most-Democratic cities. Some errors in Madison have drawn the ire of congressional Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for Wisconsin governor: among them, a September 2024 error that led to more than 2,000 duplicate ballots’ being mailed to voters and the City Clerk’s Office’s failure to count 193 ballots in the 2024 presidential election. The latter error led to a $34 million class action lawsuit against the city and the state elections commission’s placing new orders to tighten Madison’s election processes.

Rhodes-Conway acknowledged to Isthmus that such errors could increase federal attention on the city. And though Clinger believes Trump is more focused on relitigating conspiracy theories regarding “stolen votes” raised after the 2020 election — even though such allegations have been “debunked by courts and multiple audits” — he says it’s not hard to see how those incidents could be used by federal authorities to target Madison.

“It does seem like this administration wants to control elections,” Clinger says. “It wouldn't surprise me if the president or his administration cited something like that as a need to take over the process.”