In threatening to wield the big stick of federal money, Nick LaLota gets government backward. The core idea around which the United States was organized was that elected officials were representatives of the people, not that people like Congressman LaLota got to tell states and localities how to behave. In his heavy-handed approach, Mr. LaLota is not acting alone. Indeed, the present administration is working feverishly to steal power from the states in its effort to assert control over elections in the face of what could be a catastrophic defeat at the polls in November.
Mr. LaLota’s cudgel is relatively limited but the message is clear: Play ball and get the funding; oppose policies he supports and get nothing. For him the red line arises from the laws limiting the scope of assistance local police can provide to immigration enforcement. During a recent appearance in Sag Harbor at which he announced about $200,000 for police vehicles, Mr. LaLota criticized East Hampton Town and Village for their versions of an East End public safety and accountability law that had been pushed by immigrants’ rights groups. As he sees it, money from Washington is conditioned on cooperation. Among his demands is that local police departments be free to share license plate reader information without a warrant with federal officials when asked. At present, East Hampton Village’s Flock Safety cameras are, in theory, walled off from immigration enforcement. He likened East Hampton’s policy to giving the middle finger to the feds.
Bullying from the top is central to the Trump administration’s survival strategy for the looming midterm election in which Republicans at this point appear poised for historic losses. The Justice Department is suing 30 states and the District of Columbia to force them to hand over sensitive voter records. The suits follow administration demands for unredacted electronic copies of their statewide voter registration lists, which include voters’ birthdates, addresses, partial Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers.
In its ongoing effort to suppress the vote among groups likely to favor Democrats, the administration has issued executive orders seeking to exert more power over federal elections. One would require proof of citizenship to register to vote — a hurdle for people who may no longer have copies of their birth certificates, for example. Another tightens rules for mail-in voting and requires the Department of Homeland Security and the Postal Service to keep lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote.
Centralized, partisan control over who can and cannot vote should be a terrifying prospect for all Americans, regardless of party. Information sharing without a warrant and immigration cooperation, as Mr. LaLota wants, and a national voter database coupled with restrictions on mail-in voting, as the administration seeks, should never be accepted in a free society.