A draft emergency executive order to declare a national emergency to allow President Donald Trump to take unprecedented control over voting is being circulated by anti-voting activists who said they are in coordination with the White House.
Voting rights experts, democracy advocates, and at least one state election chief said Trump doesn’t have the authority to claim such powers — and any attempt would be blatantly unconstitutional.
The draft order — which is said to be based on a conspiracy theory that China interfered with the 2020 election — would allow Trump to unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines on the basis that they are susceptible to foreign interference.
The order comes from MAGA activists who have been coordinating with the White House. One of the advocates for the order is Peter Ticktin, the attorney for Tina Peters, the former GOP Colorado county clerk who is currently serving a nine-year state prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system breach, in an attempt to find voter fraud based on election conspiracies.
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution explicitly gives states — not the president — sole authority over elections.
Many states have the power to maintain state guards. This is a military force that cannot be federalized.
All it takes is the guardsmen or the chain of command doing what Trump says. Laws don’t matter right now. What people choose to do does.
Unless the army says no there is no mechanism for stopping them. As you said laws don’t matter. I feel they already won.
If they choose to follow Trump, there isn’t, no. They have to convince people to refuse Trump’s orders if they’re illegal or when he has no authority. Re-committing to the system of government and the rules of the distribution of power is necessary. Its hearts and minds right now. Follow Trump or follow the Constitution and its founding doctrines. You can’t serve both because Trump and the GOP have abandoned the constitution already. They can’t coexist.