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.
Before legislation is passed, it is often drafted by people outside of Congress, and outside of the White House. Corporate lobbyists, for example.
I hope America recognises that the stakes are too high to be dismissive of this. Even if it goes nowhere the first time, or the tenth, becoming complacent would be a huge mistake.
Even still, Noem literally stated, on mic, on camera to the nation, that ICE would be at the polls ensuring the “right people” vote for the “right leaders”. Believe your enemy when they’re dumb enough to tell you their plan.
If American voters could read, they would be upset!
I mean, sure, but as far as I can tell from the article it’s not the WH circulating the draft order?