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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWashinton Post: Trump Urged to Declare Emergency Powers & Seize Election Powers
Headline running on CNN. Ryan Goodman, the legal expert, says it is not legal. It's unclear, though, who is doing the "urging".
Wiz Imp
(10,033 posts)kwolf68
(8,452 posts)You think this gangster regime cares about the constitution?
Wiz Imp
(10,033 posts)dalton99a
(94,274 posts)SheltieLover
(80,659 posts)PuraVidaDreamin
(4,622 posts)He and that other lizard Bannon
SheltieLover
(80,659 posts)samsingh
(18,428 posts)The Constitution reserves election authority to states and Congress
Article I, Section 4 assigns election regulation primarily to state legislatures and Congress. Theres no provision that gives the president direct authority to take over election administration nationwide by executive order alone.
🔹 Emergency powers are limited and untested in this domain
Existing emergency statutes (like the National Emergencies Act) have been used to sanction foreign entities and address genuine foreign threats in other contexts, but they do not explicitly grant a president the authority to override state electoral administration in the way this draft would intend. Legal experts widely characterize the drafts legal rationale as extremely weak or unconstitutional.
Fiendish Thingy
(23,285 posts)But he succeeded in bumping Epstein out of the headlines, didnt he?
PuraVidaDreamin
(4,622 posts)Epstein ain't going nowhere.
He will keep throwing shit to grind those gears but the Trumpstain Train has rickety brakes heading downhill.
roamer65
(37,962 posts)The compact between the states will be finished.
Province of Michigan!!!
🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
of the 1/6 Coup
😑
✌🏻
NeoTrajan
(63 posts)They say he was 'urged', but they don't relate WHO did the urging?
Is this how journalism should work?
Whoever urged him ... They are clearly UNfamiliar with modern democracy, and probably aren't fans of free societies
Sparkly
(24,885 posts)Just my guess.
highplainsdem
(62,265 posts)highplainsdem
(62,265 posts)I haven't seen any other major outlet treat this as a serious possibility, following the WaPo story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/ .
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in Novembers midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trumps promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trumps plans.
Under the Constitution, its the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesnt have any power to do that, said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes, Ticktin went on. That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.
-snip-
senseandsensibility
(25,005 posts)Not very specific but thanks for the link.
highplainsdem
(62,265 posts)Kaleva
(40,369 posts)Celerity
(54,458 posts)
Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in Novembers midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trumps promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trumps plans.
Under the Constitution, its the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesnt have any power to do that, said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes, Ticktin went on. That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it. The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.
snip
SocialDemocrat61
(7,662 posts)ProfessorGAC
(76,787 posts)And if anything met the definition of national emergency, it was WW2.
Besides, the tariffs were justified under the guise of an emergency. Those didn't fly.
The courts will block this now that even the corrupt supreme court blocked the tariffs.
spanone
(141,658 posts)Kid Berwyn
(24,439 posts)
Big Liar Reincarnate