{"id":46931,"date":"2026-02-27T10:34:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46931"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:34:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:34:54","slug":"batshit-authoritarianism-trump-allies-drafting-order-to-give-him-extraordinary-power-over-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/batshit-authoritarianism-trump-allies-drafting-order-to-give-him-extraordinary-power-over-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Batshit Authoritarianism\u2019: Trump Allies Drafting Order to Give Him \u2018Extraordinary Power Over Voting\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"'Batshit<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a plot to interfere with the will of voters and undermine both the rule of law and public confidence in our elections,\u201d said Sen. Mark Warner.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 26, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of right-wing<\/a> activists is crafting an executive order that would let President Donald Trump<\/a> unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/em> reported<\/a> on Thursday that the order being drafted by Trump allies would give him \u201cextraordinary power over voting,\u201d even though the US Constitution<\/a> explicitly gives individual states the powers to run their own elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US-POLITICS-TRUMP\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Five-Alarm Fire Warning After Trump Says \u2018Republicans Ought to Nationalize the Voting\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Trump<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump Effort \u2018To Rig Our Elections Is Well Underway,\u2019 Experts Warn<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An advocate for the order, Florida attorney Peter Ticktin, acknowledged in an interview with the Post<\/em> that the Constitution does not give the president any role in shaping elections, but he said Trump needed to act to prevent China from supposedly interfering with American elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder the Constitution, it\u2019s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn\u2019t have any power to do that,\u201d Ticktin said. \u201cBut here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes. That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activists drafting the emergency order said that they are working in coordination with the White House<\/a>, although the extent of any cooperation isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Post<\/em> pointed to some evidence that the White House really is on board with such a strategy, such as the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to investigate his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden<\/a>, which the president has long baselessly claimed was due to foreign interference from a number of nations, including China and Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Post<\/em> noted, \u201ca 2021 intelligence review concluded that China considered<\/a> efforts to influence the election but did not go through with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Trump has publicly stated numerous times that he wants to completely do away with mail-in ballots and voting machines, both of which he has baselessly claimed are riddled with fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the draft order was simply an attempt by the president\u2019s allies to block democratic accountability in future elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been raising the alarm for weeks about President Trump\u2019s attacks on our elections and now we\u2019re seeing reports that outline how they may be planning to do it,\u201d Warner told the Post<\/em>. \u201cThis is a plot to interfere with the will of voters and undermine both the rule of law<\/a> and public confidence in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington<\/a> (CREW) said that the drafted order was plainly unconstitutional and would fail in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Constitution gives states power over election law with oversight from Congress,\u201d CREW wrote<\/a> in a social media<\/a> post. \u201cNotice who\u2019s missing? The president. Trump may try to cook up a sham national emergency to try to seize control of elections but it won\u2019t stand up to scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS NOW<\/em> national security contributor Marc Polymeropoulos called<\/a> the draft order \u201cbatshit authoritarianism<\/a>\u201d and cautioned that \u201cthis crazy shit is possible as Trump knows Congress is all but lost at this point in a free election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo save himself,\u201d Polymeropoulos added, \u201canything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pointed<\/a> to the Post<\/em> report and warned, \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s plan to steal the 2026 midterm elections is already underway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.)\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0Trump of \u201csetting the stage to steal the midterm elections and set fire to our\u00a0democracy<\/a>,\u201d while vowing that Democrats would \u201cfight for our democracy and safeguard the right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on February 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. \u00a0(Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool\/Getty Images) \u201cThis is a plot to interfere with the will of voters and undermine both the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46931"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46932,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46931\/revisions\/46932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}