Elections and Emergency Powers

PBS News reports that a 17‑page draft executive order circulating among President Donald Trump’s allies lays out how he could declare a national emergency over alleged foreign election interference and assert sweeping control over the 2026 midterms, even as Trump told PBS he is not considering such a move. The working document, which PBS says it has reviewed in full, hypothesizes using the National Emergencies Act to federalize key aspects of state‑run elections by mandating hand‑marked paper ballots, public hand‑counts, nationwide voter ID at the polls, and re‑registration of all voters with proof of citizenship. Constitutional experts quoted in earlier coverage and by voting‑rights groups argue there is no statute that would allow a president to 'seize control of state‑run elections' this way and say such an order would be swiftly challenged as unconstitutional. Florida attorney Peter Ticktin, a longtime Trump associate who confirms he has discussed the idea with the president and with people at the White House and DOJ, insists the president can 'step up and resist foreign intrusion' under the emergencies law if he believes there is interference. The draft also appears to build on a 2018 election‑security emergency order first signed by Trump and then repeatedly extended by President Biden, raising fresh concerns among legal scholars and democracy advocates that emergency powers meant for sanctions could be repurposed as a pretext for centralizing control over U.S. elections.