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.

  • CircaV@lemmy.ca
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    16 minutes ago

    Americans will have to tear it all down. CNN, SCROTUS, all institutions where he’s installed syncophants-everything he has touched. Anything less will be enabling fascism.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    45 minutes ago

    Every election, it’s the year of “stolen elections” in the upcoming election, even as they argue about the “stolen election” the last election.

    Why do the corporate-owned networks allow such a news story on such a steady basis? Is the election almost stolen every couple years? Is the election never stolen? Do they steal the elections sometimes but at other times have fair elections?

    I don’t think there’s ever any stealing, I think it’s purchased, every time. And THAT is why it’s stolen elections are a constant news story.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      as long as there are no checks and balances, as long as no one exists with the will and sense of duty to do their job, there is no distinction between legal and illegal.

    • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Empires don’t fall by themselves. People burn them down.

      If everyone in America is waiting for “somebody” to fix everything for them then there’s a good chance America is going to exceed that 250 year mark.

  • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    And who the fuck is going to stop him? He’s been doing shit that’s unconstitutional this whole time. He’s going to rig the election and have a third term, and all our politicians will do is write strongly worded letters.

    • TerdFerguson@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Until people like you are thinking “It’s gonna have to be me” then the situation will not likely improve.

      • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        That wasnt very specific. :(

        Do you mean “it’s gonna have to be me” like that guy who tried to sneak into Mara a Lago and was shot by the secret service? Or maybe that guy who missed his shot?

        Or do you mean that me specifically is going to have to rally people in my neighborhood, then my city, my state, and then most of the country to physically resist and arrest our leaders and have them stand trial for their crimes while having the bravery to leave your wife and kids behind to potentially die trying seems a little beyond my scope to be honest.

        • TerdFerguson@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Well, I think you’re saying those are things that you can’t do. And thats fine, but a lot if poeple need to take ownership of what they can do and figure out how to cooperate appropriately to get some things done.

          New leaders need to emerge thats true, but they will need support as well in various ways.

          But all those people will all have to take ownership for making this stop and figure out how to fight back.

          I get safety/security is a concern, but things are in a circumstance now where you will probably get fucked either way.

          As long as everyone keeps waiting for someone else to do something real, youre all screwed.

        • orioler25@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Adolf Schmitler doesn’t have the stomach for bold collective action, who would’a guessed.

            • orioler25@lemmy.world
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              11 minutes ago
              1. My joke was directed at this account’s name, as it references Adolf Hitler, who was a fascist you see.

              2. Anyone who can read for chuds can see that you purposely constructed action in a discouraging way by positioning only inaction or dependency on the state and complete sacrifice of life and family as the only options.

              Go look up what people who have fought the United States for centuries have done Community action through mutual aid, protest, legal contest, property destruction, and violence have all been applied at different times in different ways to different severities and successes. Stfu about having to get up off your ass and risk anything.

  • CptOblivius@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    This would be the end of a free USA. Real authoritarianism. The end. Fake elections from here on, just like Russia, Venezuela, etc. We are screwed if this happens. The fascists are winning.

    • orioler25@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Is this meant to be in character, or did you seriously only realize the USA was authoritarian when it started being mean to white people?

      • HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Authoritarianism is a spectrum. We are more authoritarian than ever.

        That doesn’t mean we weren’t authoritarian before.

        I have a feeling you knew all that and just wanted to fight CptOblivius, though.

        • orioler25@lemmy.world
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          28 minutes ago

          “More authoritarian than ever.” Please, tell me how you argue for a measurable difference in the severity of authoritarianism between current day and early- to mid-nineteenth century US slave states. Is there, perhaps, a particular group effected that makes this more severe? Is it worse because white citizens are victimised now? Wasn’t authoritarian when they used Zyklon B as part of southern-border security in the twentieth century? Is it the technological difference? Do you even know how surveillant the US has been in the past?

          So fucking obnoxious and sneering to suggest you know more about something without clearly ever fucking learning about it. Go on though, explain how the slave-state wasn’t as bad.

      • CptOblivius@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        It wasn’t necessary athoritarian previously. It was really following the will of the people of the time. Essentially white dudes voting in white dudes to protect their shitty interests. That is not where the majority of the population is now. Society has shifted beyond where the government is, that is why they are trying to control the voting process.

        • orioler25@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          What about that time it used genocide against dozens of indigenous nations to expand, or became a police-slave-state that codified naturalized racism, or restricted voting access along race and gender until forced otherwise, or adopted an organised military to suppress unions, or spent decades intervening and invading countries that elected governments who said mean things about the US, or when it suppressed climate change knowledge for decades, or when it constructed a mass - surveillance apparatus over a century, or when it imprisoned the largest number of people anyone has on the planet to perpetuate forced labour based on that one time it was a police-slave-state? I didn’t even mention the Patriot Act or how they use nukes.

          Again, are you meant to be the actual Cpt. Oblivious, or is it meant to be a dig on me like the joke is unclear. Above is more for the benefit of any chuds who may feel validated by your previous comment.

          • CptOblivius@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            It wasn’t a dig. All those things you mentioned were not straight up authoritarianism, they were in part by the largest group voting group getting their way. That’s what the voters want. It was extremely shitty stuff and I never said it wasn’t. Just because these happened doesn’t mean it was because of authoritarianism. We slowly evolved getting better over time, but now we are regressing. And it will be extremely difficult to vote our way out of it, even when the majority of eligible voters want to. In no time in our Constitutional history has so much power been under one man.

            • orioler25@lemmy.world
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              17 minutes ago

              Gee, I wonder if there’s a reason you were taught a construction of authoritarianism that applied to enemies of the US but not the brutal violence and control in the US itself. Andrew Jackson ignored the constitution and courts too, go find out why.

              You Muppet.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    If Trump successfully fixes this election…

    A lot of Americans wouldn’t only tolerate Trump fixing the election, they’d support it. Celebrate it, even.

    Much of the rest of America doesn’t fully appreciate the threat. Many are just oblivious, but others are complacently holding on to their faith in our legal and political institutions. They believe in our system, and they believe it will ultimately hold up against the threat of a fascist takeover. I hope they’re right, but I don’t share their conviction. I think our institutions are far more vulnerable than many of them realize. Frankly, I think they’re unwavering devotion borders on hubris.

    And my concerns about the integrity of our system are not baseless. I have seen our systems tested multiple times over the past few decades, essentially my entire adult life, and I would say the resiliency of our system has been… mixed, at best.

  • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    So who intervenes when he physically tries to control the election processes in states? Who certifies the election results, JD Vance?

    He can just claim any state election is fraudulent because they didn’t do what he said, reject the results in any state the gop didn’t win enough and argue the GOP reps can stay in power until an election happens the way he wants, all while claiming the gop definitely won a majority, with no proof. He will not admit to the loss of control of congress and will not leave the white house peacefully if he’s impeached.

    Americans had better get ready for a violent transfer of power. MAGA will believe dems stole the election this time and they won’t sit by and let government function, Trump will still be president while all this happens and use that authority to incite insurrection against the constitution.

    • Who certifies the election results, JD Vance?

      No. (de jure, at least, who knows what will actually happen in practice)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022

      The law identifies the governor – or, in the case of Washington, D.C., the district’s mayor – as responsible for submitting certificates of ascertainment, unless otherwise specified by state laws or constitutions. In addition, a certificate that was revised as ordered by a state or federal court judgment before the meeting of electors supersedes all previous certificates.

      The law clarifies that the vice president’s role in the counting of the electoral votes is “solely ministerial,” with no power to “determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.”

      • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        That’s what the law says. But they can just say different and we’re in conflict. Even if the courts decide against Trump, there no way to actually enforce that judgement.

    • ChadGPT2@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Many states have the power to maintain state guards. This is a military force that cannot be federalized.

      • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        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.

        • Sektor@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          Unless the army says no there is no mechanism for stopping them. As you said laws don’t matter. I feel they already won.

          • minorkeys@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            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.

    • Wataba@sh.itjust.works
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      21 hours ago

      Funny, because anti-voting activists seems to describe a good chunk of the db0 community these days.

      Then again, maybe it’s more fitting than ironic after all.