President Trump Issues Executive Order That Would Shift to Presidency More Power Over the Conduct of Federal Elections

Real nice of him to sneak this in while people are distracted with the Signal chat leak. While I do think that incident happened due to sheer incompetence and not anything like 4D chess or whatever, the administration is savvy enough to take advantage of the chaos to attempt to consolidate more power. So if you see something completely outrageous, keep your eye out for some bullshit.

This is a blatant attempt to expand red state style voter disenfranchisement nationwide. Except it's worse than that, because apparently the Department of Homeland Security and DOGE are going to work together to find "fraud" in the voter rolls. And DOGE has access to the private information of virtually every American. Considering that there's another recent EO trying to end the siloing of information between federal agencies, they'll be able to do targeted disenfranchisement to the point where there's won't even be blue states anymore. It'll be like Russia, with maybe a token "opposition" but the dictator gets 95% of the vote. That's where we are at. We're in a dictatorship.

Is this legal? Fuck no. States control elections, per the Constitution. Will it matter? The courts would need to actually enforce this, something they don't really have any way to do. They could direct the U.S. Marshals to enforce their rulings, but they report to the Attorney General and are apparently quite Trumpy themselves, being cops and all that.

I wonder, will blue states roll over and accept this? I hope not, but we should prepare as though they'll capitulate to the threat of having federal funding pulled. I don't know how much federal funds figure into state governments, but I imagine it's a substantial amount. And guess who lives in a state with a budget crunch right now?

I'm not trying to fearmonger or anything, but anyone continuing to talk about the 2026 midterms has lost the plot. We have to take action ourselves, and do so now. Our institutions will not save us, because they're based on a document nearly a quarter of a millennium old that's had 26 modifications tacked on(24 if you don't count the Prohibition amendments that cancel each other out).

5 comments

Sanity check: The constitution explicitly and unambiguously states that federal elections are left up to the state. This is yet another unconstitutional executive order.
- Reality check: that hasn't stopped them yet. (I hope it does)
  
  Same, I'm a realist at heart.
Real nice of him to sneak this in while people are distracted with the Signal chat leak. While I do think that incident happened due to sheer incompetence and not anything like 4D chess or whatever, the administration is savvy enough to take advantage of the chaos to attempt to consolidate more power. So if you see something completely outrageous, keep your eye out for some bullshit.
This is a blatant attempt to expand red state style voter disenfranchisement nationwide. Except it's worse than that, because apparently the Department of Homeland Security and DOGE are going to work together to find "fraud" in the voter rolls. And DOGE has access to the private information of virtually every American. Considering that there's another recent EO trying to end the siloing of information between federal agencies, they'll be able to do targeted disenfranchisement to the point where there's won't even be blue states anymore. It'll be like Russia, with maybe a token "opposition" but the dictator gets 95% of the vote. That's where we are at. We're in a dictatorship.
Is this legal? Fuck no. States control elections, per the Constitution. Will it matter? The courts would need to actually enforce this, something they don't really have any way to do. They could direct the U.S. Marshals to enforce their rulings, but they report to the Attorney General and are apparently quite Trumpy themselves, being cops and all that.
I wonder, will blue states roll over and accept this? I hope not, but we should prepare as though they'll capitulate to the threat of having federal funding pulled. I don't know how much federal funds figure into state governments, but I imagine it's a substantial amount. And guess who lives in a state with a budget crunch right now?
I'm not trying to fearmonger or anything, but anyone continuing to talk about the 2026 midterms has lost the plot. We have to take action ourselves, and do so now. Our institutions will not save us, because they're based on a document nearly a quarter of a millennium old that's had 26 modifications tacked on(24 if you don't count the Prohibition amendments that cancel each other out).
- I don't think you're fear mongering. Trump said it himself. He said if people voted for him that they "would not have to vote anymore." That's pretty clear-cut to me.
  I anticipate that there will be a civilar war of some sort. Or a military coup.
  They might do a mock election similar to Russia.