{"id":9901,"date":"2026-02-07T12:12:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T12:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/07\/alarm-bells-sound-over-trumps-take-over-the-voting-call-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T12:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T12:12:56","slug":"alarm-bells-sound-over-trumps-take-over-the-voting-call-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/07\/alarm-bells-sound-over-trumps-take-over-the-voting-call-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarm bells sound over Trump\u2019s \u2018take over the voting\u2019 call – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump<\/a> set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should \u201ctake over the voting\u201d in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it\u2019s clear the president doesn\u2019t have authority over elections, they warn the president\u2019s corrosive rhetoric leaves little doubt about his intent.<\/p>\n

For months, the Trump administration has stoked doubts about the integrity of American elections largely through lawsuits<\/a> designed to create the impression states aren\u2019t doing enough to keep ineligible voters off the rolls. That effort escalated significantly last week when the FBI raided the election office in Fulton county, Georgia and seized ballots, along with other materials, related to the 2020 election. Shortly after the raid, Trump escalated his attack even further, saying the federal government should take over elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans should say, \u2018We want to take over,\u2019\u201d he said during a recent interview<\/a> with Dan Bongino, the former deputy FBI director who has returned to hosting a podcast. \u201cWe should take over the voting, the voting in at least many \u2013 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democracy experts believe there is no longer any doubt about Trump\u2019s desire to interfere with this fall\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be waiting for the next shoe to drop,\u201d said Wendy Weiser, vice-president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. \u201cThere is a full-blown effort to seize control of some of the mechanisms of our elections and to lay the foundation for interfering in upcoming elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president has no power over federal elections, and the US constitution is not ambiguous on the matter. Article I, section 4 of the document gives states the power to run elections. Congress, the constitution says, can pass nationwide rules for federal elections.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Trump and his allies have suggested the president may still be able to wield some kind of emergency power to take control of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president\u2019s authority is limited in his role with regard to elections except where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States \u2013 as I think that we can establish with the porous system that we have,\u201d Cleta Mitchell, a conservative lawyer and Trump ally said on a podcast interview<\/a> last year. \u201cThen, I think maybe the president is thinking he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Declaring a national emergency unlocks about 150 statutory powers <\/a>for the president, including things like shutting down radio stations, suspending certain military regulations, and to sanction foreign countries.<\/p>\n

But none of those powers \u201ceven come close to giving the president any authority over elections\u201d, Weiser said. \u201cThe president has zero emergency powers over elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concern about the president using emergency powers has only been amplified by the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, at the Fulton county raid. Gabbard, whose presence as an intelligence official on a domestic matter has caused widespread outrage, is said to be investigating voting equipment and foreign interference.<\/p>\n

Among others, Gabbard is briefing Mitchell and Kurt Olsen, another lawyer who was involved in Trump\u2019s effort to overturn the election, on her investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell declined to comment on those briefings, but said she understood Trump\u2019s comments to be more about the need to change federal voting laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the election statutes need significant revision, updating, and reform. And many of us are working on that,\u201d Mitchell said in an email. \u201cClearly there are far too many election officials nationwide who treat the law as optional suggestions. And have instituted procedures that are contrary to law. That happened in spades in 2020 and is all too common every election. Sloppy, poor administration and intentional disregard of basic statutory requirements. We see it everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020 or in any other election.<\/p>\n

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has framed Trump\u2019s comments similarly. Trump subsequently undercut those efforts to downplay his comments, criticizing Democratic cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta, saying<\/a>: \u201cIf they can\u2019t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond unspecified actions to take control of state election processes, there are other pathways for Trump to try to interfere in the election process.<\/p>\n

Steve Bannon, the influential conservative personality and former Trump strategist, has called for Trump to deploy ICE agents at the polls. Such an effort would violate a federal law<\/a> that prohibits federal troops from being at the polls \u201cunless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We\u2019re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again,\u201d Bannon said on his podcast on Tuesday. \u201cAnd you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has already shown its willingness to use emergency powers to try to expand the president\u2019s authority. Last spring, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act<\/a>, an 18th-century law that allows the government to deport immigrants without full due process. The United States, the government argued, was subject to an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Federal judges have since blocked<\/a> that order and expressed skepticism it is a legitimate invasion. Trump has also claimed he has emergency powers to impose tariffs, though the supreme court appears poised<\/a> to reject that argument.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason Trump is talking about nationalizing elections now may be to try to get the public to accept an idea that is obviously illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is trying to socialize an idea that has nothing to do with what our actual system is and that is actually against the law, to change public expectations about what\u2019s actually valid and allowed,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the public needs to know about this. Because they need to know in advance that if that happens, that\u2019s a trick, that\u2019s a plot, that\u2019s actually deception to get you to accept the unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump set off alarm bells earlier this week with comments that his administration should \u201ctake over the voting\u201d in some states in the run-up to the 2026 midterms, which followed an unprecedented FBI raid on an election office in Georgia. Although election experts say it\u2019s clear the president doesn\u2019t have authority over elections, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}