Trump Has No Power to Nationalize Elections

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing an executive order to attempt to nationalize aspects of the midterm elections, despite a clear constitutional provision that assigns congressional elections to the states and allows only Congress, not the president, to amend state rules. The Elections Clause could not be more explicit: The “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.” The president is nowhere in that chain of authority.

Any such attempt would be unconstitutional and extraordinarily dangerous to democracy itself. According to the Washington Post, the administration would claim that Chinese interference in the 2020 election provides the hook for the executive order, invoking President Donald Trump’s foreign affairs powers to justify actions such as mandatory voter identification and the elimination of mail-in ballots. In other words, national security would be used as the rationale for overriding state control.