Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.
But the ones most likely to ignore it are the blue states. If GOP governors ignore it anything can happen, because this won't surgically impact only Democrats.
That was my entire point. Blue states will ignore it, while red states will go along with it, and there are more red states. Meaning the entire process could (will?) be thrown into chaos.
I don't want to click "like", but I agree with you. I will add, though, that there are probably a handful of Red State governors and Secretaries of State, who are too afraid to cross the line and stand against him and his criminal administration. Look at what happened to Raffensperger. He and election workers have received death threats as have others in other states. This is all on one person.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
---------------------
Except, Peter Ticktin of Team Predator, there isn't a way for the president to deal with it, and there's no way you can pretend there is no matter what "emergency" Team Predator comes up with.
I get why this is scary. However, a huge portion of his agenda and his executive orders have already crashed on the shoals of reality and it's my belief this one will too. In the amount of time it would take for all the challenges to work their way through the courts — and you know there will be a lot of challenges — the time will run out to implement it. In fact, it almost has already. Imagine the amount of planning, work and resources it would take to rebuild an entire polling place infrastructure in Oregon, which is all mail-in voting. Who is going to pay for the new machines they have to purchase and the thousands of new workers they have to hire? How will they (and other all or mostly mail-in states) re-educate voters in such a short amount of time? It would be chaos. In fact, the cost of implementing this nationwide would be astronomical. Who is going to pay?
And how are they going to provide actual, documentable evidence of election interference by China? The judges will laugh them out of court (figuratively altho' some are now not withholding their scorn for this gang that can't shoot straight).
You're right — this will be impossible to prove and it will be tied up in court for a while in any case. Trump is proposing changes to state elections systems that take time, resources and money and can't be done in a few months.
How would this be enforced though? I know it doesn't seem like it now but his executive orders aren't laws, right? Would it just go into effect while getting tied up in the courts?
This is obviously terrifying but I'm confused how this would work in practice. What's to keep states from telling them to kick rocks and proceed as usual?
Putting this into practice would require so much money and resources that it wouldn't be possible for states to put it into practice for this year. I guess they could go for 2027 or 2028, but then they'd have to come to Congress for the massive allocation of funds it would take, and they might not have as friendly a Congress after this year. Fingers crossed.
There must be a lot of USers that understand that if this were true, the administration could have figured that out long ago, so why are they just hearing about it in time for the midterms?
Because it’s total BS invented out of thin air. Five and one-half years after the 2020 election and suddenly and mysteriously there’s some newly discovered “evidence” of election tampering by China. They’d have a more credible argument if they cited Russia tampering with the 2016 election in tRump’s favor. At least they could point to the Mueller report and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation.
Putin wanted to buddy in office because he is so easy to manipulate for Putin's benefit. And it wasn't Biden he got dirt on — it was Hillary Clinton. Remember the leak of what were really ridiculously trivial messages from Clinton senior advisors — immediately after the "grab em by the pussy" tape came out? And the media pretty much pivoted to talking about that stupid shit her campaign aides said, burying the "grab em by the pussy" story? That was one of the first signs that the "mainstream" media is our enemy.
I've read articles about this in several of the sources I follow. I'm certain that there are attorneys (Democracy Docket, ACLA and others) who will, if the president signs such an XO, immediately file litigation with materials prepared in anticipation of the need.
As for the XO, once the courts take it up, the president's minions will have to come up with documented evidence about the purported interference from China.
Election "deniers" want to deny the public their right to vote. With the electoral college, gerrymandering and the bizarre 2 senators to states with a population less than most cities we already see a government by the minority and now they want to make it worse. Democracy may not be dead but it certainly is on life support.
I am constantly, CONSTANTLY confused by the existence of the electoral college. Here in Australia we don't have anything like it; we have preferences, which is a system where you choose who you would prefer to lead in order from 1 being the people you want in charge and 10 or higher being the real bat guano crazy types. This way, if a party or coalition doesn't win outright, the preferences are counted until a balance of power is found.
The electoral college just breaks my brain. Even without the gerrymandering of the last fifty years, it's a horrifically biased system designed to keep one group in eternal power.
Alec, The Electoral College is a purely American debacle dating to adoption of the original constitution in 1787. It favors under populated states by overweighting their ratio of elected House of Representatives members plus two senate seats to actual population of that state. It’s a relic of what the Founders had to do to placate the under populated southern states. It’s one of the reasons the U.S. can have minority rule.
That three-fifths of a person thing. Slaves are property not people or citizens but got a sixty percent head count in the census for determining the number of House members.
That is false. Several of the largest states were southern.
A lot back then had to do with slavery, but this is not among them. The smallest state, and the one insisting on the Senate, was Delaware, and they were worried about Virginia (the largest). Both were slave states.
Thanks for the explanation! I knew it had something to do with keeping the southern states in but American history wasn't really something I learned much of in school.
That’s okay and understandable. Americans probably get even less Australian history. And as I remember from high school, it wasn’t all that favorable - a colony established as a place to send convicted British criminals and then asked to supply troops in two world wars as a Commonwealth member. Three individual sentences in three separate chapters of a world history book.
Absolutely. The Guardians of Pedophiles (GOP) knows that it cannot win truly free and fair elections now that more people are starting to really see their four decade long-game come to fruition.
What we’re experiencing in the US right now is the powerful death rattle of white, male supremacy.
They will NOT stop unless something stops them. There’s too much money on the line and likely jail time if there’s any justice left.
You're describing the overarching crux of life in this country today, US. You've said it in a nutshell. And you're right that the patriarchy will fight to the death to remain in power.
Australia is actually, in this respect, much more similar to the US than you think. You, too, have a Senate where each state has the same number of members. And in Australia, there is not even an popular election for Prime Minister at all. He or she is elected by parliament.
And that was the original 1789 plan in the US, too. The founding fathers decided that they didn't want the President to be beholden to Congress. So they created the EC as a mirror image of Congress, but with different people. This adds a check to the checks and balances; our President can be (and frequently is) from a different party than Congress.
Where things went wrong was that states started gaming the system (right from the start in the 18th century) and introduced winner-take-all. That should be banned, IMO.
So the real question is, why are House and Senate set up the way they are? The EC is simply a reflection of it.
Historically, it was introduced for good reasons. Your states are all more or less the same size, at least compared with the USA - NSW is only a bit less than 15 times the size (by population) of Tasmania. California is 67 times the size of Wyoming.
Sydney and Melbourne will just never dominate Australian politics the way Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and maybe Dallas and Houston would in the US. Without the Senate's vote structure, politicians would simply ignore the rest of the country, never even bother to campaign in Wyoming.
The same was true in 1789. That's why Delaware (then the smallest state) insisted on the Senate as a safeguard. And, again, Australia does the same thing!
Alec, if you dare, find a book at your local library called 'Deliver the Vote' by Tracy Campbell; he describes how USers have cheated in elections from the start, even before the country was 'united'. It could read like a guidebook on the many, many ways to cheat in US politics.
How about we get on with proving the election tampering by Trump and Elon Musk in the 2024 election? There seems to be plenty of evidence lurking in the wings. Turn the tables on the Republicans now while we still have time. Remember, everything Trump and his goons say is a confession.
Fetterman has sure been a disappointment. I'm on his mailing list and he's all over the place. But his scores on Progressive Punch, which I check every week, are shocking. He's ranked the third least progressive Democratic senator after Maggie Hassan and Jean Shaheen from New Hampshire. He has a dramatically lower score than the senator ranked right about him, independent Angus King, who ran as and is known for being a more conservative senator (but reasonable, consistent and not a fan of Trump's).
But I remember Fetterman styling himself as a Bernie Bro super progressive when he first hit the national spotlight before his dramatic turn to the right. Apparently he couldn't find a happy medium.
Who would Fetterman's constituency be? McCormick does what Republicans elected him to do. Fetterman is spitting in the face of those who hoped he'd be both more progressive and more reasonable.
Agree completely, Charmian. It's one of my pet peeves that likely tampering by Elon's hacker posse was never investigated by the Dems after the election.
There are ways to know what is possible. There were no proven "anomalies," just really shitty press coverage which caused a lot of discouragement on the left.
I have a friend who is a computer engineer. Builds networks from scratch. Has a list of Microsoft certifications a mile long. I asked him right after the election if altering results was possible. He said yes. He's a very smart man, knowledgeable on many topics. Far beyond expert level in electronics. Absolutely not a conspiracy theorist. I have no reason to doubt him.
"It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes."
He may be very smart about computers and networks in general, but if he is not knowledgable about how elections systems are put together, it's irrelevant. He may have theoretical idea about how this COULD be done, but if boards of elections aren't using those particular things he knows about (and they aren't), it's not happening.
I counted the votes, me and a bipartisan other bunch of poll workers. They are not ultimately counted by computers that are networked.
Seems to me that altering results in elections in 50 states (from precinct to county to state) would be a huge lift. And how to explain all of the races below the presidential that didn't appear to be affected, in many of which Republicans prevailed in 2020.
We can't because it didn't happen, and every time we claim this we lend credibility to their claim that 2020 was "stolen." Neither was stolen. There's no evidence of "tampering," and to anyone who knows how elections are run, plenty of evidence that it's nearly impossible. Please, we need to stop this. It strengthens Trump's bogus claims.
This s**t infuriates me. I’m a poll worker, so I know how things are done. Funny how there’s only fraud when Democrats win. If Republicans win…no fraud at all! Dems need to go on offense and not wait for shenanigans.
OMG thank you!! Why doesn't someone EVER ask Trump: so, Donald, you're saying that only if Republicans take the entire election is it a fair election. Donald, don't you think, to any sane person, that sounds a little crazy and preposterous? I mean, point out to him that in the rigged 2020 election, downballot, Republicans won HUGELY.
The Dems are in full possession of the state of play, and who the players are as Jay outlined above, and election-law experts such as Marc Elias, Rick Hasen, et al are primed and ready to take on the vote corruptors.
Hope for the best but expect — and prepare for — the worst.
They have so far, issuing injunctions against several of his EOs aimed at "federalizing" state control over "time, place, and manner" of election law. But what happens on Election Day, and the weeks after will be the decider, for sure.
They're stopped it so far. And the fact is, it can't self-implement. It requires a huge amount of resources, equipment, personnel and training. Where is all of that coming from? You can't snap your fingers and go "No more mail-in — now you need to buy thousands more voting machines and hire thousands more poll workers."
Well, you can't just produce a new election infrastructure out of thin air. Money has to come from somewhere. Is Trump going to pay for it? I don't think so! The fact is, to declare these rules would mean some states would not be able to hold elections. And every court would block that, even the Supreme Court.
This is chilling and also prescient. Of course they intend to go by the fascist playbook and deny us our votes in the mid-terms. Thank you, Jay, for your succinct warning.
We need to motivate voters by any legal means possible. "It's going to take a BLUE TSUNAMI to wash away the toxic RED TIDE!"
Let's build some muscle memory by encouraging voting in primaries. Not only will it give people practice, but it will help to confirm their eligibility, and should cause the GOP to panic.
In addition to the Blue Tsunami" message above, here's another possible theme:
"People have died to ensure your right to vote. Honor their sacrifice by exercising it."
p.s. Another: "Exercise Your Vote in the Primaries and Build Muscle Memory!"
Let us also not forget about the MAGA officials on the front lines, county level elections commissioners, local state level judges, and racist sheriffs. All ready to disrupt and dispute the process and results, arrest people handing out water to voters in line, making sure there’s a shortage of ballots at polling stations, inoperable voting machines, and a shortage of properly (in their minds) vetted poll workers.
As a side note - Heather Honey. Sounds like the name of the next James Bond movie “Bond Girl”, but in this case probably an assistant to the evil Spector in Chief character.
I think it's imperative at this time that GOVERNORS start stepping up to guard our elections. I haven't heard much of anything from Josh Shapiro. He just keeps posting online about how fine PA is doing overall. He going to wait until AFTER the election to show deep concern?? This article of yours, Jay, this is what the people need. It's why we're all still SANE. I'm fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of our leadership. My appreciation to JB Pritzker who always seems to be AHEAD of the shenanigans. This is no time to be asleep at the wheel.
Thank you Jay for pointing out all the players that are unknown to muck up our voices being heard while exercising our “right” to vote.
While I didn’t watch his State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, read what he said in-between all the game show trinkets handed out. What struck me was when Trump explicitly referred to voting as a "privilege" rather than a "right" while calling for the passage of the SAVE America Act.
He used the term “privileges” versus “right” while comparing voter ID requirements to identification needed for manual labor in New York City in reference to Mamdani: As he said, “Wants them to shovel snow, but if you apply for that job you need to show two original forms of ID and a social security card, yet they don't want identification for the greatest ‘privilege’ of them all, voting in America.”
Critics are already arguing that by labeling it a ‘privilege’, this regime is "saying the quiet part out loud"—framing the vote as something the government can pick and choose upon whom to bestow.
The fundamental difference between a right and a privilege lies in their origin, permanency, and conditions: a ‘right’ is an inherent, guaranteed entitlement that cannot easily be taken away, while a ‘privilege’ is a conditional, earned benefit granted by an authority that can be revoked.
Election deniers have been rolling these terms for quite awhile and will not be surprised that Liar ‘n Chief will not be using the word “privilege” more often. A desensitization to get to the point of “what you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow.”
I don't think that any educated person, including all those who read your substack, has any doubt but that the Republicans will do everything in their power to mess with the elections.
What efforts, if any, are you aware of that are being prepared to offset this attack on our democracy?
My question as well: what can we readers do to prevent these things from happening? I get so frustrated by admonitions to be aware and pay attention. If I pay any more attention I'll be broke - literally and figuratively. I need concrete, impactful actions.
We need to be informed, educated others, organize to turn out the vote, encourage our elected officials to raise the warning, donate to Democratic candidates and prepare for nonviolent civic disobedience through organized training and engagement. Don’t wait till November. Join a community to protect our democracy and our rights now.
As individuals, my guess is that we write letters - to both our representatives and newspapers - write postcards to voters, attend rallies, donate, whatever is practical.
My question really regards those people and groups (lawyers, the ACLU, etc) that can actually mount a defense, and offense, the administration's actions.
Or is it just a wait-and-see game, what can be fast tracked to the SC, if and when it is necessary? I would much rather hear about these possibilities than about the reasons why we should be worried...or at least potential remedies for the possible actions that are being described.
I hope more Americans pay attention here, I have lived in a dictatorship and it wasn't any fun and said dictator didn't do nearly the damage trump has done .
I'm not one to wish death on people, but we are literally at a point where I would cheer if someone decided to 'remove' tRump and his cabinet. They're actively evil.
Relevant from WaPo just now:
Pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots in November’s midterm elections, and the activists expect their draft will figure into Trump’s promised executive order on the issue. The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s plans.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
The emergency would empower the president to ban mail ballots and voting machines as the vectors of foreign interference, Ticktin argued.
Thank you, Jay. This is truly frightening, but we need to know and we need names.
Is there an enforcement mechanism to this EO? Because if there's not, states can ignore it and conduct elections like it's business as usual.
But would they? There are 26 GOP governors, with 23 trifectas and triplexes. Not good odds.
But the ones most likely to ignore it are the blue states. If GOP governors ignore it anything can happen, because this won't surgically impact only Democrats.
That was my entire point. Blue states will ignore it, while red states will go along with it, and there are more red states. Meaning the entire process could (will?) be thrown into chaos.
I don't want to click "like", but I agree with you. I will add, though, that there are probably a handful of Red State governors and Secretaries of State, who are too afraid to cross the line and stand against him and his criminal administration. Look at what happened to Raffensperger. He and election workers have received death threats as have others in other states. This is all on one person.
The issue is that it's hard to tell who or what will be impacted, and it could cause red states to have some ... surprising results.
“Under the Constitution, it’s the legislatures and states that really control how a state conducts its elections, and the president doesn’t have any power to do that,” said Peter Ticktin, a Florida lawyer who is advocating for the draft executive order. Ticktin attended the New York Military Academy with Trump and was part of his legal team that filed an unsuccessful 2022 lawsuit accusing Democrats of conspiring to damage him with allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
“But here we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes,” Ticktin went on. “That causes a national emergency where the president has to be able to deal with it.”
---------------------
Except, Peter Ticktin of Team Predator, there isn't a way for the president to deal with it, and there's no way you can pretend there is no matter what "emergency" Team Predator comes up with.
I get why this is scary. However, a huge portion of his agenda and his executive orders have already crashed on the shoals of reality and it's my belief this one will too. In the amount of time it would take for all the challenges to work their way through the courts — and you know there will be a lot of challenges — the time will run out to implement it. In fact, it almost has already. Imagine the amount of planning, work and resources it would take to rebuild an entire polling place infrastructure in Oregon, which is all mail-in voting. Who is going to pay for the new machines they have to purchase and the thousands of new workers they have to hire? How will they (and other all or mostly mail-in states) re-educate voters in such a short amount of time? It would be chaos. In fact, the cost of implementing this nationwide would be astronomical. Who is going to pay?
And how are they going to provide actual, documentable evidence of election interference by China? The judges will laugh them out of court (figuratively altho' some are now not withholding their scorn for this gang that can't shoot straight).
You're right — this will be impossible to prove and it will be tied up in court for a while in any case. Trump is proposing changes to state elections systems that take time, resources and money and can't be done in a few months.
Here is the link: Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/
Paywalled. Do they have the actual draft of the EO? That would be interesting to see.
Gift link. https://wapo.st/400tpi8
I've read that a draft XO is already prepared.
Thank you!
How would this be enforced though? I know it doesn't seem like it now but his executive orders aren't laws, right? Would it just go into effect while getting tied up in the courts?
This is obviously terrifying but I'm confused how this would work in practice. What's to keep states from telling them to kick rocks and proceed as usual?
Putting this into practice would require so much money and resources that it wouldn't be possible for states to put it into practice for this year. I guess they could go for 2027 or 2028, but then they'd have to come to Congress for the massive allocation of funds it would take, and they might not have as friendly a Congress after this year. Fingers crossed.
There must be a lot of USers that understand that if this were true, the administration could have figured that out long ago, so why are they just hearing about it in time for the midterms?
Because it’s total BS invented out of thin air. Five and one-half years after the 2020 election and suddenly and mysteriously there’s some newly discovered “evidence” of election tampering by China. They’d have a more credible argument if they cited Russia tampering with the 2016 election in tRump’s favor. At least they could point to the Mueller report and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation.
Actually, that did happen. They didn't actually "tamper" but it's clear Russian propaganda did figure in the 2016 election.
But for who's benefit if T supposedly sought help from Z to get dirt on Biden?
Putin wanted to buddy in office because he is so easy to manipulate for Putin's benefit. And it wasn't Biden he got dirt on — it was Hillary Clinton. Remember the leak of what were really ridiculously trivial messages from Clinton senior advisors — immediately after the "grab em by the pussy" tape came out? And the media pretty much pivoted to talking about that stupid shit her campaign aides said, burying the "grab em by the pussy" story? That was one of the first signs that the "mainstream" media is our enemy.
"Because it’s total BS invented out of thin air."
How I wish all USers were as perceptive as you are, Michael. The world would be a much better place.
I've read articles about this in several of the sources I follow. I'm certain that there are attorneys (Democracy Docket, ACLA and others) who will, if the president signs such an XO, immediately file litigation with materials prepared in anticipation of the need.
As for the XO, once the courts take it up, the president's minions will have to come up with documented evidence about the purported interference from China.
Election "deniers" want to deny the public their right to vote. With the electoral college, gerrymandering and the bizarre 2 senators to states with a population less than most cities we already see a government by the minority and now they want to make it worse. Democracy may not be dead but it certainly is on life support.
I am constantly, CONSTANTLY confused by the existence of the electoral college. Here in Australia we don't have anything like it; we have preferences, which is a system where you choose who you would prefer to lead in order from 1 being the people you want in charge and 10 or higher being the real bat guano crazy types. This way, if a party or coalition doesn't win outright, the preferences are counted until a balance of power is found.
The electoral college just breaks my brain. Even without the gerrymandering of the last fifty years, it's a horrifically biased system designed to keep one group in eternal power.
Alec, The Electoral College is a purely American debacle dating to adoption of the original constitution in 1787. It favors under populated states by overweighting their ratio of elected House of Representatives members plus two senate seats to actual population of that state. It’s a relic of what the Founders had to do to placate the under populated southern states. It’s one of the reasons the U.S. can have minority rule.
Don't forget that the reason southern states were "underpopulated" is that those states didn't consider enslaved people to be people.
That three-fifths of a person thing. Slaves are property not people or citizens but got a sixty percent head count in the census for determining the number of House members.
That is false. Several of the largest states were southern.
A lot back then had to do with slavery, but this is not among them. The smallest state, and the one insisting on the Senate, was Delaware, and they were worried about Virginia (the largest). Both were slave states.
Thanks for the explanation! I knew it had something to do with keeping the southern states in but American history wasn't really something I learned much of in school.
That’s okay and understandable. Americans probably get even less Australian history. And as I remember from high school, it wasn’t all that favorable - a colony established as a place to send convicted British criminals and then asked to supply troops in two world wars as a Commonwealth member. Three individual sentences in three separate chapters of a world history book.
The EC is an extremely outdated relic from when the framers of the constitution didn’t think the general populace was smart enough to vote directly.
The EC should’ve never existed.
I mean let's be real there's a lot of people in the GOP who think that NOW...
But yeah it's a mess.
Absolutely. The Guardians of Pedophiles (GOP) knows that it cannot win truly free and fair elections now that more people are starting to really see their four decade long-game come to fruition.
What we’re experiencing in the US right now is the powerful death rattle of white, male supremacy.
They will NOT stop unless something stops them. There’s too much money on the line and likely jail time if there’s any justice left.
You're describing the overarching crux of life in this country today, US. You've said it in a nutshell. And you're right that the patriarchy will fight to the death to remain in power.
Australia is actually, in this respect, much more similar to the US than you think. You, too, have a Senate where each state has the same number of members. And in Australia, there is not even an popular election for Prime Minister at all. He or she is elected by parliament.
And that was the original 1789 plan in the US, too. The founding fathers decided that they didn't want the President to be beholden to Congress. So they created the EC as a mirror image of Congress, but with different people. This adds a check to the checks and balances; our President can be (and frequently is) from a different party than Congress.
Where things went wrong was that states started gaming the system (right from the start in the 18th century) and introduced winner-take-all. That should be banned, IMO.
So the real question is, why are House and Senate set up the way they are? The EC is simply a reflection of it.
Historically, it was introduced for good reasons. Your states are all more or less the same size, at least compared with the USA - NSW is only a bit less than 15 times the size (by population) of Tasmania. California is 67 times the size of Wyoming.
Sydney and Melbourne will just never dominate Australian politics the way Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and maybe Dallas and Houston would in the US. Without the Senate's vote structure, politicians would simply ignore the rest of the country, never even bother to campaign in Wyoming.
The same was true in 1789. That's why Delaware (then the smallest state) insisted on the Senate as a safeguard. And, again, Australia does the same thing!
Alec, if you dare, find a book at your local library called 'Deliver the Vote' by Tracy Campbell; he describes how USers have cheated in elections from the start, even before the country was 'united'. It could read like a guidebook on the many, many ways to cheat in US politics.
How about we get on with proving the election tampering by Trump and Elon Musk in the 2024 election? There seems to be plenty of evidence lurking in the wings. Turn the tables on the Republicans now while we still have time. Remember, everything Trump and his goons say is a confession.
How about we elect some congressmen with balls.
Do you have one? Mine doesn't technically have "balls" but she totally kicks ass.
Oh God help us!--in PA we have Fetterman, who was shamelessly sucking off (pardon, I'm French) Trump all through the SOTU!!
Kicking ass counts as balls!
Fetterman has sure been a disappointment. I'm on his mailing list and he's all over the place. But his scores on Progressive Punch, which I check every week, are shocking. He's ranked the third least progressive Democratic senator after Maggie Hassan and Jean Shaheen from New Hampshire. He has a dramatically lower score than the senator ranked right about him, independent Angus King, who ran as and is known for being a more conservative senator (but reasonable, consistent and not a fan of Trump's).
But I remember Fetterman styling himself as a Bernie Bro super progressive when he first hit the national spotlight before his dramatic turn to the right. Apparently he couldn't find a happy medium.
Just read an article yesterday that among Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick scores higher in opinion polls than Fetterman. 🧐
Who would Fetterman's constituency be? McCormick does what Republicans elected him to do. Fetterman is spitting in the face of those who hoped he'd be both more progressive and more reasonable.
First we have to win the majority in congress.
Agree completely, Charmian. It's one of my pet peeves that likely tampering by Elon's hacker posse was never investigated by the Dems after the election.
Nothing to investigate. He spent big on propaganda, but had no way to "hack" any election.
Disagree. There were enough anomalies in the results that the outcome was questionable.
I don't think there's any way for us out here in the hinterlands to "know" nothing happened.
There are ways to know what is possible. There were no proven "anomalies," just really shitty press coverage which caused a lot of discouragement on the left.
I have a friend who is a computer engineer. Builds networks from scratch. Has a list of Microsoft certifications a mile long. I asked him right after the election if altering results was possible. He said yes. He's a very smart man, knowledgeable on many topics. Far beyond expert level in electronics. Absolutely not a conspiracy theorist. I have no reason to doubt him.
"It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes."
- attributed to Stalin
He may be very smart about computers and networks in general, but if he is not knowledgable about how elections systems are put together, it's irrelevant. He may have theoretical idea about how this COULD be done, but if boards of elections aren't using those particular things he knows about (and they aren't), it's not happening.
I counted the votes, me and a bipartisan other bunch of poll workers. They are not ultimately counted by computers that are networked.
Seems to me that altering results in elections in 50 states (from precinct to county to state) would be a huge lift. And how to explain all of the races below the presidential that didn't appear to be affected, in many of which Republicans prevailed in 2020.
We can't because it didn't happen, and every time we claim this we lend credibility to their claim that 2020 was "stolen." Neither was stolen. There's no evidence of "tampering," and to anyone who knows how elections are run, plenty of evidence that it's nearly impossible. Please, we need to stop this. It strengthens Trump's bogus claims.
🎯🎯🎯
This s**t infuriates me. I’m a poll worker, so I know how things are done. Funny how there’s only fraud when Democrats win. If Republicans win…no fraud at all! Dems need to go on offense and not wait for shenanigans.
Isn't it amazing that all those GOP Reps and Senators were duly and properly elected on the EXACT SAME ballots that were supposedly fraudulent?
OMG thank you!! Why doesn't someone EVER ask Trump: so, Donald, you're saying that only if Republicans take the entire election is it a fair election. Donald, don't you think, to any sane person, that sounds a little crazy and preposterous? I mean, point out to him that in the rigged 2020 election, downballot, Republicans won HUGELY.
Well, we're claiming fraud when HE won, so it's a standoff. This is why I beg people to stop making this specious claim about 2024.
The Dems are in full possession of the state of play, and who the players are as Jay outlined above, and election-law experts such as Marc Elias, Rick Hasen, et al are primed and ready to take on the vote corruptors.
Hope for the best but expect — and prepare for — the worst.
I don’t know if the courts alone will be enough to stop this.
They have so far, issuing injunctions against several of his EOs aimed at "federalizing" state control over "time, place, and manner" of election law. But what happens on Election Day, and the weeks after will be the decider, for sure.
They're stopped it so far. And the fact is, it can't self-implement. It requires a huge amount of resources, equipment, personnel and training. Where is all of that coming from? You can't snap your fingers and go "No more mail-in — now you need to buy thousands more voting machines and hire thousands more poll workers."
When has the law or logistics gotten in their way?
Well, you can't just produce a new election infrastructure out of thin air. Money has to come from somewhere. Is Trump going to pay for it? I don't think so! The fact is, to declare these rules would mean some states would not be able to hold elections. And every court would block that, even the Supreme Court.
Donnycon doesn’t want an election at all.
Nope. How will they do anything after the fact?
This is chilling and also prescient. Of course they intend to go by the fascist playbook and deny us our votes in the mid-terms. Thank you, Jay, for your succinct warning.
We need to motivate voters by any legal means possible. "It's going to take a BLUE TSUNAMI to wash away the toxic RED TIDE!"
Let's build some muscle memory by encouraging voting in primaries. Not only will it give people practice, but it will help to confirm their eligibility, and should cause the GOP to panic.
In addition to the Blue Tsunami" message above, here's another possible theme:
"People have died to ensure your right to vote. Honor their sacrifice by exercising it."
p.s. Another: "Exercise Your Vote in the Primaries and Build Muscle Memory!"
Let us also not forget about the MAGA officials on the front lines, county level elections commissioners, local state level judges, and racist sheriffs. All ready to disrupt and dispute the process and results, arrest people handing out water to voters in line, making sure there’s a shortage of ballots at polling stations, inoperable voting machines, and a shortage of properly (in their minds) vetted poll workers.
As a side note - Heather Honey. Sounds like the name of the next James Bond movie “Bond Girl”, but in this case probably an assistant to the evil Spector in Chief character.
I think it's imperative at this time that GOVERNORS start stepping up to guard our elections. I haven't heard much of anything from Josh Shapiro. He just keeps posting online about how fine PA is doing overall. He going to wait until AFTER the election to show deep concern?? This article of yours, Jay, this is what the people need. It's why we're all still SANE. I'm fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of our leadership. My appreciation to JB Pritzker who always seems to be AHEAD of the shenanigans. This is no time to be asleep at the wheel.
Thank you Jay for pointing out all the players that are unknown to muck up our voices being heard while exercising our “right” to vote.
While I didn’t watch his State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, read what he said in-between all the game show trinkets handed out. What struck me was when Trump explicitly referred to voting as a "privilege" rather than a "right" while calling for the passage of the SAVE America Act.
He used the term “privileges” versus “right” while comparing voter ID requirements to identification needed for manual labor in New York City in reference to Mamdani: As he said, “Wants them to shovel snow, but if you apply for that job you need to show two original forms of ID and a social security card, yet they don't want identification for the greatest ‘privilege’ of them all, voting in America.”
Critics are already arguing that by labeling it a ‘privilege’, this regime is "saying the quiet part out loud"—framing the vote as something the government can pick and choose upon whom to bestow.
The fundamental difference between a right and a privilege lies in their origin, permanency, and conditions: a ‘right’ is an inherent, guaranteed entitlement that cannot easily be taken away, while a ‘privilege’ is a conditional, earned benefit granted by an authority that can be revoked.
Election deniers have been rolling these terms for quite awhile and will not be surprised that Liar ‘n Chief will not be using the word “privilege” more often. A desensitization to get to the point of “what you tolerate today, you accept tomorrow.”
This is SO serious. Probably the most serious of all. Trump will try ANYTHING to stay in control.
I don't think that any educated person, including all those who read your substack, has any doubt but that the Republicans will do everything in their power to mess with the elections.
What efforts, if any, are you aware of that are being prepared to offset this attack on our democracy?
Democratic Attorneys General are trying to get ahead of the curve: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/how-dem-attorneys-general-are-war-gaming-to-push-back-on-trump-election-meddling/ar-AA1WT7Ha
My question as well: what can we readers do to prevent these things from happening? I get so frustrated by admonitions to be aware and pay attention. If I pay any more attention I'll be broke - literally and figuratively. I need concrete, impactful actions.
We need to be informed, educated others, organize to turn out the vote, encourage our elected officials to raise the warning, donate to Democratic candidates and prepare for nonviolent civic disobedience through organized training and engagement. Don’t wait till November. Join a community to protect our democracy and our rights now.
As individuals, my guess is that we write letters - to both our representatives and newspapers - write postcards to voters, attend rallies, donate, whatever is practical.
My question really regards those people and groups (lawyers, the ACLU, etc) that can actually mount a defense, and offense, the administration's actions.
Or is it just a wait-and-see game, what can be fast tracked to the SC, if and when it is necessary? I would much rather hear about these possibilities than about the reasons why we should be worried...or at least potential remedies for the possible actions that are being described.
One thing about Mike Johnson. If the GOP loses the house, he stops being speaker on January and has no authority over the swearing in process.
He'd probably be relieved. He's waaaaaay over his head. He'll have more time to monitor his son's porn use.
Scary times ahead .
I hope more Americans pay attention here, I have lived in a dictatorship and it wasn't any fun and said dictator didn't do nearly the damage trump has done .
-Nate
Where?
Centro - America in the mid 1970's .
-Nate
Centro?? Never heard of it.
Look at a map .
-Nate
I'm not one to wish death on people, but we are literally at a point where I would cheer if someone decided to 'remove' tRump and his cabinet. They're actively evil.
Please, no. That would end my dream of seeing him led to prison in handcuffs.
Boy the repulsive Republicans are really worried about the midterms. I hope someone somewhere has a plan to stop any interference.