Trump eyeing mail-in ballot, voting machine ban ahead of midterms?  

Here’s the headline: Pro-Trump activists, who say they’re coordinating with the White House, are circulating a draft executive order urging President Trump to declare a national emergency over the 2020 election, based on the claim that China interfered, and use that emergency to take sweeping control over how Americans vote in the midterms.  

Let’s slow that down.  

The draft would empower a president to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines, arguing they’re vulnerable to foreign interference. But U.S. intelligence reviews in 2021 concluded that while China considered influence efforts, it did not carry them out. There is no credible evidence that foreign interference altered the 2020 outcome. At all.  

And here’s the constitutional reality: The Elections Clause explicitly gives states — not the president — authority over how elections are run. Article I, Section 4 is clear. States set the rules. Congress can step in. The president has no role.  

As Michael McNulty, policy director for the pro-democracy group Issue One, put it: “The Constitution is absolutely clear. The president does not have legal authority to unilaterally change election rules. Any attempt by the White House to do so would contradict the Constitution and would almost certainly be struck down by the courts.”  

But this isn’t happening in a vacuum.  

For months, there’s been a broader drive to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2026 midterms. In his State of the Union, the president falsely claimed the “only way” Democrats get elected “is to cheat.” He’s pushing the SAVE Act in Congress and has openly floated acting alone if lawmakers don’t comply.  

At the same time, we’ve seen federal law enforcement step into election spaces in ways that raise alarms, including an FBI raid on election offices in Fulton County, Ga. Intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard was present, despite her office having no formal role in election administration. The message to local officials feels unmistakable: If we don’t like the outcome, we may come looking.  

And here’s what often gets left out of the conversation about “massive fraud.” The Heritage Foundation — you know, the right-wing think tank famous for pulling together the controversial Project 2025, tracked election fraud cases over 25 years and found a rate of .0000845 percent, with no election outcome altered by ballot fraud. Both parties have lawyers inside counting rooms. To believe widespread fraud exists, you’d have to believe armies of Republican and Democratic attorneys are either incompetent or complicit. That’s not reality.  

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a majority of Americans, including independents, oppose a federal takeover of election administration.  

This moment is bigger than one executive order. It’s about whether we normalize the idea that a president can declare an emergency whenever he doesn’t trust the outcome of an election. That’s not election security. That’s executive overreach.  

Facts matter. The Constitution matters. And confidence in our elections depends on leaders respecting both, even when the results don’t go their way. 

Lindsey Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.   

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