Usurping the power of Congress and the states to regulate and conduct elections

Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly gives the states the power to conduct elections, subject to regulation by Congress. Congress.
The Constitution does not grant the President (or any part of the Executive branch of the Federal government) any power over elections.

This has not deterred Donald Trump's attempts to usurp Congress' power to regulate elections, and the states' power to conduct elections. The 28 Jan 2026 FBI raid on the Fulton County, GA election operations center that we mentioned in our 2026 elections commentary page demonstrates that he not only wishes to usurp the states' power to conduct elections; he is also willing to misuse Federal agencies to do it. Some other examples of this include:

• On 31 March 2026 Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14399. Its stated purpose is to enforce existing Federal laws against non-US citizens voting in Federal elections, and to uphold Article 4 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. On the surface this does not sound unreasonable, but the order then prescribes an implementation that suggests it has another unstated purpose:

  Section 2(a) directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to

  "… take appropriate action to compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State (State Citizenship List)."

  Section 3(b) directs the United States Postal Service to issue a variety of new rules regarding mail-in and absentee ballots. We'll highlight a two:

  Section 3(b)(iii) says

  "… the USPS shall not transmit mail-in or absentee ballots from any individual unless those individuals have been enrolled on a State-specific list described in subsection (b)(iv) of this section with the USPS pursuant to this subsection"

  And section 3(b)(iv) says

  "… the USPS shall provide each State with a list of individuals (Mail-In and Absentee Participation List) who are enrolled with the USPS, … , for mail-in or absentee ballots provided by such State, along with unique ballot envelope identifiers, … , for mail-in or absentee ballots provided to such individuals."

  The United States Postal Service issued proposed new rules to implementing these directives on 2 Jun 2026. It issued the "final" rules on 26 August 2026 - just 69 days before the election.

  Taken together this means the Executive Branch of the Federal government (specifically the Department of Homeland Security) would compile a national list of "eligible" voters, and provide excerpts to each state; and the United States Postal Service would reject all mail-in ballots and absentee ballots whose envelopes do not uniquely identify a person on the Federal government's list.
  This is un-American.
  It clearly usurps an important part of the states' Constitutional power to determine the " Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives", and their power to register voters.

  It also could permit the Executive Branch of the Federal government the to deny your right to vote:
  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would control the national list of people who are "eligible" to vote by mail. This could allow it to decide who is (or is not) eligible to vote by mail. If you're not "eligible" to vote by mail, it's only a small step to say you're not "eligible" to vote at all, since there is no reason for an "eligible" voter to be "ineligible" to vote by mail. If you're not "eligible" for one form of voting, logically you can't be "eligible" for any other form of voting.

  We must also note that the Executive Order's claim that these measures are needed to uphold Article 4 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution is dubious. The section says that the United States will insure that each state government is a republic, and that the Federal government must protect the states against invasion; and, at the request of a state's government, the Federal government must protect the state against "domestic Violence". (The specific meaning of "republic" or "republican form of government" is discussed in the Federalist Papers. Federalist No. 57 provides a particularly good definition.)

  Fortunately the courts would have none of this. The US District Court in Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction blocking the new USPS rules on 4 September, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift the injunction on 14 September.

• To further its aim of usurping the states' power to register voters, the Trump Administration has tried to use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to force states to turn their voter registration data to the Federal government. The DOJ sued The District of Columbia and 30 states in an attempt to obtain their voter registration data. As of September 23 of the 31 cases were dismissed; the case against Oklahoma was settled out of court when the state agreed to turn its voter registration list to the Department of Justice. The remaindng 7 cases have not been decided.

• On 9 June 2026 Trump effectively eliminated the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by firing three of its four remaining Commissioners. (The fourth had resigned on 30 April.) Without any Commissioners, the EAC is powerless.

  The EAC web site states that it is a … bipartisan commission whose mission is to help election officials improve the administration of elections and help Americans participate in the voting process. It was created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which was passed to address various problems with voting systems that became apparent during the 2000 presidential election. The outcome of this extremely close election was decided by less than 600 votes in one state; and vote counting was complicated by technical problems with the state's election system that made some ballots ambiguous. This led uncertainty and legal disputes over the outcome, which took over a month to resolve.

  The EAC maintains technical standards for voting systems used in national elections; accredits outside testing laboratories that the states may use to certify that their voting systems meet these standards; and administers Federal funds that are distributed to the states to enable them to implement the Help America Vote Act.
  The EAC cannot compel states to certify their voting systems or use its technical standards; it is completely voluntary. The EAC's role is mostly just to provide information to the states, and to provide a mechanism for the states to insure that their voting systems follow the best practices currently known.

  By law two of the EAC's four Commissioners must be members of the Democratic Party, and the other two must be members of the Republican Party. This insures that the EAC is not biased against either Democratic or Republican candidates. (Candidates from other parties might be another matter.)

  The EAC's role should not be controversial, and prior to Donald Trump's presidency it was not controversial. This raises an obvious question:
  Why did Donald Trump cripple an election commission that assists state efforts to insure their voting systems follow the best known practices, and is not biased against Republicans?
  We can think of only one answer: Trump wishes to undermine confidence in the ability of the states to conduct accurate elections. This could provide an excuse for a Federal takeover of the 2026 election; or if that fails, it at least would allow Trump to falsely claim the election is somehow "fraudulent" if he doesn't like its results.