Americans run our elections, not the president. States and county clerks register voters and count ballots, and that is how it has always worked. A draft executive order now circulating among the president's allies would throw that out. It would declare a national emergency over a claim that China rigged the 2020 election, then hand the president power to ban mail ballots and voting machines.
The claim is false. The Director of National Intelligence found in 2021 that China considered interfering in 2020 and decided not to. There is no foreign attack to declare an emergency over.
The damage would be real. Nearly 46 million Americans voted by mail in 2024. Banning mail ballots by decree would hit military families overseas, rural voters, and older voters first, people who did nothing wrong. The draft would also deputize the Justice Department, immigration services, the Social Security Administration, and the Postal Service to decide who is eligible to vote, agencies that have never run an election.
Emergency powers exist for disasters and attacks, not for taking over how people vote. Courts blocked the president's 2025 election order, but a manufactured emergency is built to act first and force everyone else into months of court fights.
Congress can stop this before it starts. I am asking you to state publicly that you oppose any national emergency declaration over the 2026 election, and to support reform of the National Emergencies Act so no president can invent a foreign threat to control how Americans vote.
