President Donald Trump promised on Monday more changes in the way elections in the US are made, but based on the constitution there is little to nothing that he can do alone.
Trusting on false information and conspiracy theories that he has regularly used to put away his election loss from 2020, Trump promised on his social media site that he would dismiss both mail votes – what remains popular and is used by about a third Of all voters – and voting machines – a form of which is used in almost all thousands of election laws of the country. These are the same systems with which Trump enabled the 2024 and Republicans elections to gain control of the congress.
Trump's post marks an escalation, even in his normally overheated election rhetoric. Earlier this year he published an extensive executive order that, among other things, documented proof-of-citizenship needed before he registered to vote. His Monday post promised another election director to “help honesty to bring the mid -term elections from 2026.”
The same message also pushed lies about votes. He claimed that the US is the only country that uses e -mail moods when it is actually used by dozens, including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Similar complaints to Trumps, when broadcast on conservative networks such as Newsmax and Fox News, have led to dollars -damage to dollars, including a announced Monday, because they are full of false information and have not been able to present the points of sale to present evidence to support them.
Trump's post came after the President Fox News told that Russian President Vladimir Putin reflected his grievances about post voices and the 2020 elections during their Friday meeting in Alaska. Trump continued his attack on voice and voting engines in the Oval office on Monday during a meeting with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy.
The announcement indicates in another way that Trump intends to stack the cards in the 2026 interim elections, after he has already instructed his attorney general to investigate a democratic fundraising platform and urged states to again sign their Congress Districts.
Here is a breakdown of Trump's latest election post and why the congress is the only entity that can implement national election rules.
Trump's Post
Trump has promoted false information about voting for years and Monday was no exception.
He claimed that there is “massive fraud” because of the voting of mail, while the voting fraud in the US is in fact rare. As an example, an Associated Press evaluation found fewer than 475 cases of potential fraud in the six battlefield states after the 2020 elections, far too little to match Trump.
Washington and Oregon, who fully feed elections by post, have charged to challenge the earlier executive Order of Trump – who wanted to demand that all ballot papers have to be received on election day and not only on the postmark at that time. States claim that the president has no such authority, and they are looking for a declaration from a federal court in Seattle that their postal piles are not contrary to the federal legislation that determines the date of American elections.
Trump also claimed that voting machines are more expensive than “watermark paper.” This is a small usage system that has received favor and investments with some voting conspiracy theorists who believe it would help prevent fraudulent ballot papers being introduced in the number of mood. Watermarks would not offer a way to count ballot papers, so that they would not replace it on their own strength of mood -stabulating machines.
Although some areas of law still have voters that use electronic ballot papers to cast their vote, the vast majority of voters in the US already vote for paper ballot papers, creating an auditable record of votes that offers extra protection for election protection.
In his position, Trump also claimed that states are 'only an' agent 'for the federal government in counting and tables of the voices' and must do what the federal government 'as represented by the president of the United States' says they should do.
Election lawyers said this is a wrong representation of the American Constitution. It also flies in the light of what a core value of the Republican Party had been to give priority to the rights of states.
Thousands of elections, no one under presidential control
Unlike in most countries, elections in the US are run by the States. But it becomes more complicated – every state then lets smaller areas of law, such as provinces, cities or townships, lead their own elections. Election officials estimate that there are no fewer than 10,000 different election laws throughout the country.
A frequent complaint from Trump and other election complott theorists is that the US does not run its election as France, which counts the hand, the presidential ballot papers and usually a national result on the election evening. But that is because France only performs that single election, and each jurisdiction has the same ballot paper without other breeds.
A vote in the US can contain dozens of races, from president to municipal council and including state and local votes.
The Constitution makes the States the entities that determine the “time, place and way” of elections, but allows congress to “make” or “change” rules for federal elections.
The congress can change the way in which states lead congress and presidential elections, but has no control in the way a state performs its own elections. The president is not mentioned at all in the list of entities of the Constitution with powers on elections.
“The president is very limited to zero authority about things related to the behavior of elections,” said Rick Hasen, professor in the election law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Courts have agreed – no presidential involvement
Parts of Trump's earlier executive order on elections were quickly blocked by the courts, on the basis of the fact that the congress, and not the president, determines the federal election rules.
It is unclear what Trump is planning to do now, but the only way to change the federal election rules is via the congress.
Although the Republicans control the congress, it is unclear that even his party would even like to eliminate the national voting machines, so that the voices may be postponed in their own races by weeks or months. Even if they did, the legislation would probably not be able to pass because Democrats could Filibuster it in the US Senate.
Post votes had two-time support before Trump turned against it during the COVID-19 Pandemie and the 2020 elections, but it is still widely used in Republican States, including several he won-Ararzona, Florida and Utah last November. It is also how members of the army cast their votes abroad, and completely eliminate that it would deprive those go-leaning voters.
The main meaning of Trump's statement is that it indicates its constant obsession to try to change how elections are performed.
“This kind of claims can offer a kind of excuse for him to try to get involved,” said Hasen. “That's why are great worries.”
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Associated Press writer Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.
