Progressive Politics

A draft executive order to declare a national emergency to allow President Donald Trump to take unprecedented control over voting is being circulated by anti-voting activists who have said they are in coordination with the White House.

A version of the order, dated April 12, 2025, has been circulating among anti-voting groups, and some progressive groups, since last year.

Peter Ticktin, a Trump ally and a leader of the effort, provided the April 12 version to Democracy Docket. It’s titled: “Establishing Security, Integrity, and Transparency for United States Elections with Protections Against Foreign Interference.”

Lawyers and legal experts have explicitly said that an order giving the president the power to take control of elections would be blatantly unconstitutional.

Trump said Friday he has “never heard about it.”

Ticktin, who attended military school with Trump, is an attorney for Tina Peters, the former GOP Colorado county clerk who is currently serving a nine-year state prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system breach, in an attempt to find voter fraud based on election conspiracies.