Padilla preps for Trump trying to control elections via emergency order
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is preparing for President Trump to declare a national emergency to seize control of this year’s midterm elections from the states; this includes backing his colleagues in the Senate for a vote in which they would be forced to either co-sign the power grab or resist.
behind reporting last week Padilla, who said conservative activists with ties to the White House were pushing such an order, sent a letter to his Senate colleagues on Friday warning that such an order would be “highly illegal and unconstitutional” and would undoubtedly face “extremely strict scrutiny” in the courts.
“Nevertheless, if the President escalates his unprecedented assault on our democracy by declaring an election emergency, I will quickly implement a privileged resolution.” [and] Force a vote in the Senate to end the fake emergency,” wrote Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
Padilla wrote that such an order, which likely “could include a ban on voting by mail, elimination of basic voting registration methods, voter purges, and/or new documentation barriers to voting and registering to vote,” would clearly exceed Trump’s authority.
“Simply put, no President has the authority under the Constitution or any law to take over an election, and no declaration or order can create an election out of nothing,” Padilla wrote.
The same day Padilla sent his letter, Trump was asked if he was considering declaring a national emergency during the midterms. “Who told you this?” he asked before replying that he had not considered such an order.
The White House referred it to The Times this change Tuesday when asked for comment on Padilla’s letter.
If Trump were to declare such an emergency, a “privileged resolution,” as Padilla proposes, would require the full Senate to vote on the record on whether to terminate it, forcing the president’s allies in the Senate to take political ownership of the policy along with him.
Experts say there is no evidence that U.S. elections were significantly affected or affected by widespread fraud or foreign interference, despite vigorous efforts by Trump and his allies to find out for years.
However, Trump emphasized that such fraud occurs especially in blue states such as California, which allow mail-in voting and do not have strict voter ID laws. He and others in his administration maintained, again without evidence, that large numbers of non-citizen residents were voting and that others were “harvesting” ballots from the mail and filling them out in bulk.
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order requiring voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship before registering and banning the counting of mail-in ballots sent after Election Day, but that order was largely blocked by the courts.
The Trump-loyal Justice Department has sued red and blue states across the country for entire voter rolls, but those efforts have also been largely blocked, including California. The FBI also raided Trump’s election office in Georgia, the focus of false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump is also pushing for passage of the Save America Act, the voter ID bill that passed the House of Representatives, but the bill has stalled in the Senate.
In recent weeks, Trump has expressed frustration that his demands for voting security have not translated into changes in blue state policies ahead of the upcoming midterm elections; In that case, his declining approval could translate into big gains for Democrats.
Trump last month He wrote on the Truth Social platform“I have delved into the depths of Legal Arguments on this issue that have not yet been voiced or examined, and in the very near future I will present an undeniable claim. There will be Voter ID for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”
Then last week, The Washington Post reported A draft executive order circulated by activists affiliated with Trump reportedly suggests that unproven allegations of China interfering in the 2020 election could be used as a pretext to declare an election emergency, giving Trump broad authority to unilaterally initiate changes he wants to see in state-run elections.
Election experts said the Constitution is clear that states will control and conduct elections, not the executive branch.
Democrats have widely condemned Trump’s federal takeover of the election. And some Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who chairs the Senate rules committee, have expressed similar concerns.
Inside Wall Street Journal last yearMcConnell warned against Trump or any Republican president claiming broad authority to control elections; This was partly because Democrats had the authority to claim similar authority if they regained power.
McConnell’s office referred The Times to the Journal opinion piece when asked about the circulating emergency order and Padilla’s decision.
Padilla’s office said the order would be filed in response to Trump’s emergency declaration but hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.
“Instead of avoiding accountability at the ballot box, the President should focus on the needs of Americans struggling to pay for food, health care, housing and other daily needs and throw these illegal and unconstitutional ballot orders in the trash can where they belong,” Padilla wrote.
