White House Circulates Draft Emergency Order to Seize Control of Federal Elections

Anti-voting activists who claim to be coordinating with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would allow President Trump to declare a national emergency and seize sweeping control over federal elections ahead of the 2026 midterms. The draft order published by Democracy Docket is dated April 12, 2025 and does not mention China or 2020; the Washington Post described what may be a more recent version that does (see the correction below).

The draft order would invoke the National Emergencies Act to unlock extraordinary presidential authority over state-administered elections. Its core provisions include: banning mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines on foreign-interference grounds; requiring all voters to re-register through county offices with documentary proof of citizenship; mandating hand-counted paper ballots; and restricting election hardware to U.S.-manufactured equipment. It would effectively supersede state election laws in all 50 states.

Trump ally Peter Ticktin provided a copy of the April 2025 draft to Democracy Docket, which published the full text. Voting rights experts and state election officials across the party spectrum condemned the draft as facially unconstitutional, noting that neither the Federal Information Security Modernization Act nor the Defense Production Act — the two statutes cited — actually confer emergency power over elections. Scholars emphasized that the Constitution reserves election administration to the states.

When asked to confirm whether the administration was developing such an order, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson deflected by quoting Trump himself: “No. I’ve never heard about it.” Voting rights advocates noted that the denial was narrowly worded and did not address whether allies were coordinating with White House staff.

The episode fits a documented pattern of the Trump administration using parallel informal channels — outside lawyers, allied activist groups, and friendly think tanks — to develop legally aggressive policy instruments before claiming plausible deniability. The draft order represents the most direct attempt yet to nationalize and federalize election administration under direct presidential control before the midterm elections in November 2026.

Update (2026-02-26, date of the Post report): Correction: the published draft does not mention China or 2020

Democracy Docket reported that the Washington Post obtained a version it did not publish, and that the Post referred to what may be a more recent version which it said “claims China interfered in the 2020 election.” Democracy Docket added: “The version provided by Ticktin to Democracy Docket does not mention China or 2020.”