Democracy watchdogs warned President Donald Trump is setting the stage to tap emergency powers to ensure Republicans do not lose control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Since January, the Trump administration has used federal law enforcement to raid election facilities to seize ballots and voting machines in places like Georgia and Puerto Rico. Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of elections in Montana and across the nation.
Robert Weiner, director of the Voting Rights Project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said members of the public need to get involved.
"You can be a poll watcher. You can be an observer. You can voice your view that no one will be allowed to intimidate people so that they don't vote," Weiner outlined.
Keep Our Republic, an advocacy group whose members include legal scholars, former federal lawmakers and top Cabinet officials, warned if Trump declares a national crisis, he could use presidential emergency powers to take over U.S. voting machines.
The Trump administration said it is working to ensure Americans have full confidence in how elections are handled, including accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered noncitizen voters. Trump has called for Republicans to nationalize the November vote but Weiner noted the U.S. Constitution gives states the sole authority to run elections. Weiner added the nation’s founders understood the potential dangers if a single authority had the power to decide election outcomes.
"The fact that we have all these different governmental entities running the elections makes it harder for anybody to influence them improperly," Weiner stressed.
There is no evidence noncitizen voting has ever affected an election’s outcome, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center report. Weiner emphasized it is important to keep in mind the president only claims fraud in elections he lost, in 2020, and when Republicans suffered losses in the 2018 midterms.
"The bottom line is that our electoral system is safe, it has integrity, and people can rely on their vote being accurately counted. And any claims to the contrary are untrue," Weiner underscored.
Montanans Urged To Defend Voter Integrity in November Elections was originally published by Public News Service and is republished with permission.
