"President Donald Trump is moving systematically to change the rules governing American elections and creating a lose-lose situation for democracy in the process. If he succeeds in changing election rules, he could tilt the playing field enough that the GOP maintains control of Congress regardless of whether most voters want that outcome. If the courts stop him, he will have more ammunition to claim that Democratic victories relied on fraud and to pressure GOP officials in the states and Congress to throw out those results."
"Those threats against mail voting exceed his legal authority so obviously that election law experts agree there's virtually no chance courts would uphold such an effort. As a result, there's a natural tendency to treat Trump's fulminations as empty bluster. But that would be dangerous. If anything, the possibility that he could somehow prevent Americans from voting by mail is less ominous than the deeper meaning in his tirades: that he wants to seize centralized control over election administration from the 50 states."
President Donald Trump is pursuing systematic changes to rules governing American elections that could tilt outcomes and secure GOP control of Congress despite popular votes. If courts block those changes, he could use defeats to claim fraud and pressure Republican officials to discard Democratic victories. Threats to ban mail voting exceed presidential authority and are unlikely to survive judicial review, yet dismissing those threats as bluster ignores deeper danger. The deeper danger lies in efforts to centralize control over election administration formerly managed by the states. The Constitution's Elections Clause assigns states the power to set the Times, Places and Manner of federal elections and reserves override authority to Congress; the president is not given such power.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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