I chaired the US Federal Election Commission. Now there's no cop on the beat | Ellen L Weintraub

"Donald Trump is issuing increasingly unhinged demands that his political adversaries and those who fund speech that he views as contrary to his political agenda or supports his political opponents be prosecuted. When a prosecutor balked at this political intervention, Trump simply found one who is more compliant. In what appears to be yet another attempt to concoct support for unproven claims of voter fraud, the Department of Justice has issued exhaustive voting records requests to multiple states."

"Alarmingly, at least one commentator has warned that the extraordinary call-out of the military against US civilians on US soil may be a dress rehearsal for taking over the 2026 election from the lawful administrators in the states. Even short of a takeover, one could well imagine this administration developing pretexts for troop deployments in Democratic strongholds during voting. Indeed, Trump has already called for the military to use American cities, at least those run by Democrats, as training grounds."

U.S. electoral safeguards are facing multiple, accelerating threats from political intervention, legal maneuvers, and weakened oversight. The President has demanded prosecutions of political opponents and donors, and replaced balking prosecutors with compliant ones. The Department of Justice has requested exhaustive voter records from multiple states while voting rights lawsuits are being dismissed and a division focused on foreign election interference has been dismantled. Steps are underway to make voter registration more onerous, and commentators warn that domestic military deployments could be used to influence or seize future elections. The Federal Election Commission lacks a quorum and cannot enforce campaign finance law.

Read at www.theguardian.com