As Democrats look to midterms and beyond, President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that a new column from The Atlantic claims could alter the outcome of future elections.
The order, which was signed Wednesday, is asking the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to set a new standard for voting machines, requiring poll workers to ask for voter identification, and requires all mail-in ballots to be received by election day.
The order also requires a recertification of all election equipment, including vote-counting and ballot-marking machines.
ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding bill
Yes, the EAC is a federal agency that oversees election standards, but they are independent from the executive branch. “The EAC, like the Federal Election Commission, is designed to be insulated from partisanship. An executive order cannot supplant a statutory requirement.”
In fact, the commission is designed to be devoid of political digressions and distractions. "It has four members (two from each party), and three commissioners are needed to approve anything."
Columnist Paul Rosenzweig penned the order “is nothing less than an attempt to disenfranchise his opponents and forestall electoral defeat.”
He made clear the order is overstepping the role of any President. “[Trump] is asserting an executive-branch role in governing the mechanics of a federal election that has never before been claimed by a president. The legal theory undergirding this assertion—that the president’s authority to enforce federal law enables him to control state election activity—is as capacious as it is frightening.”
He later added, “This is an attempt to completely rework the constitutional rules that structure the American election system… In short, the theoretical legal underpinnings of Trump’s executive order portend a near-limitless authority to use federal resources to ensure that Trump and other MAGA Republicans never lose another election.”
The Atlantic’s full breakdown of the executive order can be found here.