White House adviser Kurt Olsen attempted to ban Dominion Voting Systems machines used in more than half of U.S. states and their territories by asking the Commerce Department to declare their components national security risks, according to Reuters reporting.
The plan would have effectively removed the machines before the midterms in November.
Commerce officials began exploring legal grounds to execute the ban in September but ultimately abandoned the effort when Olsen's team failed to provide evidence supporting the security threat claim, reports Reuters' Erin Blanco. Olsen's team physically dismantled Dominion machines seized from Puerto Rico, searching for components from adversary nations, but found only Intel chips packaged in China, alongside components from Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia — none considered security threats.
The failed effort represents President Donald Trump's latest attempt to centralize election control at the federal level, following his March 2025 executive order on voter registration and ongoing seizures of 2020 election records.
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