it’s time to talk about trump’s ability to “steal” or “cancel” elections.

Anxiety among election officials and experts had been building for months before Donald Trump issued his latest executive order purporting to ensure election integrity late last month. When the actual text emerged, the reaction wasn’t relief exactly—but a definite sense that things could have been much worse.

the eo will attempt to create a nationwide voting database controlled by dhs, but states will have no obligation to use the database. however, the eo will attempt to bar usps from delivering mail-in ballots unless states submit a list of who will be receiving absentee ballots 60 days before election day and the voters are registered in dhs’s voter list.

“This is relatively mild stuff, at least compared to the draft EO that had been floating around from election denier conspiracy theorists that would have Trump declare a national emergency and take over all aspects of elections,” Richard L. Hasen, a top elections-law expert, wrote when Trump signed the order.

You may have noticed that this is a byzantine way to achieve the apparent goal. That’s because Trump doesn’t actually have the powers that he’s claiming here.

As for what the scaled-down order does include, many observers have predicted that it is most likely to be found unconstitutional, just as some of Trump’s prior election moves have been.

the constitution specifically states that states are in charge of elections, not the federal government.

many many many of trump’s worst eo’s have been struck down in the courts. dooming over eo’s is unfounded, eo’s are not law.

and also

…congressional Republicans have not acted on Trump’s demand to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to present proof of citizenship when registering.

yeah, remember the save act? damned to bureaucratic limbo for 10,000 years.

These threats are good reasons not to be complacent, but the opposite of complacency is vigilance, not panic.