Welcome back to The Franchise! I (Nicole LaFond) am tag-teaming this week’s edition with Khaya Himmelman. We’ve got lots to unpack below, but first …
The Wall Street Journal is out with new reporting that adds to the befuddling details dripping out of the White House in recent weeks, where senior officials across multiple departments and intelligence agencies are reportedly attempting to help President Trump conjure up evidence to support his relentless delusion: that he actually beat President Biden in the 2020 election. The WSJ piece gives us more details on how exactly this revisionist campaign coincides with Trump’s extralegal efforts to exercise more federal control over the midterms.
We obviously already knew about the FBI’s Fulton County raid, reporting around which helped reveal that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is somehow using her foreign intelligence role to carry water for Trump’s 2020 conspiracy theories and that election denier Kurt Olsen was the impetus for the law enforcement operation and the broader renewed 2020 investigative effort. It was the first episode to illuminate what appears to be a multi-department hunt for information that might help Trump bolster his push to “nationalize” voting (and rewrite history). We’ve since learned that Gabbard was also involved in the recent federal seizure of voting machines in Puerto Rico.
Now another 2020 character is coming back to haunt us. Former Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) — who voted against certifying Biden’s victory in 2020 and who is now serving as the U.S. attorney in North Carolina — was directed by since fired-Attorney General Pam Bondi to “pursue election-related probes across the country,” according to the WSJ. He’s also reportedly been authorized to examine any of the voter roll data that the DOJ has been successfully able to seize from states. Bishop is on the lookout for evidence that might bolster Trump’s belief in the myth that non-citizens are registering to vote or casting ballots in droves.
More election deniers being given the full power of the federal government and federal law enforcement to help Trump secure fodder for his fantasies? What could go wrong, we ask.
More on other election meddling news below. Let’s dig in.
— Nicole LaFond
The Chaos Is the Point?
Running out of patience with Republicans in Congress who are struggling to find a procedurally sound way to pass the SAVE America Act without nuking the filibuster, President Trump took his thirst for voter suppression into his own hands this week and issued a new executive order that targets mail-in voting — a voting method he believes to be infested with enough fraud to have cost him the 2020 election even though he, himself, votes by mail.
The executive order is dystopian, appears to be unconstitutional and has already been challenged in court. In short: it directs the Department of Homeland Security to create a “State Citizenship List” of voting-age American citizens who are eligible to vote in each individual state based on federal data — like Social Security or naturalization records — to share with the election officials in those states to compare against their voter rolls. The United States Postal Service would then be tasked with delivering ballots only to people on this citizenship list. It’s unclear what resources or funding any of these agencies are supposed to use to carry out these directives, especially the USPS.
Olsen, the lawyer and election denier I mentioned above who is now the director of supposed election security and integrity for the White House, and Heather Honey, a problematic senior DHS official, were involved in discussions about the new EO, NBC News reported. Trump issued an executive order a year ago that purported to mandate documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration nationwide — and threatened to pull funding from states that count ballots received after Election Day — but most of the directives in that order have been blocked by the courts. This one — which also threatens to withhold funding from states that don’t comply and, crucially, directs the AG to aggressively investigate any entity that sends out mail-in ballots incorrectly — is expected to face a similar fate.
Democratic Party leaders in Congress and Dem-affiliated groups, as well as a handful of voting rights groups, have sued to block Trump’s attempt to pare back mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. They argue the orders are unconstitutional and an attempted power grab over states’ rights to administer their own elections.
“The Executive Order’s provisions are convoluted and confusing. What is clear is that it dramatically restricts the ability of Americans to vote by mail, impinging on traditional state authority,” Democrats wrote.
— Nicole LaFond
Having Armed ICE Agents at Polling Places Is Actually Illegal
For weeks now, allies outside the administration have been goading Trump to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement to polling places. Administration officials have repeatedly dodged questions about whether this is something being considered.
Recently-confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said earlier this month that if he did send ICE to the polls it would be in response to a “specific threat,” not for “intimidation” purposes.
And during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche turned the narrative on its head, as he openly pondered why there shouldn’t be ICE agents at polling places if undocumented immigrants aren’t voting.
“Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” he asked. “Illegals can’t vote. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Although it’s not hard to see why ICE activity at polling places would be intimidating for voters, we spoke to some experts to break it down more precisely.
First, if these agents are armed, it’s completely illegal, Justin Levitt, professor of law at Loyola Marymount University, said.
“Not only for the agents who are there, but for anyone who orders them there,” he said.
As the Brennan Center explains, federal law prohibits federal officers from interfering in elections and also prohibits troops and armed federal agents from being present when an “election is held.”
Levitt noted too that an ICE presence would “massively interfere with election operations — not just for federal elections, but state and local elections too.”
“It’s the equivalent of parking a tank outside a polling site,” he added.
— Khaya Himmelman
Virginia Rejoins ERIC
Ahead of the midterm elections, in an Executive Order last week, Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced that Virginia will rejoin the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan voter roll maintenance program that has, for years now, been a source of conspiracy theories for election deniers.
Let’s start with some backstory on ERIC.
ERIC was founded in 2012 by election officials in Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Utah, Virginia and Washington, as a way to help election officials maintain accurate voter rolls across a handful of states.
The program is designed to catch and prevent voter fraud — by doing things like cross-referencing voter rolls across states in order to clean up the rolls when voters move. However, Trump and his allies have made a boogeyman out of the program. In the past, he has described ERIC as a group that “pumps the rolls” for Democrats.
Following the 2020 election, MAGA allies and election deniers began spreading baseless lies about the program, claiming that it was funded by George Soros, run by “partisan actors”, and that the program didn’t protect the data it had access to. All false.
Following a call from Trump to leave ERIC in 2023, several red states — including Ohio, Texas, Florida, West Virginia and Missouri — announced its withdrawal from ERIC.
Virginia’s then-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin also complied, caving to pressure from Trump to vilify the program as some kind of voter fraud tool used by Dems to steal elections.
Just to give you a sense of how sudden and conspiracy theory-tinged these dramatic exits were: just weeks before Iowa announced it was leaving ERIC, Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate called ERIC a “godsend” for voter roll maintenance.
Spanberger rejoining ERIC is significant.
“ERIC currently has twenty-six (26) member states. These member states share information that helps ensure that only voters who are eligible to vote can vote,” Spanberger wrote in a March 24 Executive Order.
“When Virginia withdrew from ERIC in May 2023, it became more difficult for Virginia’s election administrators to obtain information to help maintain Virginia’s voter rolls and otherwise engage in routine voter list maintenance (e.g., identifying voters who moved from Virginia to another state),” she added. “Rejoining ERIC will provide Virginia election administrators with access to more accurate information, improving election integrity in Virginia.”
— Khaya Himmelman
In Other Election News
TPM: As Trump Struggles to Carry Out His Voter Suppression Goals, DeSantis Picks Up the Slack
The Guardian: California Republican sheriff halts inquiry into alleged voter fraud in Prop 50 election
Lawfare Explainer: The Trump Administration Comes for State Voter Rolls
AP: Colorado court orders resentencing for former county clerk in election fraud scheme
“Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.”
— David Bryne
All this meddling is going to screw over eligible voters.
Isn’t that the point? Although Trump may be hoisted by his own petard by disenfranchising many of his own supporters.
Pam Bondi, under the bus you go!
Not because of all the obstruction, perjury. corruption, and outright illegality, but solely because she was making Comrade Trumpov look bad.
Worst cover-up ever.
With Pam Bondi under the bus, President Trump and the Republican Party may be emboldened to go after Jerry Powell at Federal Reserve, and John Roberts at the Supreme Court.