Politico reports:

President Donald Trump seemingly has a plan for the nation’s election apparatus: Dismantle the existing system with a series of cuts, firings and threats, rather than a sledgehammer blow.

Just last week Trump eviscerated the relatively obscure Election Assistance Commission, alarming state election officials across the country who warned it could undermine cybersecurity resources for states and localities.

That was just one of the moves the White House has made since Trump returned to office. The president has repeatedly tried to change American election policy via executive order, only to be rebuffed by the courts. And he continues to squeeze congressional Republicans to pass legislation that would force voters to show proof of citizenship at the polls.

Elsewhere, the Justice Department has demanded states hand over their voter rolls, and sent letters last week to state officials threatening prosecution if they allowed any non-citizen voting, a move that voting rights advocates say is meant to sow distrust and is already illegal under several existing statutes. The DOJ’s efforts to compel states to turn over voting rolls has been rejected by more than a dozen courts.

They’re all parts of a strategy that spans the entirety of the existing system. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security threatened federal election security money for states if they don’t use a federal system to verify voter citizenship. And the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was forced to cut its election security programs after DOGE-led layoffs.

And now, Trump is set to deliver a speech Thursday evening that his allies have claimed will validate his long-held conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him. It’s the latest attempt by the president to undermine confidence in the electoral system, as he continues to obsess over 2020 and insist that elections both federal and local are rigged across the country.

“This is a concerted effort of death by a thousand cuts,” said Ingham County, Michigan, Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat. “Every day is another battle, but the war that we’re fighting is to maintain our democracy.” [Continue reading…]