Trump ally urges president to claim emergency control over midterm elections

Lawyer Peter Ticktin, who describes himself as a childhood friend of former President Donald Trump, is urging the president to issue an executive order that would declare a national emergency based on alleged foreign interference with electronic voting machines and give the federal government control over the 2024 midterm elections. Ticktin argues that evidence of interference by countries such as Venezuela, China and Iran will soon be made public, and he says the machines used in the 2020 election were "a surreptitious overtaking of a country."

Election officials and legal scholars warn that such an order would create a constitutional crisis, as the U.S. Constitution assigns election administration to the states and Congress, not the president. A 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment found that while several foreign actors attempted to influence the 2020 vote, none attempted to alter the technical voting process.

Ticktin, an 80-year-old Florida attorney who has represented figures like former Colorado clerk Tina Peters and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, says he maintains an open line of communication with Trump and contacts officials at the Justice Department. A White House official told CNN that Ticktin’s relationship with the president is limited and does not shape White House policy.

The lawyer previously helped secure a commutation for Peters and has advocated for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, though the Trump administration later abandoned the proposal amid bipartisan criticism. Ticktin also claims to have drafted an executive order that would restrict mail-in voting and ban the use of voting machines, a step beyond the limited order Trump signed earlier this year, which federal judges have blocked.

Critics note that Ticktin’s claims of foreign hacking of voting machines have been repeatedly debunked by the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the intelligence community. They also point to his history of contentious courtroom behavior, including a physical altercation with an opposing attorney during a Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit.

Ticktin’s push for an emergency declaration comes as Trump continues to press for stricter voter-ID laws and other voting restrictions, despite the lack of publicly released evidence supporting his fraud allegations.