Trump ally raises martial law as activists press for midterm election intervention

A lawyer allied with Donald Trump has raised the possibility of martial law if he believes November’s US congressional elections are rigged. Other election activists are pressing for changes to voting and counting. These are proposals, not announced White House measures, and election lawyers say emergency powers would not let the president take control of elections run by the states. [2] [4]

Peter Ticktin, a lawyer for former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters and a childhood friend of Trump, made the martial-law remark during an online gathering on 30 September, Axios reported. He later told Axios that ballots and election equipment might need to be seized to investigate suspected problems. In a separate interview published before the Axios report, Ticktin told Votebeat that the situation might eventually require martial law and suggested federal forces could seize machines where a count was in doubt. [2] [4]

Peters has put forward a different proposal: using paper ballots and checking electronic totals against a manual count before results are certified. Her published plan explicitly says it does not claim that a previous US election result was changed electronically. Ticktin told Colorado Public Radio that her proposed second count would not require an emergency order to stop voting beforehand. [3] [5]

Peters has had access to Trump. Former Justice Department official Ed Martin said she met the president in the Oval Office in early October to discuss election plans, Colorado Public Radio reported. What Trump agreed to, if anything, has not been established. [5]

Derek Tisler, an elections lawyer at the Brennan Center, told Axios that Congress sets the date of federal elections and states choose their voting systems and counting procedures, subject to federal law. He said neither emergency powers nor martial law would allow Trump to override those rules or seize control of election materials. [2]

The administration has taken a separate step on election security: a September Pentagon directive aimed at detecting and countering potential foreign interference. According to Axios, it does not instruct troops to seize voting machines. A White House spokesperson told Axios that Trump believes every legal vote must count; the statement did not endorse Ticktin’s proposals. [6] [2]