1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing as a Pennsylvania constituent to express grave concern about recent developments that challenge longstanding constitutional boundaries governing election administration. President Trump has publicly suggested that Republicans should “nationalize” voting and that states act as agents of the federal government in administering elections, questioning why the federal government does not directly run them. The Constitution does not support that interpretation. States administer elections under Article I, with Congress empowered to regulate the time, place, and manner of federal elections. The executive branch does not possess unilateral authority to assume control over state election systems. These statements are particularly troubling in light of the recent FBI seizure of 2020 election ballots and related materials from Fulton County, Georgia — an unprecedented federal action involving certified state election records. That warrant remains under legal challenge, and its full justification remains under seal. Further concern arises from reports that the Director of National Intelligence appeared at the Georgia election facility during the raid despite having no domestic law enforcement authority. The involvement of intelligence leadership in matters involving state election infrastructure raises serious questions about the appropriate boundaries between intelligence functions, law enforcement, and state election administration. Taken together, public rhetoric about federalizing elections and concrete federal actions involving state election records create an appearance of executive encroachment into a domain the Constitution assigns to the states and Congress. I ask for clear congressional action. Will you publicly affirm that the executive branch has no authority to unilaterally “nationalize” or take control of state election systems? Will you support hearings examining the legal justification and scope of federal involvement in state election infrastructure? And will you reaffirm that regularly scheduled federal elections cannot be canceled or altered by executive preference? Pennsylvanians deserve certainty that constitutional guardrails protecting election administration remain intact. Congress must act to defend those boundaries.