1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to oppose any federal takeover of our election system and to protect the constitutional authority of states to administer elections. ProPublica recently reported that on February 19, 2025, high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit where activists who worked to overturn the 2020 election pressed President Trump to declare a national emergency to take over the 2026 midterm elections. Attendees included Kurt Olsen, the White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, Heather Honey from the Department of Homeland Security's election integrity office, and Clay Parikh from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The event was convened by Michael Flynn and attended by Cleta Mitchell, who directs the Election Integrity Network. According to the Washington Post, activists at this summit have been circulating a draft executive order that would ban mail-in ballots and eliminate voting machines as part of a federal takeover. Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who worked on the executive order, confirmed these actions were "all part of the same effort." Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne told LindellTV that Trump should "declare a national emergency" to circumvent the Constitution's directive that elections should be run by states. This coordination between federal officials and election denial activists is deeply troubling. Brendan Fischer, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, warned that "the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government. This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections ahead of the midterms or even go against the will of the voters." Our Constitution grants states the authority to run elections for good reason. I urge you to publicly oppose any national emergency declaration related to elections, to support legislation that would prevent federal takeover of state election systems, and to demand transparency about any coordination between federal officials and election denial activists. The integrity of our democracy depends on it.