Thinking about Elections

CAN THE PRESIDENT CANCEL THE MIDTERMS? People ask me this. The answer is no. Of course he doesn’t have legal authority to cancel elections, but even if he wanted to try, he couldn’t do it on a practical level. Suggesting he could cancel the elections is based on not understanding how the highly decentralized character of US elections actually works.

To begin, it’s the states that have authority over elections. State law defines and sets up how elections are to be carried out. There are more than 9,000 election jurisdictions around the country. Day in and day out, state and local officials in red or blue states are going about the business of carrying out their election responsibilities as defined by their state’s laws. And these officials repeatedly confirm that they will carry out the elections they’re legally required to run. How do you shut this down?

In addition, there are many types of players in this highly decentralized election system. Besides the thousands of state and local election officials, there are other officials in state and local governments who play a role, there are courts and court systems, attorneys specialized in election law and voter rights, there are vendors of election equipment on duty, and organizations like the ACLU, on and on.

Read the excellent article from Votebeat at the link. And remember that In 2020 Trump wanted to postpone the elections, but failed. His own party had qualms about postponing elections. Many Republicans running for office wanted to be legitimately elected. Postponing elections wouldn’t help this. The same holds true now.

If you’re concerned, you can do something concrete: donate to organizations that defend election laws and certification in court, be a poll worker, volunteer with Election Protection, help register voters.

https://www.votebeat.org/2026/01/26/why-trump-cant-cancel-2026-midterm-elections/