What legal experts say about the Trump administration’s attempts to make a federal case out of state elections

Key Points:

• The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against Alaska seeking to block certification of the 2026 U.S. Senate election results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, citing voter confusion due to a similarly named independent candidate on the ballot.
• The Democratic candidate Mary Peltola's campaign condemned the lawsuit as baseless and an unprecedented attack on democratic elections, emphasizing that the U.S. Constitution grants no presidential authority over federal elections, which are controlled by states and Congress.
• Constitutional experts and former judges have highlighted that Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution explicitly empowers states to manage elections, with no provision granting such power to the president, reflecting a long-standing federalist principle.
• Attempts by the Republican-controlled House, urged by Trump, to impose federal voter qualifications through the SAVE America Act have faced constitutional challenges, as voting qualifications are traditionally state powers, and the Senate has not passed the act.
• Trump’s 2026 executive order restricting mail voting was blocked by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the president lacks unilateral authority to change federal election voting methods, reaffirming that states and Congress hold regulatory power over elections.