Elections

Could a US President suspend elections indefinitely using emergency powers?

William Murphy, College Professor at the State University of New York at Oswego says — No. There is no such power. An election was held during the Civil War, and throughout the Great Depression, and in the midst of World War II. There is no possibility at all of suspending it. None.

Tom Conway, Author says — The short answer is “No.”. The President’s emergency powers don’t extend to ignoring the Constitution. The laws the President can ignore are few, and reasonably carefully circumscribed. That’s why several Executive Orders have been successfully challenged in the Courts, and been revised in order to take effect.

Elections for the President, Vice President and Congress are required by the Constitution every couple years. Congress has set dates for elections, and changing those dates would require new legislation. The actual work of elections is done on a basically County level around the country, and generally includes elections at lower levels, including everything from Governors to Dog License Clerk. (Really. There are jurisdictions where dogcatcher is an elected official.) The President has essentially no authority over those elections.

Restricting movement using some kind of war powers would also be dubious. The US had regular elections during both World Wars, and NYC had elections just weeks after the 9/11 attacks. It’s hard to imagine anything short of a large-scale nuclear attack preventing elections in the US.

More philosophically, after the 9/11 attacks several officials in the Bush administration said the President’s first duty was to defend the country. That’s not correct. The President doesn’t take an oath to defend the country, and neither do people in the military or police forces. They take an oath to defend the Constitution. The President’s oath is:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And the oath of enlistment is:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The people who designed our system of government thought how we lived was more important than whether we lived. The notion that the President could discard those institutions is a dangerous one that betrays the foundations of our democracy. 

Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University, and co-author of “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point,” also said that while he didn’t think Trump’s recent comment was “indicative of an organized plot to end elections in the United States,” it did represent yet another sign that “the guy has got authoritarian reflexes.” “Over the course of 10 or 15 years,” Levitsky added, a growing number of Republicans “convinced themselves that they weren’t going to be able to win elections in this new, multiracial America. I’m not so sure that’s true, but they were deeply fearful that was true. And so Trump, I think more than anything else, he senses … where they’re going and they’re feeling.” 

And concerning Project 2025 that a lot of people are so paranoid about — Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025!  That small organization only endorses Trump and that's all.  Trump does not recognize or accept their endorsement!

So, no…DT is not about to suspend voting. He has no legal or constitutional right to do so. What he can do, is speak ambiguously in such a way as to cause people consternation and fear, because he has a history of doing such, while most likely referencing what he believes was a stolen election in 2020…but also because he has deep convictions and concerns of his own concerning the Republican Party and the course of the country that he loves.