The reported document outlines changes to ballot handling, voter registration and citizenship checks. Trump says he is not considering the emergency declaration it imagines.
A circulating 17-page working document reviewed by PBS News proposes a path for expanded federal involvement in the 2026 midterm elections. President Donald Trump told PBS News that he is not considering the national-emergency declaration described in the draft, which is not an announced White House policy.
The document, which PBS reported has circulated among some of Trump’s allies, frames alleged foreign interference as the basis for an emergency declaration. It imagines that such a declaration could give the federal government a larger role in voting procedures normally administered by states.
What the circulating document proposes
The ideas outlined in the draft would reach beyond ballot-counting procedures. They would affect voter registration, identification and citizenship verification, as well as the way ballots are handled and counted.
- Ballots would be hand-marked on paper.
- Votes would be counted by hand in public.
- Voters would re-register through their county offices.
- Voters would provide proof of citizenship.
PBS also reported that the document encourages officials to consider using the federal SAVE database, operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, to check voter files for citizenship status. Government agencies use the database for benefits-related verification.
Those proposals remain part of a reported working document, not a confirmed administration initiative.
Election officials are preparing for the midterms
More than 100 election officials joined a call about November midterm preparations, according to PBS. Representatives from the Election Assistance Commission, the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, the Postal Service and the FBI participated.
Participants told PBS that ICE agents would not be stationed outside voting locations. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had not heard Trump discuss a formal plan to place ICE outside polling places, though she did not offer an absolute guarantee about where agents might be in November.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the reported draft should concern Americans across party lines. She characterized it as an attempted federal seizure of election administration.
Federal voting policy is already being contested
The reported draft comes amid existing disputes over election policy. In March 2025, Trump issued an executive order seeking to add proof-of-citizenship requirements to federal voter-registration forms. PBS reported that multiple lawsuits over that order remain in court.
The Republican-led House also passed the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and impose stricter voter-identification requirements. PBS reported that the bill’s prospects in the Senate were uncertain.
In a Truth Social post cited by PBS earlier in the month, Trump wrote that there would be voter identification for the midterms “whether approved by Congress or not.” He also called for citizenship requirements and restrictions on mail voting, with listed exceptions.
Voter identification is already part of election policy in much of the country. Thirty-six states require some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Trump says the emergency proposal is not under consideration
When PBS News asked Trump about the proposal, he said he was not considering a national emergency declaration around the 2026 midterms. That denial means there is no confirmed presidential decision to pursue the draft’s approach.
A White House official told PBS that staff members regularly hear policy ideas from outside advocates and that speculation about what Trump might eventually announce remained speculation.
Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who has known Trump for decades, told PBS that the document had circulated among some Trump supporters “for a while.” Ticktin said he had discussed the issue with Trump and people at the White House and Justice Department, but declined to identify them. Those reported conversations do not establish that the document represents an administration plan.
State authority would be at the center of any legal fight
States administer elections, while Congress has a limited role in regulating federal elections. A president does not have a general constitutional power to take over state election administration through executive order.
PBS reported that experts said a proposal resembling the draft would probably face an immediate court challenge. Max Flugrath, a spokesperson for the left-leaning voting-rights group Fair Fight Action, argued that no statute allows a president to seize control of state-run elections through an emergency declaration.
Ticktin offered PBS a competing view, saying presidents may respond if they believe foreign powers are interfering with the country. He pointed to the National Emergencies Act. But the ability to declare an emergency in some circumstances does not, by itself, settle whether emergency authority could override state election rules.
For now, Trump’s denial and the White House official’s comments leave the draft as an unconfirmed proposal. If an administration attempted to use emergency powers to reshape election administration, courts would likely have to weigh those claims of authority against the constitutional role of state and local election officials.
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