Last year, US President Donald Trump’s election-security chief tried to ban voting machines used in more than half of America’s states. Reuters has reported this information quoting its sources. In which it is said that Trump’s election security chief had asked whether the Commerce Department could declare the parts of these machines as a threat to national security.
A lawyer named Kurt Olsen, who works as an advisor to Donald Trump. Trump had asked them to find evidence of false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Let us tell you, these claims have already been proved wrong by many people. Olsen suggested a plan to target machines made by a company named ‘Dominion Voting Systems’. According to sources, Olsen and other officials were thinking about how the federal government could take control of US elections from the states. Trump has also talked publicly about this idea.
Trump wanted to change the method of vote counting
According to sources, Kurt Olsen wanted to implement a system of hand counting ballot papers across the country. This has been a repeatedly raised demand of Trump. But some experts who monitor election security say that this method of hand counting is less accurate than the current machine-based system. This can also be more risky. In the system that runs today, along with the voting machines, there is also a paper record which can be checked. This system is used in almost all cities and states.
Sources said that this plan to remove the machines had gone so far that in September, Commerce Department officials started finding out what grounds could be used to implement it. However, two of the sources said the plan ultimately failed because Olsen and other administration staff working with him were unable to produce any evidence to justify the move.
Trump wanted his control in local elections
This plan is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to take control of elections from states and local governments. According to the US Constitution, states have the right to conduct their own elections. This rule was made to prevent the executive (the President and his team) from gaining too much power. Olsen is now working with the country’s top intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate claims of election fraud.
Earlier this month, a Reuters investigation found that officials in at least eight states were doing this. This includes secretly seeking records, trying to gain access to voting machines, and re-examining voter fraud cases that had already been rejected by courts and experts from both political parties.
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