How an election conspiracy theorist has Trump’s ear on voting laws and midterms

Peter Ticktin, an 80-year-old Florida lawyer with ties to Trump and connections to 2020 election deniers, is advocating for an emergency executive order that would ban machine and mail-in voting and overhaul U.S. election rules. Election experts say the plan is legally dubious and would significantly restrict voting rights, and they view it as part of a broader effort by election conspiracists to reshape voting rules ahead of the fall midterm elections. The exact nature and extent of Ticktin's influence with Trump and White House officials remains unclear, but his push has drawn concern from analysts who see it as symptomatic of a wider strategy to use emergency orders to alter election procedures in ways that could benefit Republicans.