2026-07-11T16:00:25.816Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/politics/democrats-trump-firing-election-officials
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民主党对唐纳德·特朗普总统影响即将到来的大选的举措已拉响最高级别警报。
“所有信号都在红灯预警，”民主党战略家、CNN政治分析师戴维·阿克塞尔罗德在X平台的帖子中写道。
“在当前形势下，共和党今年秋季将遭受重创，主要原因是特朗普不受欢迎，”阿克塞尔罗德说，“因此他正在启动B计划——不惜一切手段赢得选举。任何说‘好吧，他不会那么做’的人，根本没认真关注过。”
换句话说，请发挥想象力，在选举日到来前的四个月里，不要对特朗普的任何举动感到意外。
佛罗里达州民主党众议员黛比·沃瑟曼·舒尔茨周五对CNN记者约翰·伯曼说，她所在的压倒性民主党选区的选民对11月可能发生的情况感到恐惧。
“约翰，这是我整个职业生涯中第一次有选民告诉我，他们担心总统会取消选举，会宣布戒严。还有人真的对我说，他们担心11月甚至都不会举行选举，”沃瑟曼·舒尔茨说。
她说她试图安抚选民的这些极端担忧。
沃瑟曼·舒尔茨所在的国会选区是共和党为在11月前调整选区划分以谋取私利的更大规模行动中重新划定的选区之一。民主党在包括加利福尼亚州在内的多个州推出了自己的新选区地图，但共和党在法庭上更为成功。根据CNN的最新评估，在这场重划选区的斗争中，共和党可能通过新地图在11月拿下多达10个席位。
在美国，各州负责管理本州的选举，但阿克塞尔罗德列出了特朗普政府为影响选举所采取的一系列行动。
最近的一个例子是特朗普周四解雇了美国选举援助委员会的四名委员中的三名。该委员会是国会在2002年设立的独立两党机构，旨在拨付联邦资金帮助各州开展安全的选举工作。这并非唯一一个被削弱的选举相关机构。负责处理竞选财务问题的联邦选举委员会也缺乏足够的委员人数来开展运作。
解雇选举援助委员会委员只是阿克塞尔罗德提出的证据之一。下文我将为他的每一个观点补充背景信息。
……再加上政治投机分子普尔特尔令人反感的国家情报总监任命；
（特朗普临时任命富商出身的住房官员比尔·普尔特尔担任国家情报总监。在监管房利美和房地美期间，他曾有争议地以抵押贷款欺诈罪名指控特朗普的政治对手。普尔特尔缺乏情报工作经验，但与共和党关系深厚。CNN曾报道，特朗普希望普尔特尔专注于选举安全问题，这对于这位情报机构负责人来说是非传统的职责范围。）
……选举否认者占据最敏感的监督职位；
（毕竟，总统本人就是一名选举否认者，他在整个美国政府中任命了那些认同他关于2020年大选的观点的人——他拒不承认自己败选。）
……特朗普关于邮寄投票的行政命令，以及可能将邮政服务作为颠覆工具；
（特朗普曾试图在一些关键方面从各州手中夺取邮寄投票的控制权，包括创建全国选民登记数据库。然而，左右两派的州都反对这一举措，本月一家法院驳回了他要求美国邮政服务仅向遵守规定的州邮寄邮寄选票的命令。这场法庭斗争将在选举日前在多个战线持续进行。）
……他病态地优先推进《SAVE法案》，这将是几代人以来最强大的选民压制工具；
（特朗普曾大声抱怨共和党未能通过一项被选民诚信组织 largely 认为没有必要的选举安全法案。他要求参议院废除阻挠议事规则以通过该法案，但共和党参议员拒绝了。本周，特朗普因对议员们未能通过他所称的《拯救美国法案》的选举法案感到愤怒，拒绝签署一项两党住房法案。该选举法案将继续搁置，而住房法案将在他未签署的情况下成为法律。）
……以及他持续不断、毫无根据的选举欺诈指控，他以此为借口采取非同寻常的联邦干预措施。
（没有证据表明存在大规模选举欺诈，但确实有人担心特朗普会利用欺诈指控——可能由担任国家情报总监的普尔特尔加以渲染——在11月前采取极端行动。马尔廷在确认听证会上被问及派遣移民海关执法局人员前往投票站的可能性时，并未当即拒绝。但目前没有公开报道显示存在此类行动的具体计划。）
去年，CNN曾报道特朗普政府如何以所谓的政府效率改革为幌子，试图削减或拆除联邦政府帮助各州的选举安全网络。
根据监督机构和良好政府组织的说法，这次最新的行动——解雇选举援助委员会委员——可能不会对即将到来的选举产生太大影响。但尽管如此，这仍令一些人感到警觉。
“尽管选举援助委员会并不直接参与选举管理，但我们必须将此视为更广泛格局的一部分，即试图集中控制选举管理并倾斜竞争环境，”自称“跨党派政治改革组织”的“第一议题”政策主任迈克尔·麦克纳利写道。
曾在海外从事选举工作的麦克纳利警告称，特朗普的行动相当于一份缓慢推进的夺权大选行动手册，所有人都应保持警惕。
特朗普对即将到来的大选施加影响的努力显而易见，但也屡屡受挫。例如，最高法院最近就各州对选举日之后收到但邮戳日期在截止时间内的邮寄选票予以计数的做法作出了有利各州的裁决，这是特朗普及其盟友在与选举相关的法庭诉讼中最引人注目的一次失利。
下级法院也为特朗普设置了多重其他障碍。
各州自行其是
CNN记者弗雷德里卡·舒滕近期撰文报道了蓝州为防止联邦干预选举所做的努力，包括禁止共享选民登记数据或禁止联邦执法人员在投票站出现。
尽管特朗普付出了诸多努力，但选举创新与研究中心创始人戴维·贝克尔表示，美国民众应该对即将到来的选举充满信心。
他的意思是，选民将能够进行投票，且选票将得到准确计票。
“我甚至不确定解雇选举援助委员会委员能跻身本周前五名与选举相关的新闻，”贝克尔在谈到解雇委员事件时说，“例如，一名特朗普任命的法官驳回了司法部试图收集投票工作人员敏感个人信息的传票，这一事件的影响要大得多。”
请阅读CNN关于司法部此次法庭失利的报道。
贝克尔写道，解雇选举援助委员会委员确实是越权行为，但“我们不应过分夸大这一事件对今年及未来选举的影响”。
他认为，正如宪法要求的那样，选举仍由各州负责管理，“各州在这一任务上执行得异常出色”。
Democrats warn of a Trump election takeover. What’s really happening?
2026-07-11T16:00:25.816Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/politics/democrats-trump-firing-election-officials
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
Democrats are reaching DEFCON 1 levels of alarm about President Donald Trump’s efforts to influence the coming election.
“All the signals are flashing red,” wrote Democratic strategist and CNN political analyst David Axelrod in a post on X.
“On the square, the @GOP would take a beating this fall, largely because of Trump’s unpopularity,” Axelrod said, “So he’s setting up Plan B–do whatever you need to do to win. Anything. Anyone who says ‘Well, he wouldn’t do THAT’ hasn’t paid attention.”
Use your imagination, in other words, and don’t be surprised at anything Trump does in the four months until Election Day.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, told CNN’s John Berman on Friday that people in her overwhelmingly Democratic district are frightened about what might happen in November.
“For the first time in my whole career, John, I have voters telling me that they’re worried that the president’s going to cancel elections, that he’s going to declare martial law. There are people who are actually have said to me that they’re worried that they’re not even going to have elections in November,” Wasserman Schultz said.
She said she tries to reassure her constituents about their more alarmist fears.
Wasserman Schultz is running in a congressional district redrawn as part of the GOP’s larger effort to adjust maps to their benefit before November. Democrats countered with their own new maps in states including California, but Republicans were more successful in courts and could net as many as 10 seats in November from new maps drawn during the redistricting war, according to CNN’s most recent assessment.
In the US, states are tasked with running their own elections, but Axelrod ticked off a litany of actions that the Trump administration has undertaken to influence them.
The most recent example is Trump’s firing on Thursday of three of the four commissioners on the Election Assistance Commission, an agency Congress set up in 2002 as an independent bipartisan resource to dole out federal money to help states conduct secure elections. It’s not the only election-related entity to be hobbled. The Federal Election Commission, which handles campaign finance issues, also lacks a quorum of commissioners to operate.
The EAC firings are just one piece of evidence Axelrod offered. I’ve added context to each of his points below.
… Put that together with political hack Pulte’s odious appt as DNI;
(Trump temporarily installed Bill Pulte, a wealthy businessman-turned-housing official, as Director of National Intelligence. While overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac he controversially targeted Trump’s political opponents with accusations of mortgage fraud. Pulte lacks intelligence experience, but does have deep ties to the GOP. CNN has reported Trump wants Pulte to focus on election security issues, a nontraditional mandate for the spy chief.)
… election deniers in the most sensitive oversight positions;
(An election denier is president, after all, and he has appointed people who share his views of the 2020 election, which he refuses to admit he lost, throughout the US government.)
… Trump’s exec order on mail-in voting, and potential use of the Postal Service as a weapon of subversion;
(Trump has tried to seize control over mail-in voting from states in some key ways, including by creating a national database of voter registrations. States on the right and left have fought the effort, however, and a court this month rejected his attempt to order the US Postal Service to only send mail-in ballots in states that had complied. The court battle will continue on multiple fronts before Election Day.)
… his pathological prioritization of the SAVE act, which would be the most powerful voter suppression tool in generations;
(Trump has loudly complained about Republicans’ inability to pass an election security bill that voter integrity groups largely say is unnecessary. He has demanded that senators nix he filibuster to pass the bill, but Republican senators have refused. This week Trump refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill out of pique at lawmakers’ failure to pass the election bill, which he calls the SAVE America Act. The election bill will continue to languish and the housing bill will become law without his signature.)
… and his persistent, unfounded claims of election fraud, which he uses to justify extraordinary federal interventions.
(There is no evidence of widespread election fraud, but there is indeed fear that Trump will use claims of fraud, perhaps aerated by Pulte at DNI, to do something extraordinary before November. Mullin was asked at his confirmation hearing about the possibility of dispatching ICE agents to polling places and did not reject it out of hand. But there is no publicly reported concrete plan to do anything like this.)
Last year, CNN reported about how the Trump administration, as part of supposed government efficiency efforts, had worked to starve or dismantle election security networks by which the federal government helps states.
This latest effort — firing commissioners at the EAC — likely won’t have much of an impact on the coming election, according to watchdog and good government groups. But it is alarming to some of them nonetheless.
“Although the EAC doesn’t play a direct role in running elections, we must view this as part of a broader pattern of efforts to centralize control over election administration and tilt the playing field,” wrote Michael McNulty, director of policy at Issue One, which describes itself as a “crosspartisan political reform group.”
McNulty, whose background is in working in elections overseas, has warned that Trump’s efforts amount to a slow-moving election takeover playbook about which everyone should be on guard.
Trump’s efforts to exert influence of the coming election have been clear, but they have also been faulty. The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of states that count mail-in ballots postmarked on time but received after Election Day, for instance, the most high-profile election-related loss for Trump and his allies in court.
There have been multiple other obstacles put in front of Trump by lower courts.
States are taking matters into their own hands
CNN’s Fredreka Schouten recently wrote about efforts in blue states to pass laws shielding their elections from federal meddling, either by barring the sharing of voter registration data or barring the presence of federal law enforcement.
For all of Trump’s efforts, Americans should be confident that the coming election will be sound, according to David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
By that he means that people will be able to vote and those votes will be counted accurately.
“I’m not even sure the dismissals rank in the top 5 election-related stories this week,” he said of the EAC firings. “A Trump-appointed judge quashing the DOJ’s subpoena attempting to collect sensitive personal information on poll workers was far more impactful, for instance.”
Read CNN’s story on that court loss for the Department of Justice.
The EAC firings, Becker wrote, are indeed overreach, but “we shouldn’t make too much about the effect this will have on the elections, this year and going forward.”
Elections are still run by states, as the Constitution requires, he argued, “and they are executing that mission exceptionally well.”