Trump's Executive Order on Voting: More Overreach

I'm inclined to think we'd be much better off--our elections would be more secure, transparent, and authoritative--if our elections were conducted in accordance with this EO.

   But: these questions about elections are complicated and most of us--me included--understand very little about them. So I'm just stating my tentative current view. To be clear: my mind could easily be changed on this.

   Some things the experts seem to have agreed upon before this became a political football: mail-in ballots are less secure than in-person ballots / mail-in voting is more easily exploited by those who seek to cheat. However, we've also been told by apparent experts that our mail-in ballots are sufficiently secure. 

   Me, I don't see any reasons in favor of either the indiscriminate use of mail-in ballots or extended in-person voting periods. Until we have basically conclusive proof that we have nothing to fear from these things, I think we should go back to, y'know, voting on election day...mostly in-person...with the usual requirements for absentee ballots. 

   But: one thing I try to get across on this blog: even those of us over-immersed in this stuff know a lot less than we often think we do. Sometimes you have to make judgments / draw conclusions anyway...but we ought to be fallibilists here--as everywhere.

   Anyway, I don't see how this EO can somehow get around the Tenth Amendment. Again, I'm willing to listen to arguments.

   Also: we ought to seek to strengthen the authority of the Tenth Amendment, not weaken it.

   And: this EO overreach has got to stop.

   Some argue that Trump is just basically throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick--he's issuing the orders, and if the courts strike them down, so be it. 

   That's not an unreasonable strategy--nor a particularly authoritarian one...so long as he complies if/when SCOTUS strikes them down.

   But I don't much like this approach, and wish he'd throttle back.

   And, of course: EOs can just be reversed by the next Democrat President.

   And finally: the more Trump overreaches and flirts with (at least seeming) authoritarianism, the more likely it is that the Democrats will win again sooner than later--and the more rational it will be for people to vote for them.