Peter Ticktin, a Florida attorney and longtime friend of President Donald Trump, has urged the president to declare an election emergency ahead of the midterm elections.
Following Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss, Ticktin has maintained that foreign interference influenced the election, pointing to voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, according to CNN.
Although government investigations concluded there was no evidence of widespread fraud that affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Ticktin has remained a prominent figure among those who reject those findings and has urged Trump to continue investigating the election.
“With the evidence that we’ve got, and with the evidence that would be forthcoming, that there’ll be no question about it and what these machines did,” Ticktin told CNN. “It’s a surreptitious overtaking of a country.”
Smartmatic has stated that they have no ties to Dominion Voting Systems, “plain and simple,” and addressed the election-fraud narratives saying, “in recent months, the same false election-fraud narratives first broadcast in 2020 as part of the Fox-led defamation campaign against Smartmatic have resurfaced again. As a new U.S. election cycle approaches, these long-disproven conspiracy theories are being recycled and amplified for political gain.”
Smartmatic stated that such claims were being circulated by individuals “whose credibility is already compromised” and currently dealing with defamatory matters, as well as others looking to gain personal benefit or leniency in dealings with U.S. authorities.
Pointing to the use of Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic in previous Venezuelan elections, Ticktin insisted that evidence proving foreign interference from Venezuela, China, Iran, and others would surface soon. However, Trump allies have pushed election theories about a Venezuelan connection for years without proof, and a judge ruled in 2023 that statements made by Fox News personalities about Dominion’s connections to Venezuela were defamatory.
Trump has previously denied plans to declare a national emergency. When asked ahead of the midterm elections whether he intended to do so, he responded in a PBS interview, saying, “Who told you that?” after reports surfaced that a 17-page proposal circulating among some of his allies outlined such a plan.
Ticktin suggested that if Trump believes there has been foreign interference in U.S. elections, he can enact the National Emergencies Act, which grants the president extraordinary powers to respond to a crisis without congressional approval.
Trump has instead sought other efforts to combat alleged election fraud, including backing the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in elections.
The legislation includes a voter ID requirement and requires in-person voting, except for illness, disability, military service, or travel. The legislation has passed the House but remains stalled in the Senate.