120th Congress

Described by Peter Ticktin, attorney for Tina Peters, on a Sept. 30 podcast: take control of ballots after machines count them and hand-count them before certification. Peters reportedly met Trump in the Oval Office on Oct. 5; the White House would not discuss it (Colorado Newsline). No order exists. On Oct. 16 Ticktin told Axios that authorities would probably need to commandeer ballots and election equipment to investigate; asked about calls for martial law, the White House did not answer directly, saying Trump “has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections” (Newsweek). The one federal ballot seizure on record was under a court warrant, for 2020 records in Fulton County (ABC News). We have found no seizure of ballots or equipment since the vote.

A risk scenario, not a reported plan. Former judge J. Michael Luttig lays it out in The New Republic; an advocacy group’s video presents it as a plan (Facebook). No member of Congress or document describes one. The scenario is still useful for monitoring and prevention: watch for any change of House Clerk before Jan. 3, and who presides that day and whether certified winners are left off the roll. With Democrats past 218 seats in AP race calls, leaving disputed seats off the roll would not change control (see the numbers).

No plan to refuse seats wholesale has been reported, and Speaker Mike Johnson calls the idea “a nonsense narrative”: “We’ll administer the oath to everybody” (Fox News, Oct. 29). Two Republicans have floated a narrower move: challenging individual Democratic Socialists’ right to take the oath. Rep. Tim Burchett says he will try it against Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Rep. Keith Self says he is considering it. The Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. McCormack (1969) that the House cannot exclude a member-elect who meets the Constitution’s age, citizenship and residency requirements (Fox News).

When almost every county moves the same way, that is a broad change in how people voted. Fraud would show up as a few places breaking sharply from the pattern, and these posts point to no such outlier. NBC News found House and Senate Democrats outperformed “in nearly every county and jurisdiction” (NBC News). In Texas, all 171 rural counties moved toward Democrats in the governor and Senate races; the gains were largest along the border, where turnout in the 16 border counties rose more than 8 points (Daily Yonder). Virginia’s 2025 governor’s race looked the same: every county and city moved at least 4.7 points toward Democrats compared with 2021 (VPM). The first table behind this claim cites no source and lists 39 Rhode Island “counties”; Rhode Island has five, and 39 is its number of cities and towns (ri.gov).
Where it came from: an unsourced table, “States That Shifted Blue,” posted Nov. 5 by an account with about 120,000 followers (about 290,000 views); a post claiming 2,848 of 3,109 counties “drifted left” (about 167,000 views); a Houston-area account’s post on Texas (about 540,000 views); and commentator Kyle Becker’s newsletter post on Texas data, which itself calls the turnout-report discrepancies it cites “not established findings” that ballots disappeared.

Kansas law requires counties to hand-count a sample of ballots after every election and match it to the machine count before the canvass. The secretary of state starts the process the morning after a November election (Kansas Secretary of State FAQ). Every county completed the same audit after the August primary (Kansas Secretary of State). Races within 1% get a larger audit.
Where it came from: an X post (about 10,000 views) from an account with about 106,000 followers sharing the secretary of state’s Nov. 2 notice of the audit as “BOOM” and “eyes on.”

Executive Order 13848 is real and in force. Trump signed it in 2018 and renewed its national emergency on Aug. 31 (Federal Register). After any federal election it gives the Director of National Intelligence 45 days to assess foreign interference (for this election, by Dec. 18). The attorney general and DHS then have another 45 days to report any effect on election infrastructure (Executive Order 13848). That second report would be due around Feb. 1, 2027, a month after the new Congress is sworn in. The order’s only remedy is sanctions on foreign persons: blocking their property and barring dealings with them. It says nothing about certification, recounts or who takes office. Each chamber judges its own members’ elections (Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 5), and the new Congress convenes Jan. 3 (20th Amendment).
Where it came from: “EO 13848 is active. The foreign interference assessment clock is running. The 45-day window is open,” from an X post (about 283,000 views) calling the midterms a “trap” that will let Trump undo Democratic wins. It quotes an account with about 12,000 followers whose post drew about 2.1 million views and that has since added: “Nothing has been certified yet.” A second post (about 120,000 views and 7,600 likes), from an account with about 5,800 followers, pushes the same “trap” story with an image of Trump captioned “You honestly didn’t think we were unprepared for election rigging and voter fraud, did you?” The quote carries no source, and the image appears to be recycled from Facebook.

Viral posts since Oct. 20. What is documented: a small group of US national-security officials has been quietly advising states and lawmakers on how to prepare if the administration interferes in the election (Washington Post), and outside groups are preparing responses to scenarios ranging from ballot seizures to the Insurrection Act (The Hill). Planning to resist interference through courts, statements and protest is legal. No public evidence shows plans for violence, for harming the president, or for seizing power.