Florida lawyer Peter Ticktin shared a 17-page draft emergency executive order with news outlets in April 2025 that would ban machine and mail-in voting and require hand-counted ballots for the 2026 U.S. elections. The 80-year-old attorney, who represents some 2020 election deniers, has advocated for an executive order that would overhaul voting rules by ending machine and mail-in voting.

The draft order, titled "Establishing Security, Integrity, and Transparency for United States Elections with Protections Against Foreign Interference," would require all voters in 2026 to re-register with proof of citizenship, end the use of vote-tabulation machinery, compel hand-counting of all ballots, and require that counting for all races be finished on election day by midnight. Ticktin said a key goal of the order is to limit noncitizen voting and said he hopes the administration will take action in time for the 2026 midterm election.

"I've emailed Trump about the need for an emergency order," Ticktin said. He also said he is in touch with other administration contacts on executive order plans, though the exact nature and extent of his contact and influence with the president and other administration officials is not clear. Ticktin attended New York Military Academy as a teenager with the president and authored the 2020 book "What Makes Trump Tick."

"If we don't have hand-counting of ballots, this election will be stolen," he said. The draft order cites claims of foreign interference by China in the 2020 election as justification. Ticktin also claims that Venezuela interfered in that election. However, an intelligence review in 2021 concluded that China considered ways to influence the 2020 election but ultimately did not pursue them. Claims that widespread voting fraud tainted the 2020 election results have been repeatedly rejected by courts and some former top administration officials.

A version of the proposed executive order was first published in April 2025 by a group tied to Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer described as a prominent election denier. The published version includes several proposals that have long been priorities for election conspiracy advocates.

Sean Morales-Doyle, director of voting rights and elections at the Brennan Center for Justice, said the draft order relies on discredited claims. "There's a constantly shifting reference to different theories about things that happened six years ago," Morales-Doyle said. "People who want to change voting policies are looking for ways to justify the president doing that."

Morales-Doyle also challenged the feasibility of the hand-counting mandate. "Not only is it not feasible, but it is a surefire way to generate inaccuracies," he said. The Brennan Center and multiple other groups successfully sued last year to block key parts of a March 2025 emergency executive order that would change election procedures. Some parts of that March 2025 order are still being litigated on appeal.