In a republic built on the tension between central authority and local self-governance, the Trump administration is pressing a broad campaign to draw elections — long the province of states — into federal hands. Even after the Supreme Court reaffirmed that states hold primary responsibility for administering their own elections, the administration has shifted tactics rather than direction, using executive agencies to accomplish what the courts declined to permit. Running on two parallel tracks — expanding federal oversight and cultivating public doubt about electoral legitimacy — the effort ra