Trump official tried to ban half of US voting machines, citing conspiracy theories

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https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-officials-tried-ban-half-us-voting-machines-citing-conspiracy-theories-2026-05-22/

Trump official tried to ban half of US voting machines, citing conspiracy theories
By Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay and Alexandra Alper
May 22, 2026 5:03 AM CDT

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s election-security czar last year sought to ban voting machines used in more than half of U.S. states by asking whether the Commerce Department could declare their components national-security risks, according to two people ​with direct knowledge of the matter.

White House adviser Kurt Olsen, a lawyer Trump has tasked with proving widely debunked election-rigging conspiracy theories, pushed the plan to target Dominion Voting Systems machines.

The idea emerged, the sources said, as Olsen and other officials brainstormed about how ‌the federal government could take control over elections from U.S. states, an idea Trump publicly aired.

Olsen wanted a national system of hand-counted paper ballots, the sources said, a frequent Trump demand some election-security experts say would be less accurate and potentially riskier than the current system of machines with auditable paper trails that almost all cities and states use.

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