President Trump seeks to change US voting mechanisms before next year’s elections, although election laws are managed by states.

United States President Donald Trump wants to change the way Americans vote, and he wants to do it before the 2026 midterms.

US presidents do not have the authority to overhaul state election laws. The US Constitution leaves congressional election management to states and rule-making to Congress.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking a top-down approach to altering election practices a year out from the November 3 elections – contests that will determine whether Trump has congressional support for his agenda, including his immigration enforcement tactics and tax and spending cuts.

Here are some of the ways Trump is pressuring states and Congress to change how those elections will go:

Trump resumed his attacks on voting by mail, threatening in August to use an executive order to write a legally shaky ban of the practice used by tens of millions of Americans.

Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) asked most states to turn over voter data rolls in its search for ineligible voters, setting up a legal fight and potentially jeopardising the rights of US citizens who are eligible to vote.

The Trump administration scaled back efforts to improve voting site security and mail ballot protection.

Trump successfully encouraged Republican governors to redistrict to give his party more seats in the US House of Representatives. In response, Californians will vote on Tuesday on whether they want to redraw their state’s election map to create more Democrat-majority voting districts to balance out the Republican efforts.

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Trump relied on falsehoods when pushing for voting changes in a speech to governors, repeatedly making what PolitiFact classified as the “pants on fire” statement that the 2020 election was “rigged” and threatening to jail