Note to my future self.

This week the Trump administration continued its work to take over elections.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department sent letters to election officials in all 50 states and DC, threatening criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting and giving states five days to respond with a plan. Noncitizen voting is already illegal in every federal election, and it is vanishingly rare.

Then on Thursday, the White House forced out all three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, the bipartisan agency Congress created in 2002 to help states run elections. The agency now has zero members, just four months before the midterms.

The White House said the commissioners “may not be totally aligned” with the president’s approach to election security.

The pattern is obvious: Threaten officials who count the votes. Dismantle the agency that helps them do it. Each move transfers power over elections toward the White House and away from the states that have always run them.

Elections run by the ruler are elections in name only.