'Death by a thousand cuts': Inside Trump's remaking of American elections

President Donald Trump seemingly has a plan for the nation's election apparatus: Dismantle the existing system with a series of cuts, firings and threats, rather than a sledgehammer blow.

Since the start of his second term, the administration has moved on multiple fronts at once — pressuring state officials, reorganizing federal election-security offices, and issuing directives that would reshape how ballots are cast and counted. The president has repeatedly tried to change American election policy via executive order, only to be rebuffed by the courts.

Local officials describe the cumulative effect as an erosion rather than a single blow. 'This is a concerted effort of death by a thousand cuts,' said Ingham County, Michigan, Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat. She said the steady accumulation of directives, investigations and funding threats was harder to fight than any one order.

Election administrators across the country said they were bracing for a busy autumn of litigation, with each new executive action likely to be challenged before it could take effect ahead of the midterms.