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Some archaic spelling notwithstanding, the clause couldn鈥檛 be clearer about state and congressional control over America鈥檚 electoral process. What鈥檚 missing? Any reference at all to presidential power in this arena. Constitutionally, there isn鈥檛 any.

Try and square that with the latest from President Donald Trump. His ignorance about and contempt for the founding document he has sworn to uphold was well-established well before now 鈥� but perhaps never this starkly.

鈥淪tates are merely an 鈥榓gent鈥� for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,鈥� Trump declared this week on his platform. 鈥淭hey must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.鈥�

Really? Hmm, we can鈥檛 seem to find that language in here. Maybe it鈥檚 in Clause 2?

If there鈥檚 anything still resembling constitutional fealty in America鈥檚 judicial system 鈥� and most indications there are encouraging 鈥� Trump鈥檚 threat to restructure America鈥檚 entire electoral landscape via executive fiat won鈥檛 get past its first court hearing. It鈥檚 unconstitutional on its face. Period.

The danger is that this bovine Congress, which actually does have some constitutional sway on this issue, might be inclined to do Trump鈥檚 bidding on this, as they too often have before. It鈥檚 why regular Americans must make clear to those members of Congress that it would be unacceptable.

Trump鈥檚 anti-constitutional, anti-factual rant was designed to bolster his current attempt to unilaterally outlaw mail-in voting nationwide.

In further support, he has claimed, falsely, that the U.S. is the only country in the world to allow . In fairness, maybe he meant, we鈥檙e the only country to allow it except for 33 others, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Trump鈥檚 latest tirade rests on yet another falsehood: That mail-in voting systems are rife with fraud and abuse. He cites no evidence of this 鈥� because there isn鈥檛 any.

Ditto with his related tirade against machine voting. Contrary to Trump鈥檚 typically upside-down version of reality, machine voting is actually more accurate and less prone to fraud than paper ballots, according to exhaustive analyses by , the for Justice and others.

This obsession with restricting voting before next year鈥檚 midterm elections is part of Trump鈥檚 broader project: avoiding the common fate of incumbent presidents, whose party historically tends to lose ground in Congress in the midterms.

All presidents have tried to do what they constitutionally can to avoid that fate, of course. But this is the first one who has tried to do it by falsely claiming unilateral power to change state voting laws. It follows his hounding of red states to re-gerrymander their congressional districts mid-decade 鈥� as opposed to the bad-enough gerrymandering that already happens (in both parties) after each census.

Trump has already gotten Texas Republicans to betray democracy in their state with that unprecedented stunt; he鈥檚 leaning on Missouri and others as well. Blue-state California is responding in kind, opening the kind of damaging redistricting arms race that anyone could have predicted (and did).

If there鈥檚 a silver lining in all of this, it鈥檚 that it could, electorally speaking, blow up in Trump鈥檚 face.

Gerrymandering isn鈥檛 the exact science that its practitioners often presume it to be; redrawing congressional boundaries to create new Republican-held districts might easily usher in the unintended consequence of weakening the party鈥檚 hold of other, previously safe districts.

Similarly, the mail-in voting system that Trump falsely claims is corrupt was crucial to his own electoral victory last November. If he could declare, Only Republicans get to mail in their ballots, he undoubtedly would. (At this point, nothing would surprise us.) But short of that, he might find he鈥檚 hurting ballot access for his own supporters.

As real as those possibilities are, no one should count on that to protect America鈥檚 electoral systems from this frontal attack by a would-be autocrat.

The courts may slow Trump down but Congress remains the only real backstop. Contact your U.S. senator and House member at and and tell them that elections are the purview of states 鈥� and that Trump needs to keep his authoritarian-minded nose out of them.