POINT Act

Key Points

• The bill makes it a federal crime — punishable by up to 5 years in prison — for the President, Vice President, cabinet secretaries, and other top executive officials to knowingly engage in election interference or use government property, personnel, or resources for that purpose.
• Election interference is broadly defined to include pressuring officials to alter vote results, spreading unsubstantiated fraud claims to officials, obstructing certification of electoral votes, and trying to delay or prevent elections.
• The President would be banned from deploying the military or exercising federal law enforcement authority in any state where it would likely disrupt, delay, or influence an election — with narrow exceptions for enforcing the Voting Rights Act or responding to armed rebellion.
• States would gain the right to sue the federal government immediately if the military is deployed in violation of this law, and the burden of proof would fall on the President to show the deployment was legal — a reversal of the usual legal standard.
• A separate section creates a new cause of action allowing states to sue the federal government if their constitutional rights — including managing their own electors, the 10th Amendment, and the guarantee of a republican form of government — are violated by the President or Congress.