{"id":14910,"date":"2026-10-07T19:43:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14910"},"modified":"2026-10-07T19:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:43:02","slug":"anxiety-is-growing-trump-may-try-to-disrupt-the-midterm-elections-states-are-prepping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14910","title":{"rendered":"Anxiety is growing Trump may try to disrupt the midterm elections. States are prepping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Election directors\u2019 worries vary from armed agents being deployed outside of polls to Trump declaring a national emergency.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jonathan Shorman<\/strong><\/a>, Stateline<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day we find new things to be astonished about but I think that we just want residents to not be afraid to vote because that\u2019s ultimately what the president was after,\u201d Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnston and other local and state officials across the country are bracing for possible federal election interference from now through Nov. 3 \u2014 even as they remain unsure of what will actually happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One month from Election Day, President Donald Trump\u2019s long-running pressure campaign over elections is approaching a decisive moment. For the past year, the Trump administration has sought to bend the U.S. election system to the president\u2019s will across multiple fronts, despite the Constitution\u2019s guarantee that states administer elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews and public comments by more than a dozen current and former election officials, legal experts, lawmakers and others ahead of the midterms reveal anxiety over what Trump may do. Election administrators often plan for natural disasters, bomb threats and other possible problems, but this year many are also thinking about possible disruptions driven by the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential scenarios range from armed federal personnel deploying at or near the polls to Trump declaring a national emergency \u2014 ideas widely condemned as illegal by election law experts. Homeland Security denies it plans to specifically target polling locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others include efforts to discredit voting machines or federal law enforcement obtaining search warrants to seize ballots, a fear that\u2019s grown since the FBI took 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barb Byrum, the county clerk in Ingham County, Michigan, which includes much of Lansing, said that when she became a clerk 13 years ago, she and other officials conducted table-top exercises to plan for power outages and tornadoes. Now it\u2019s moved on to \u201cfederal misbehavior,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really unfortunate that\u2019s where we are. But that is, in fact, where we are,\u201d Byrum, a Democrat, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memories of 2020<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Fears of election interference are at least partly rooted in previous efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in key swing states, culminating in a mob of his supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot led to Trump\u2019s second impeachment in the House on a charge of inciting an insurrection, but the Senate acquitted him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly six years later, Trump\u2019s approval ratings are sagging and Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress amid encouraging polling for Democrats. Loss of the House or Senate would effectively end Trump\u2019s legislative agenda and lead to investigations that consume his final two years in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA desperate Trump is a dangerous Trump,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said during an appearance<\/a> at the progressive Center for American Progress in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Americans\u2019 trust in elections is eroding. Just 49% of respondents said they expect the midterm elections to be free and fair, according to a national survey <\/a>of more than 5,000 adults in early September conducted by the University of California San Diego Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, election officials and legal experts remain largely confident any interference effort ultimately won\u2019t succeed. The United States has a decentralized election system run by state and local officials that guards against large-scale efforts to steal elections or prevent voting, they say, predicting courts would swiftly rule against the deployment of federal agents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many votes are also cast by mail, sidestepping any Election Day show of force. More than 1 million votes have already been cast, according to data compiled<\/a> by the University of Florida\u2019s Election Lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, told reporters on Tuesday. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to have to run a gauntlet. You\u2019re not going to see troops or armed individuals at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I don\u2019t rule anything out or in\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his aides refuse to flatly rule out interfering in the midterms. In an interview with TIME magazine published Thursday<\/a>, Trump declined to take extreme measures off the table. Asked about sending ICE to the polls, he said only that he hadn\u2019t thought of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t rule anything out or in. We\u2019ll see,\u201d Trump said of a national emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed questions<\/a> about sending troops to the polls as \u201canother gotcha hypothetical,\u201d though the Department of Defense has said<\/a> it has no plans to deploy active-duty troops or federalized National Guard members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Republicans have suggested they would welcome the presence of soldiers if state and local authorities want them. \u201cIf that\u2019s something that they decide that they need to look at, then that\u2019s fine with me,\u201d Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, told reporters<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, last month sought<\/a> a Department of Justice investigation into whether ballot tabulation machines that read barcodes or QR codes comply with federal law, raising concerns that the Trump administration could create a pretext to dismiss the validity of some ballots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgia State Election Board\u2019s executive director recently called on<\/a> the DOJ to potentially intervene in the state over the use of QR code-based tabulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Mullin also warned<\/a> that election officials who don\u2019t \u201cparticipate in securing the elections\u201d could face prosecution. He promised to \u201chold election officials accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roadblocks to interference<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But with Election Day nearing, Trump has been stymied on every major initiative to influence the election process this year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n