Poll workers have some of the hardest jobs these days. Some have to prepare for early voting and election day. They ensure everyone receives their sample ballots and that citizens know where to vote. It’s crunch time. Unfortunately, they need to add to the list something no one could have imagined even a few months ago. Officials are discerning what to do if armed guards stand outside of the polls.
Poll workers have been quietly planning for this low probability, high consequence event for months. When you think about election security that normally revolves around monitoring and defending against foreign threats. It’s as alarming as it is tragic that many of the threats may come from the White House. The Washington Post’s reporting followed national security experts and other officials who have been quietly gaming out possibilities and solutions to defend our elections and federal armed agents.
When you think about election security that normally revolves around monitoring and defending against foreign threats. It’s as alarming as it is tragic that many of the threats may come from the White House.
This isn’t catastrophizing. The nation has seen federal interference already in the form of the Department of Justice seeking voter rolls. At one Colorado county, sheriffs were conducting warrant checks in cooperation with ICE at polling locations. Intimidation isn’t a hypothetical it’s already occurred. This is also not limited to Democrat-led jurisdictions. Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz opened an investigation into poll observers that many found to be “a bit aggressive.”
It bears repeating that any deployments to the polls by the President would be illegal. Pursuant to 18 USC § 592-595, no member of the military or the federal workforce, from ICE, FBI, to U.S. Postal Police Officers, can be stationed at the polls or intimidate voters at a polling location.
There is one singular exception in 18 USC § 592. The military may be deployed to a polling location in order to “repel armed enemies of the United States.” This is enough of a loophole for this President to send a targeted deployment to “stop noncitizen voting” even going as far as to say that noncitizens are “enemies of the United States.”
This may seem hyperbolic, but this White House made claims of a “border invasion” as recently as October 21, 2026. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, said it best when he indicated that non-citizen voting is as likely as getting “struck by lightning.” A study of Michigan voter rolls in 2024 found that illegal, noncitizen voting made up 0.00028% of votes cast.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation believes that Congress as the first branch of the federal government has a pivotal role to play in protecting the integrity of our elections against overreach by the Executive Branch. This could be a firewall against overreach by the Executive Branch.
Members of Congress have a responsibility to make strong public statements from their bully pulpits in defense of locally controlled elections free from federal interference including deployments and intimidation.
It’s paramount that U.S. senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives use their power to defend democracy. If intimidation is to come to the polls, the threat of violence will likely land on the vulnerable and people of color.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
