“We’re all preparing like it’s a war” - America’s election workers gear up for Trump’s midterms

Two months before the midterm elections, American election officials are sitting over plans that once would have sounded absurd for an election in the United States. California is rehearsing what to do if Donald Trump sends federal officers to polling places. Michigan is telling local election officials what to do if Washington demands access to voting machines. In other states, lawyers are preparing court filings against possible seizures of election records. Journalists are tracking ICE and federal activity, no matter how small. Behind all of it sits one of those questions a democracy should never have to ask: What happens when the president himself uses the power of the federal government to influence an election in favor of his party?

More than 50 state and local election officials from both parties were asked about their preparations, including 12 secretaries of state. Nearly all said they had changed their planning. Political interference from Washington is now explicitly part of the equation. Disinformation is keeping election offices busy as well. Then there is the threat of violence. This is happening in Republican areas too. Bill Gates, a Republican attorney and former official in Maricopa County, said there was anxiety among election officials. Little remains of the close cooperation with the federal government that had defined previous election years.

The U.S. Constitution leaves the administration of elections to states and local governments. Trump has been pushing into that territory for months. At least 15 times, he has called on Republicans to “nationalize” voting. Federal agencies are pursuing fraud allegations that courts have repeatedly rejected. Investigations involving election offices in Wisconsin and Georgia are also underway. The White House denies that any of this puts the midterms at risk. Spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the administration was enforcing election laws and protecting confidence in elections. The distrust, she said, was being caused by “extreme Democrats.” There is still little evidence for Trump’s repeated claims of mass voting by people who are not U.S. citizens. Investigations have reached the same conclusion for years: Such cases are extraordinarily rare.

Trump himself makes little secret of the political purpose behind his interventions. Ahead of the midterms, he pushed Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts in ways expected to give his party an advantage in House races. His administration sued states that refused to hand over confidential voter data. The information demanded included birth dates and driver’s license numbers. Portions of Social Security numbers were also supposed to be turned over. At the same time, programs that help election offices defend against cyberattacks were cut. Then, at the Republican convention in Dallas, Trump told his supporters to “cheat like crazy” and to go vote even if they were not registered.

The outcome in November will decide far more than a handful of seats. If Republicans lose the House or Senate, Trump’s current position of power, with Republican control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, comes to an end. Democrats could greatly expand investigations. Trump’s legislative agenda would become harder to push through. His political appointments would face new obstacles as well. David Becker, a former voting-rights attorney at the Justice Department, believes some of the threats could ultimately turn out to be bluster. Courts have already stopped several initiatives. Armed federal officers at polling places would also likely face legal challenges. Election officials do not want to bet on that.

More than 12 state or local election officials have now hired private attorneys or had their staffs receive legal training. Nearly twice as many are stepping up public communication to counter false claims about voting machines. Claims that mail voting is inherently corrupt are also supposed to be answered faster. After Trump’s 2020 defeat, election workers were hit with a wave of threats. The physical response to that can now be seen in many offices: bulletproof glass and reinforced doors. Other administrations are installing cameras or protecting their buildings against vehicle attacks. Some employees are escorted by security personnel after long workdays. In parts of the country, running an election now requires the kind of security once associated with courthouses.

Dane County in Wisconsin is already drafting court papers for the worst-case scenario. County Clerk Scott McDonell is having preparations made for possible attempts by the federal government to seize voting equipment or records. Officials are also gaming out what to do if ICE shows up at polling places. If they have to fight back in court, speed will be critical, McDonell said. The warning shot came in January from Fulton County, Georgia. The FBI seized around 650 boxes of records from the 2020 election there. Fraud allegations had previously been rejected by courts and audits. Fulton County sued to get the records back. In May, a federal judge ruled that prosecutors could keep them while the investigation continued.

Milwaukee felt the pressure itself soon afterward. In May, FBI agents sought to interview at least 8 current or former city and county employees about the 2020 election. Some were approached at home. The city and county then secured legal counsel. Milwaukee County retained the Democracy Defenders Fund. The city brought in the Washington Litigation Group. The Public Rights Project was also involved. Several of these groups work for election offices free of charge. Elsewhere, agencies or individual officeholders pay their attorneys themselves. The FBI did not comment on its election-related investigations.

Michigan has lawyers standing by too. The office of the Democratic secretary of state consulted private attorneys after the Trump administration threatened at least one Democratic-led county with investigations over alleged fraud in the 2024 election. No significant irregularities were proven. Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie said his office was prepared. Local election officials had been given guidance on how to respond to demands for election records or equipment. Legal counsel was standing by. In March, nearly 24 election officials and municipal attorneys also met in Miami Beach. 2 former senior Justice Department officials explained how federal searches work and how subpoenas can be challenged. Even the redacted search warrant from Fulton County became teaching material.

California has reasons for similar drills. Natalie Adona, the nonpartisan election official in heavily Democratic Marin County, had her staff prepare for questioning by federal officers. Search warrants were covered too. Then there was an incident in Riverside County: Sheriff Chad Bianco, a far-right Trump supporter, seized 650,000 ballots. State officials and voting-rights groups consider the seizure unlawful. Bianco said it had been legal. Adona’s staff also rehearsed how to respond if ICE appeared at a polling place. Chris Walker, clerk in Oregon’s Jackson County, calls a federal search a “nightmare scenario.” The county voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Trump won there in the last 3 presidential elections.

In May, Trump explicitly left open whether ICE or the military could be deployed at polling places. Federal law generally prohibits armed federal deployments at voting locations. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed concerns during his hearing that naturalized citizens could be intimidated. Officers might be there to protect against threats, he said. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE was not planning operations specifically targeting polling places. In the event of an immediate public-safety threat, however, the agency could arrest people there. That opening alone is enough for election officials to keep drilling.

Read also our article: Trump Loses at the Supreme Court - Mail Voting Remains Untouched Ahead of the Midterms

The fight over mail voting also forced entire cities to draw up backup plans. On Monday, the Supreme Court stopped Trump’s plan for the November election. States would have been required to provide the United States Postal Service with lists of people receiving mail ballots. At the same time, only approved ballot envelopes were supposed to be used. Noncompliant mail could have been rejected. A Postal Service whistleblower had warned Congress that thousands of lawful votes could arrive late or be discarded as a result. Philadelphia therefore planned additional voting locations where residents could pick up their materials directly. Seth Bluestein, a Republican on the Philadelphia Board of Elections, said a corresponding plan had been prepared together with the city’s legal department. Trump himself has voted by mail in Florida in previous elections.

In Durham County, North Carolina, election director Derek Bowens is now buying his first gun to protect his family. He said the way he looks at his surroundings has changed. He usually goes straight home after work. His election office has ballistic doors and bulletproof glass. Armed guards are standing by, along with panic buttons. The mailroom got its own exhaust system for suspicious packages. Narcan is kept on hand in case someone accidentally comes into contact with opioid-contaminated mail. At all 68 polling places, the person in charge wears a location-tracking badge. One push of a button can send help to the exact location. The system was introduced after a man threatened after an election that otherwise he would “vote with a bullet.”

Detroit has gone even further. City Clerk Janice Winfrey has been under round-the-clock police protection since receiving death threats after Trump’s false fraud claims in 2020. The 36 mail-ballot drop boxes are monitored by cameras. Every window at the election headquarters is now made of bulletproof glass. Winfrey said she longed for the days when elections were simply boring. Even heavily Republican Irwin County in Georgia is handing out panic buttons. Election Supervisor Ethan Compton said many election workers were older people. The devices can transmit an image and location to emergency responders. Fear no longer has a party affiliation.

Then comes the lie, faster than any correction. A highly convincing video can show an election worker supposedly destroying ballots. Fake text messages can claim a polling place has been moved. Artificially generated content has made attacks like these cheaper. In Mesa County, Colorado, Republican Clerk Bobbie Gross took over a damaged office in 2023. Her predecessor, Tina Peters, had given Trump-aligned conspiracy theorists access to election technology and was later convicted of crimes. Colorado’s Democratic governor released Peters in June. Gross opened the election process more widely to observers and published images of ballots. Trust had improved significantly, she said.

Washington is providing less help with digital defense now. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, created during Trump’s 1st term, lost nearly 1,000 employees after his return. That amounts to around 30% of its workforce. Trump had never forgiven the agency for its 2020 statement that the presidential election that year had been secure. A system for sharing up-to-date information about digital election threats lost its funding. Election-security staff had already been placed on leave in 2025. Russia and China remain threat sources in the assessment of experts. Iran is also named. All 3 governments deny interference. CISA said the agency remained fully operational and stronger than ever.

Investigative journalists, activists, attorneys and civil-rights organizations have joined forces - ICE movements in particular are being watched closely. The fact that some of us work protest events wearing ballistic vests shows just how far America has fallen under Trump.

Pennsylvania’s Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt had already warned in 2025 of “serious consequences” from the cuts. He pointed to a 2024 case in which federal agencies were able to quickly expose a fake video. Many counties would barely be able to carry out that kind of technical investigation on their own. Maine is therefore working more closely with private experts and other states. Joseph Kirk, the election official in deeply Republican Bartow County, Georgia, put the problem without political decoration. His IT director was great. But he could not fight a nation-state. For that, you need a nation-state.

And so America’s election workers head into the fall of 2026 standing in front of their ballot boxes while lawyers behind them wait for search warrants. Some sit behind bulletproof glass. Others are learning what to do if ICE shows up at the door. In Durham, the election director is buying a gun. In Wisconsin, court filings are ready. On November 3, Americans are supposed to decide who represents them in Congress. Meanwhile, the people who have to count that decision are preparing for something that now looks almost like getting ready for war.