With less than two months to go until this year’s midterm elections, Democrats are becoming increasingly unnerved about the possibility of President Donald Trump deploying federal immigration officers or troops to polling places.
Messaging from the Trump administration about that potential has been mixed. While some, like Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, have largely dismissed the notion of a poll deployment, others have left open the possibility of troops or officers being at the polls under specific or exigent circumstances, despite federal laws that prohibit such activity.
Trump himself has been noncommittal. But while he has not explicitly come out to say he would take this step, several of his past actions and comments have worried those who believe he might overstep his authority, or that the implied threat might be enough to keep people away from the polls altogether.
“If there is someone in the administration foolish enough to order them to be there, that will be stopped immediately,” said David Becker, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research.
“The states are prepared; they will go to court,” he said. “But it may be that there are members of the administration, and perhaps even the president himself, who would like to inspire in some voters the fear that that might occur, and get them to decide themselves not to show up rather than have to go through the trouble of trying to physically suppress their votes.”
