Will the Trump administration send federal officers or troops to the polls? Here’s what we know

By Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — 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.”

Here is what top officials within the administration or the military have said about the potential of sending troops or federal officers to polling locations:

Mullin says ICE officers could be at polling places in specific circumstances. The law says they can’t be

Concerns about immigration authorities being dispatched to polling places partly stem from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s decision earlier this year to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports during a government shutdown. While immigration authorities have long had a presence and enforced immigration laws at airports, the large-scale deployment of ICE officers to assist with security and lines was a new development.

It also spurred concern about whether polling places could be next, especially given the administration’s broader crusade against what it claims — without evidence — is widespread voter fraud by immigrants in the country illegally.

“These are all tools of how the president is trying to think about a much larger plan, which is, if you cannot hold onto power through democratic elections, then adjust democratic elections,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, told CNN in March.

Asked by reporters last week whether ICE officers could be sent to polling locations in November, Mullin left open the possibility that they could be under specific circumstances.

“The only reason why we would be at polling places, if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Mullin said. He later added: “If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be.”

But federal law prohibits “any troops or armed men” being sent to “any place where a general or special election is held.” Exceptions are provided for if they are actively voting.

“I hope someone in his office has made him aware of 18 U.S.C. § 592,” Becker said. “That is illegal, and anyone who orders anyone to do that is committing a federal crime.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday that ICE “is not planning operations targeting polling locations.” But the spokesperson added certain officers, “if called upon” by local law enforcement, could be poised to “rapidly respond to an incident if necessary.”

Mullin’s comments this week echo a response he gave to a similar question during his confirmation hearing. “The only reason why my officers would be there is if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation,” he said in March.

Caine says there are ‘no plans’ for troops to be deployed

Caine has denied any plans for active US military troops to be deployed to polling locations in November.

In a letter responding to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat who asked military leaders to commit to not sending troops to the polls, Caine wrote the military has “no plans” to send federal military personnel or federalized National Guard troops to voting locations.

“Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material,” wrote Caine, who is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer.

Trump says he would do ‘anything necessary’ to secure elections

Trump has not specifically laid out any plans to deploy troops or federal officers to polls this year. But the president has constantly undermined the results of elections he lost or which went poorly for his party, and has made several suggestions or attempts to exert federal control over elections or undermine voters’ confidence in their security and reliability.

In January, the FBI raided the election office in Fulton County, Georgia — a state that had been the centerpiece of Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election, and where the president and his allies previously tried to overturn the results. The raid stemmed from an investigation into allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Tulsi Gabbard, the then-Director of National Intelligence, was at the raid, and her presence generated controversy given that her typical purview is coordinating overseas intelligence operations and not domestic law enforcement.

Days after that raid, Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize” future federal elections. That would run contrary to provisions in the Constitution that give states, and not the federal government, primary control over their own elections.

After he lost the 2020 election, some Trump aides urged him to enlist the military to seize voting machines. Trump told the New York Times in an interview earlier this year that he regretted not doing so.

The president has also signed a pair of executive orders aiming to boost proof of citizenship requirements for voting and seeking to limit mail-in ballots. The former executive order was permanently blocked, while the administration is asking the Supreme Court to review the latter.

The Department of Justice has also attempted to undertake a nationwide campaign to acquire states’ voter roll data. Those efforts have been consistently blocked by judges.

Trump refused to rule out sending National Guard troops or federal officers to the polls when asked about it earlier this year. He said he would “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”

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