Election officials are preparing for ICE to show up at the polls

A week later, during a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche He supported the idea of ICE at the polls and repeated the conspiracy theory about noncitizens voting as a pretext for deploying ICE. “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” he asked. “Illegal immigrants can’t vote. It doesn’t make any sense.”

When asked to comment on ICE’s deployment to ballot drop boxes, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump has been clear: Securing our elections and ensuring only American citizens vote in American elections is a top priority.”

Likewise, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson pointed out Mullen’s comments, adding that “elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders.”

Elections, as defined in the US Constitution, have always been administered by the states, despite Trump and his allies’ demands that elections be held.”Nationalized“, This will remain the case for the 2026 midterm elections. Deploying ICE, the National Guard, or any other armed federal agents to polling sites is illegal. Under US law.

However, the political messaging left election officials and voters unsure of what was to come.

“I think the administration’s record is that as much as I reassure people and tell them that we’ve got that guarantee (that ICE won’t be at polling sites), I’m not sure how much they believe that,” says one election director from one eastern state. He added: “I’m not sure that the administration itself really knows the direction it will go, but we are preparing for all scenarios.” The director requested anonymity due to fears of government retaliation and concerns that federal election funds could be withheld.

In Maine, Secretary of State Sheena Bellows sought written assurances from the government. Send an email to the Department of Homeland Security in March to obtain assurance that ICE would not be deployed to the polls. The letter was signed by eight other foreign ministers. Months later, Bellows has still not heard back.

“We haven’t received any satisfactory guarantees from the federal government, but we don’t expect any,” Bellows says. “Donald Trump has no right to storm our polling places, seize our ballots, or take over our elections just because he wants to. The Constitution and federal law could not be clearer that states, not the federal government, are in charge of elections.”

Who is he? One of dozens of states The Ministry of Justice has File a lawsuit against Because of their refusal to grant access to unredacted voter lists. Last September, the government filed a lawsuit against Bellows, claiming that Maine, as Secretary of State, had not complied with the National Voter Registration Act. He bellowed Submit a request for dismissal The suit.

Like many other election administrators, Bellows and her colleagues are planning for eventualities they haven’t had to consider before. “Election officials are the best emergency planners in the world,” Bellows says. “In the past, we have planned for natural disasters, power outages, and more recently bomb threats, and have been able to oversee successful elections.”