A group of Democratic senators led by Senator Ed Markey on Tuesday demanded answers from the Trump administration over whether it plans to deploy armed federal law enforcement officers or troops at polling locations during the November midterm elections.
In a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — who has been nominated to take the post permanently — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the lawmakers said any such deployment could “intimidate” voters and represent an escalation of what they described as an attack on free and fair elections.
The letter was also signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ranking member Gary Peters, and other Democratic senators, including Richard Blumenthal, Tammy Duckworth, Chris Van Hollen, Raphael Warnock, Jeff Merkley, and Maria Cantwell, as well as Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
The senators cited Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Democratic National Committee seeking records related to a possible deployment of federal personnel to polling sites, ballot drop boxes, and election offices.
According to the lawmakers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially said it had found no relevant records but later acknowledged identifying more than 11,000 potentially responsive pages after its search was challenged. US Customs and Border Protection also reported finding nearly 117,000 records, the senators said.
The lawmakers said the disclosures raised concerns that the administration may be preparing for a federal presence at election sites.
“In May, when President Trump was asked whether he would send the National Guard or ICE to polling places in November, he refused to rule it out,” the senators wrote, quoting Donald Trump as saying he would “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”
The senators also pointed to Trump’s previous comments about invoking the Insurrection Act to allow himself expanded powers, arguing that such statements have increased concerns about the potential use of federal power during elections.
