“Chaos” in the Air: Five Ways Voting Could Be Disrupted on Election Day

As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, voting experts are watching to see how the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to assert more federal control over elections will play out. Since President Donald Trump retook the White House, his administration has tried to force states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls and to restrict mail-in voting . The Department of Homeland Security has used its resources to identify and prosecute noncitizen voters , an effort that has unfolded alongside the agency’s massive crackdown on immigrants. The president has justified these steps by claiming, without evidence, that American elections are beset by fraud and that illegal voting is tipping the scales in favor of Democrats. ProPublica’s reporters are on the lookout for what’s going right and what isn’t. We’re monitoring voter suppression and interference, election observers and poll watchers, extremism tied to the election, and ICE (immigration enforcement agency) activity at the polls. He said he worries that this will make voters “sit it out” and “throw their hands up.” Learn more about this story on ProPublica’s podcast “ Paper Trail .” In an emailed response to questions, a DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) spokesperson said Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is not planning operations targeting polling locations,” adding that the agency would only arrest people at the polls to address a safety threat as part of “intelligence-driven targeted enforcement.” The DHS and the Justice Department “are laser focused on identifying, prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens,” the spokesperson added. “Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation.” Before and on Election Day, it’s typical for the major political parties to mount poll-watching operations, but both Democrats and Republicans say they’ve expanded these activities in this pressurized midterm. Customs and Border Protection vehicles parked outside the county’s busiest early voting location last month, after he’d been repeatedly reassured by the administration that agents would not do this. The administration had obtained the state’s public voter rolls , which the DHS had blended with its own immigration information and third-party data. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters late last month that the department was considering additional actions, saying there were “a number of states that we’re looking at.” In a letter responding to the DOJ , Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs called the government list of 400 names “not reliable,” saying it included U.S. citizens, people who aren’t registered to vote and duplicate entries. “Time and time again,” Hobbs wrote, “DHS claims about noncitizen voter registration turn out to be greatly exaggerated or false.” Sam Trepel is Rule of Law program director at States Unite