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

J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File

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:

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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.

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“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 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.

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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.”

J. Scott Applewhite/美联社/档案照片

距离今年中期选举还有不到两个月的时间，民主党人越来越担心唐纳德·特朗普总统可能会向投票站部署联邦移民官员或军队。

特朗普政府对这种可能性的态度不一。虽然一些人，例如参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军，基本上否认了在投票站部署军队的想法，但另一些人则表示，尽管联邦法律禁止此类行为，但在特定或紧急情况下，军队或军官出现在投票站的可能性仍然存在。

特朗普本人一直没有明确表态。虽然他没有明确表示会采取这一步骤，但他过去的一些行为和言论让那些认为他可能会越权行事的人感到担忧，或者认为这种隐含的威胁足以让人们完全放弃投票。

“如果政府中有人愚蠢到下令让他们去那里，那将立即停止，”非营利组织选举创新与研究中心执行主任大卫·贝克尔说。

他说：“各州已经做好准备，他们会诉诸法律。但或许政府内部有些人，甚至包括总统本人，都想让一些选民担心这种情况会发生，从而让他们自己决定不去投票，而不是费尽心思去实际阻止他们投票。”

以下是政府或军方高层官员就向投票站派遣军队或联邦官员的可能性所发表的看法：

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人们对移民执法人员被派往投票站的担忧，部分源于国土安全部长马克韦恩·穆林今年早些时候在政府停摆期间决定向机场部署移民和海关执法局（ICE）官员。虽然移民执法人员长期以来一直在机场驻守并执行移民法，但大规模部署ICE官员协助安保和维持秩序却是前所未有的举措。

这也引发了人们对投票站是否会成为下一个目标的担忧，尤其是在政府发起更广泛的运动，打击其声称（但没有证据）非法移民在该国普遍存在的选民欺诈行为的情况下。

“这些都是总统试图思考一个更大计划的工具，那就是，如果你不能通过民主选举保住权力，那就调整民主选举，”马里兰州州长、民主党人韦斯·摩尔在3月份告诉CNN。

上周记者问穆林，11 月份美国移民及海关执法局 (ICE) 官员是否会被派往投票站，穆林表示在特定情况下可能会被派往投票站。

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穆林说：“我们出现在投票站的唯一理由，就是投票站受到威胁，或者我们正在执行逮捕令，追捕我们一直在积极追踪的人。” 他随后补充道：“如果我们执行逮捕令，我们就会出现在我们需要出现的地方。”

但联邦法律禁止向“任何举行普选或特别选举的地方”派遣“任何军队或武装人员”。如果他们正在积极投票，则可例外。

贝克尔说：“我希望他办公室里有人已经让他了解了《美国法典》第18篇第592条。那是违法的，任何命令他人这样做的人都犯了联邦罪行。”

美国国土安全部发言人周五在一份声明中表示，移民及海关执法局（ICE）“没有计划针对投票站开展行动”。但该发言人补充说，如果当地执法部门“提出要求”，某些官员可以“在必要时迅速应对突发事件”。

穆林本周的言论与他在确认听证会上对类似问题的回答如出一辙。他三月份曾表示：“我的警员之所以会出现在那里，唯一的原因是存在具体的威胁，而不是为了恐吓。”

凯恩否认有任何计划在11月向投票站部署现役美军部队。

在回复密歇根州民主党参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金（Elissa Slotkin）的一封信中，凯恩写道，军方“没有计划”向投票站派遣联邦军事人员或联邦化的国民警卫队部队。斯洛特金要求军方领导人承诺不向投票站派遣军队。

“同样，联合部队也没有计划使用此类人员来扣押选票、投票机或其他与选举相关的材料，”凯恩写道，他是美国军衔最高的军官。

吉姆·沃森/法新社/盖蒂图片社

特朗普并未明确提出任何在今年向投票站部署军队或联邦官员的计划。但这位总统不断质疑他败选或对其所在政党不利的选举结果，并多次暗示或试图对选举施加联邦控制，或破坏选民对选举安全性和可靠性的信心。

今年1月，联邦调查局突袭了佐治亚州富尔顿县的选举办公室——该州曾是特朗普2020年大选舞弊指控的核心，特朗普及其盟友此前也曾试图推翻该州的选举结果。此次突袭源于对2020年大选选民舞弊指控的调查。

时任国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德也参与了这次突袭行动，鉴于她通常的职责是协调海外情报行动，而不是国内执法，她的出现引发了争议。

在那次突袭行动几天后，特朗普呼吁共和党人将未来的联邦选举“全国化”。这将与宪法中赋予各州而非联邦政府对其自身选举拥有主要控制权的条款相悖。

2020年大选失利后，特朗普的一些助手敦促他动用军队查封投票机。特朗普今年早些时候接受《纽约时报》采访时表示，他后悔没有这样做。

总统还签署了两项行政命令，旨在加强投票时对公民身份的证明要求，并试图限制邮寄选票。前一项行政命令已被永久阻止，而政府正在请求最高法院审查后一项行政命令。

美国司法部还曾试图发起一场全国性的行动，以获取各州的选民登记数据。但这些努力一直遭到法官的阻止。

今年早些时候，当被问及此事时，特朗普拒绝排除派遣国民警卫队或联邦执法人员前往投票站的可能性。他说，他将“采取一切必要措施，确保选举公正”。