Inside Democrats’ efforts to secure Election Day and respond to fears of Trump interference

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Ahead of the November midterm elections, top Democrats are planning for doomsday scenarios for how President Donald Trump and his administration could intervene in the voting process and laying the groundwork for a forceful response.

In closed-door meetings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has convened Democratic senators, legal experts, and former officials to discuss highly specific hypothetical situations, including Trump deploying Department of Homeland Security agents and the National Guard to the polls, federal officials seizing ballots after the administration announces a foreign adversary compromised voting systems, and fake, AI-generated videos alleging election fraud sparking demands for intervention from Trump that lead to a purge of eligible voters from the rolls.

“These sessions didn’t just help us work out how we can thwart some of Trump’s egregious threats. They have been critical in helping us imagine the many twists and turns Trump and his cronies could throw at us, and where gaps in our preparation could potentially exist. I feel more confident — and the American people should, too — that we’re better prepared heading into the election because of our efforts,” Schumer said in a statement to CNN.

Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle, who’s overseeing election prep efforts in the House, has outlined more than 150 possible threats that could occur on Election Day and beyond. The congressman has also led House Democrats through hypothetical situations, including the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showing up at voting locations and social media influencers spreading misinformation suggesting that election locations have been changed.

“We’re working every day to make sure we’re prepared,” Morelle told CNN. “You should have confidence that the system works. It’s resilient. And yet we’re going to continue to make sure that we’re on the forefront of stopping anything that they try to do.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill have prepared for months, setting up a new election protection task force in the Senate and launching a new bipartisan program to send congressional observers to polling places. House Democrats have been holding hearings around the country to discuss the threats they have identified and how they are preparing for them. Nonpartisan groups are also engaged in worst-case scenario planning and training volunteers to monitor all aspects of the election, including vote-counting and certification of the results. Lawyers have prepared in advance for potential legal challenges.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who has worked with Morelle on his threat assessment plans, said that Democrats have learned to be much more aggressive with their legal strategy.

“We just have to be ready to go to court immediately,” she told CNN. “There is no time to write briefs. So, I think a lot of those briefs are being at least preliminarily drafted, so we are ready.”

The extensive behind-the-scenes planning underscores how much congressional Democrats and their allies are taking seriously the threat of federal interference in the election. There is widespread optimism within the party that they can win the House and even the Senate, but Democrats fear that any attempt at politically motivated election inference could put that in jeopardy.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to CNN, “Every American should be asking why the radical Left and Democrats refuse to pass the SAVE America Act which includes commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID, that are strongly supported by the vast majority of Americans. This legislation would make sure Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections. ”

Asked if Trump is considering sending ICE agents to the polls in November, then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February, “That’s not something I’ve ever heard the president consider. No.”

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Inside Trump’s plan for the ‘biggest DOJ election observer effort in history’

The work on Capitol Hill is part of an unprecedented effort across the Democratic party to mobilize a coordinated team of lawmakers, lawyers, state officials and outside groups. Already up against Trump’s election legal challenges, and the Department of Justice’s “ biggest ” election observer program in history, the Democratic endeavor is underway and will continue through the election certification process up until a new Congress is seated on January 3, 2027.

“This represents the largest mobilization of lawyers, organizers, communicators, and people working to support election administrators and secretaries of states and state AGs,” said Vanita Gupta, a former US associate attorney general, who has participated in the exercises with Senate Democrats and worked closely with other groups.

The exercises led by Schumer have included participants acting as stand-ins for key figures, such as the Homeland Security Secretary, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General.

In a non-presidential year without a well-funded national committee to lean on, Democratic lawmakers have worked to build up their own election security apparatus from scratch. This spring, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Morelle to hatch a plan for how Democrats would ensure the November elections are secure and to fight back against any potential threats from the Trump administration.

“I want you to go out and build the greatest election protection and election security program in American history,” Jeffries said, according to Morelle.

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Schumer launched an elections task force in April to conduct a massive election protection effort. One of the group’s participants, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, launched the first-ever bipartisan Senate election observer program, which is preparing to send staffers to observe polling locations on Election Day through the vote counting and election certification process this fall to compliment the robust election observer program that already exists in the House. Election observers are charged with documenting any attempts at election interference or irregularities in the voting process.

“Our elections are safe and secure. We’ve been preparing for the 2026 midterm elections for months and months already,” Padilla, who formerly served as California’s Secretary of State, said in a statement to CNN. “And while we don’t put anything past Donald Trump, Congress, election officials, and voting rights lawyers stand ready to swiftly address any potential threats to our elections.”

The coordinated effort also includes lawyers preparing advance court pleadings such as asking judges to protect the chain of custody for voted ballots in the event that federal agents try to seize them.

Top Democratic leaders in Congress and others have also proactively filed a lawsuit that seeks to block the deployment of ICE or other federal law enforcement officers at or near polling locations or places where ballots are being counted.

Even though federal law already prohibits deploying federal “troops or armed men” to polling places, except to repel “armed enemies of the United States” Trump and his allies have declined to rule out the idea. Asked earlier this year whether he would send ICE officers or National Guard troops to the polls, Trump responded he would do “anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”

Elias Law Group, the nation’s largest law firm representing the Democratic Party, is already litigating 85 voting and election cases in 41 states.

“We all basically are prepared to be deployed to a state at a moment’s notice if there is a threat or potential litigation that needs to be handled” one of the law firm’s partners, Aria Branch, told CNN. “We basically have go-bags prepared.”

One of the hypothetical scenarios lawmakers discussed has in part come to fruition. In June, Senate Democrats discussed how to handle the possibility of the Federal Communications Commission threatening to crack down on licenses over political content it didn’t agree with. Three months later, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said the Trump administration had pressured ABC not to air an interview withTexas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.

“It was sobering for me,” a Senate Democratic aide involved in organizing the exercise told CNN.

Early successes in court and Congress this year have helped party leaders and stakeholders build confidence in their strategy .

Democrats blocked multiple Republican attempts to pass Trump’s high-profile elections overhaul bill that divided Republicans and would have dramatically changed the US voting system. The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s controversial plan to change how mail-in ballots are sent to voters across the country and upheld state laws that count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. The federal government has sued 30 states and Washington DC to hand over election-related records and data, and 26 of those lawsuits have been dismissed according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

And courts across the country threw out at least 60 attempts by Trump and his team to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“My confidence stems from the fact that we are prepared and we have met every challenge and deflected every challenge,” Morelle said.

Nonpartisan groups also are gearing up.

The ACLU has committed $25 million to “election safeguarding” in this cycle and has worked with allies to train some 10,000 volunteers to date as it prepares to respond to potential problems, said Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, who said it marks the largest election effort in the organization’s history.

The volunteers it has trained will focus heavily on seven battleground states and will monitor election activity, ranging from Election Day voting to the counting process.

In all, the organization has gamed out 25 potential scenarios — ranging from ballot-tampering to rogue local officials refusing to certify results — that could disrupt the election or the seating of newly elected members of Congress. The ACLU already has drafted legal filings, news releases and grassroots mobilization plans to respond to each scenario.

Those involved in the broader election planning say they can’t leave anything to chance.

“We can’t have a failure of imagination, given what happened with the Big Lie in 2020,” said Gupta. “Trump is hunting for fabricated problems, with a goal of discrediting results he doesn’t like. That’s why everyone’s doing everything they can to be prepared. So far, his efforts have failed and voters are now voting.”

Democrats began the broad-based effort in part to respond to concerns they were hearing outside the halls of Congress — and hope it will give them a head start for future elections as well.

“Until you had that apparatus in place, you’re going to be questioned left and right from a host of stakeholders and people in the public sphere on what are you doing to guarantee that the elections will not be compromised going forward. And you couldn’t wait until 2028,” a senior House leadership aide told CNN.

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在 11 月中期选举之前，民主党高层正在为唐纳德·特朗普总统及其政府可能干预投票过程的各种极端情况做准备，并为强有力的应对措施奠定基础。

在闭门会议上，参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默召集了民主党参议员、法律专家和前官员，讨论非常具体的假设情况，包括特朗普部署国土安全部特工和国民警卫队到投票站，联邦官员在政府宣布外国敌对势力破坏投票系统后扣押选票，以及虚假的、人工智能生成的视频声称存在选举舞弊，引发了要求特朗普干预的呼声，最终导致合格选民从选民名册中被清除。

舒默在给CNN的一份声明中表示：“这些会议不仅帮助我们制定了应对特朗普一些恶劣威胁的方案，而且对于我们设想特朗普及其亲信可能对我们使出的各种诡计，以及我们准备工作中可能存在的漏洞，也至关重要。我更有信心——美国人民也应该如此——由于我们的努力，我们已经为大选做好了更充分的准备。”

负责众议院选举筹备工作的民主党众议员乔·莫雷尔列出了选举日及之后可能发生的150多种威胁。这位众议员还带领众议院民主党人演练了一些假设情景，包括移民和海关执法局特工可能出现在投票站，以及社交媒体上的意见领袖散布虚假信息，暗示投票地点已更改。

莫雷尔告诉CNN：“我们每天都在努力确保做好准备。你们应该相信这套系统运转良好，它具有很强的韧性。但我们将继续确保我们始终走在阻止他们任何企图的最前线。”

国会山的民主党人已为此准备数月，他们在参议院成立了一个新的选举保护工作组，并启动了一项新的两党合作计划，派遣国会观察员前往投票站。众议院的民主党人一直在全国各地举行听证会，讨论他们发现的威胁以及应对措施。无党派团体也在进行最坏情况的预案制定，并培训志愿者监督选举的各个环节，包括计票和结果认证。律师们也已提前做好应对潜在法律挑战的准备。

曾与莫雷尔合作制定威胁评估计划的民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔表示，民主党人已经学会了在法律策略上采取更加积极主动的态度。

她告诉CNN：“我们必须做好立即出庭的准备。没有时间撰写诉状。所以，我认为很多诉状至少已经初步拟定，我们做好了准备。”

幕后周密的计划凸显了国会民主党人及其盟友对联邦政府干预选举威胁的重视程度。党内普遍乐观地认为他们能够赢得众议院甚至参议院的控制权，但民主党人担心任何出于政治动机的选举干预企图都可能危及这一目标。

白宫发言人劳伦·比斯在给CNN的一份声明中表示：“每一位美国人都应该质问，为什么激进左派和民主党人拒绝通过《拯救美国法案》。该法案包含一些常识性的选举诚信措施，例如选民身份识别，这些措施得到了绝大多数美国人的强烈支持。这项立法将确保只有美国人才能决定我们的选举。”

当被问及特朗普是否考虑在11月派遣移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工前往投票站时，时任白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特在2月份表示：“我从未听说总统考虑过这件事。没有。”

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揭秘特朗普“史上规模最大的司法部选举观察员行动”计划

国会山的这项工作是民主党前所未有的行动的一部分，旨在动员一支由议员、律师、州政府官员和外部团体组成的协调团队。民主党已经面临特朗普对选举结果提出的法律挑战，以及司法部历史上“规模最大”的选举观察员计划。尽管如此，民主党的这项努力仍在进行中，并将持续到2027年1月3日新一届国会就职为止，直至选举结果认证程序完成。

“这代表着律师、组织者、传播者以及支持选举管理人员、州务卿和州检察长的人员的最大规模动员，”美国前副司法部长瓦尼塔·古普塔说道，她曾与参议院民主党人一起参与演习，并与其他团体密切合作。

舒默领导的演习中，参与者扮演了国土安全部长、国家情报总监和司法部长等关键人物的角色。

在非总统选举年，由于没有资金雄厚的全国委员会可以依靠，民主党议员们只能从零开始建立自己的选举安全机制。今年春天，众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯与莫雷尔会面，商讨民主党如何确保11月大选安全，并反击来自特朗普政府的任何潜在威胁。

据莫雷尔称，杰弗里斯说：“我希望你们出去建立美国历史上最伟大的选举保护和选举安全计划。”

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舒默于四月成立了一个选举工作组，旨在开展大规模的选举保护工作。该工作组成员之一、民主党参议员亚历克斯·帕迪利亚发起了参议院首个两党选举观察员项目，该项目计划在今年秋季派遣工作人员前往各投票站，从选举日到计票和选举结果认证，全程观察投票过程，以补充众议院已有的完善的选举观察员项目。选举观察员的职责是记录任何试图干预选举或投票过程中的违规行为。

“我们的选举安全可靠。我们已经为2026年中期选举准备了数月之久，”曾任加州州务卿的帕迪利亚在给CNN的一份声明中表示。“虽然我们不排除唐纳德·特朗普会做出任何事，但国会、选举官员和投票权律师已做好准备，迅速应对任何可能威胁我们选举的因素。”

这项协调行动还包括律师们准备预先提交的法庭诉状，例如要求法官保护已投票选票的保管链，以防联邦特工试图扣押这些选票。

国会民主党高层领导人和其他人士也主动提起诉讼，试图阻止在投票站或计票地点附近部署美国移民及海关执法局或其他联邦执法人员。

尽管联邦法律已经禁止向投票站部署联邦“军队或武装人员”，除非是为了击退“美国的武装敌人”，但特朗普及其盟友仍拒绝排除这种可能性。今年早些时候，当被问及是否会派遣移民及海关执法局（ICE）官员或国民警卫队前往投票站时，特朗普回应说，他将“采取一切必要措施，确保选举公正”。

代表民主党的全国最大律师事务所 Elias Law Group 已经在 41 个州处理 85 起投票和选举案件。

“如果出现威胁或需要处理的潜在诉讼，我们基本上都做好了随时被派往该州的准备，”该律师事务所的合伙人之一艾莉娅·布兰奇告诉CNN。“我们基本上都准备好了应急包。”

议员们讨论的其中一个假设情景已经部分成为现实。今年6月，参议院民主党人讨论了如何应对联邦通信委员会可能因政治内容不合其意而威胁吊销许可证的情况。三个月后，深夜脱口秀主持人吉米·坎摩尔表示，特朗普政府曾向美国广播公司（ABC）施压，要求其不要播出对德克萨斯州民主党参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科的采访。

“这让我感到清醒，”一位参与组织此次演习的参议院民主党助手告诉 CNN。

今年在法庭和国会取得的早期成功，帮助党内领导人和利益相关者对其战略建立了信心。

民主党人多次阻止共和党人通过特朗普备受瞩目的选举改革法案，该法案不仅导致共和党内部分裂，而且一旦通过，将彻底改变美国的投票制度。最高法院驳回了特朗普颇具争议的改变邮寄选票寄送方式的计划，并维持了各州关于计入选举日后收到的邮寄选票的法律。联邦政府已起诉30个州和华盛顿特区，要求其交出与选举相关的记录和数据，据布伦南司法中心统计，其中26起诉讼已被驳回。

全国各地的法院至少驳回了特朗普及其团队 60 次试图推翻 2020 年总统选举结果的请求。

莫雷尔说：“我的信心源于我们做好了充分的准备，我们迎接并化解了每一个挑战。”

无党派团体也在积极准备。

美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）首席政治和倡导官员迪尔德丽·希费林表示，ACLU已在本轮选举周期中投入250​​0万美元用于“选举保障”，并与盟友合作，迄今为止已培训了约1万名志愿者，以应对可能出现的问题。她还表示，这标志着该组织历史上规模最大的选举行动。

该组织培训的志愿者将重点关注七个摇摆州，并将监督选举活动，从选举日投票到计票过程。

该组织总共推演了25种可能扰乱选举或影响新当选国会议员就职的潜在情景，涵盖了从篡改选票到地方官员拒绝认证选举结果等各种情况。美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）已针对每一种情景起草了法律文件、新闻稿和基层动员计划。

参与选举筹备工作的人员表示，他们不能让任何事情存在侥幸心理。

“鉴于2020年那场弥天大谎的惨痛教训，我们不能再缺乏想象力了，”古普塔说道。“特朗普正在四处寻找捏造的问题，其目的是为了抹黑他不喜欢的选举结果。正因如此，每个人都在竭尽全力做好准备。到目前为止，他的企图已经失败，选民们现在正在投票。”

民主党人发起这项广泛的行动，部分原因是回应他们在国会大厦外听到的担忧——并希望这也能让他们在未来的选举中抢占先机。

一位众议院高级领导层助理告诉CNN：“在你建立起这套机制之前，你会受到来自各方利益相关者和公众的质问，他们会质问你采取了哪些措施来保证未来的选举不会受到损害。你不可能等到2028年。”