Any Trump official who sends armed federal agents to polling places this November could be walking into a trap that springs years later.
Federal law bars “troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held,” and the crime carries a five-year statute of limitations, The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo reported Friday. That leaves the door open for an administration elected in 2028 to prosecute violations committed during this year’s midterms.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told The Bulwark that window is a big reason he isn’t losing much sleep over the prospect of ICE agents at the polls, even though his staff has taken part in exercises simulating exactly that scenario.
Fontes said his office is coordinating with the state attorney general and the governor to bring county and municipal police, along with counterterrorism officials, into Arizona’s fusion center, an intelligence hub set up to respond to threats, “just to make sure we’re ready for any scenario and any threats or intimidation against our voters.”
“It seems unusual that we would need to prepare for threats from federal officers, but if that’s what this administration decides to do, we’ll be prepared to deal with it,” he said.
The Trump administration has denied any plan to station immigration agents at voting sites, but its assurances have come with caveats. Former press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February she couldn’t “guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November,” and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that ICE could turn up at certain polling places to serve a warrant or respond to a specific threat.
Steve Bannon went further, saying earlier this year that ICE should “surround the polls” to stop what he called “another” stolen election.
Democratic secretaries of state and attorneys general sent staff to Milwaukee in May to wargame federal interference, and Hillary Clinton convened about three dozen legal experts, elected officials, and others in Washington in August for a similar exercise.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar called the prospect of individual agents deciding on their own to park near polling places in Latino-majority districts “definitely a real possibility.”
He said Nevada, like several other states, recently made intimidating poll workers a state felony.
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