Two questions hang over the midterm elections as Americans go to the polls on Tuesday: Who will win, of course. But also, will anyone interfere with the voting and the counting — including a president who for months has cast doubt over the balloting?
President Donald Trump has taken unprecedented steps to insert himself and the federal government into how the midterms are conducted, but those efforts have gained little ground. Election officials are projecting calm, but they say they are prepared for any scenario. Here’s what they — and we — are watching:
Federal intervention with agents and monitors at the polls
Federal law makes it a felony to station troops or armed agents where an election is being held. Trump has declined to rule outsending troops or immigration agents to the polls. But the military’s top officer has said there are no plans to send troops to polling places, and the Department of Homeland Security has said Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is not planning operations targeting polling locations.”
Justice Department monitors are deployed in every election, typically without controversy, to observe voting and protect voters’ rights. The department on Tuesday unveiled a list of locations — more than 120 counties and cities, in all 50 states — where it is sending about 1,000 of them, in what it called its “largest monitoring effort in history.” On Monday night, a federal judge declined to bar staff from federal law enforcement agencies from serving as monitors but ordered the department to ensure they are unarmed, out of uniform and unable to make arrests.
Challenges to noncitizen voters
On Monday night, the Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s request to order California to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 residents it claims might be noncitizens. California officials say it appears many people on the federal list are U.S. citizens or do not have active voter registrations. Trump has long insisted voting by noncitizens is rampant, but instances remain rare, according to independent reviews and court findings.
“We’re trying to ensure that every citizen has their vote counted, and that it’s not canceled out by someone who’s not allowed to,” acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter said last week. A separate court order barring ICE agents from questioning likely citizens about their voter eligibility in nine states expires when polls close Tuesday.
The fight after the polls close
The Justice Department’s litigation strategy has failed so far but appears designed to give the department more time to contest results. A federal judge on Sunday rejected its bid to hold up certification of Alaska’s Senate results if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-Alaska) narrowly loses. The department had argued voters could confuse him with another candidate with a nearly identical name. It swiftly appealed. Last week, it sent letterswarning election administrators in every state to preserve election records or face prosecution.
Some local officials in past elections have tried to block results by refusing to certify them, but those efforts failed. And nearly 600 high-profile right-wing social media accounts, podcasts and other online media have published more than 7,000 statements questioning the 2026 election’s integrity, a Washington Post analysisfound.
Threats, hoaxes and rumors
In 2024, false bomb threats that federal and local officials blamed on Russia briefly closed polling stations in some areas of Georgia and other states. Election officials are also mindful that false rumors of intimidation can easily spread and take on a life of their own.
A Trump administration focused on fraud
The administration has stepped up efforts to root out election fraud, warning that violators will be prosecuted.
“If you violate federal election law anywhere in the Southern District, I will hunt you down and prosecute you,” U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz in the Southern District of Texas wrote online last month. On the eve of the election, Attorney General Todd Blanche urged people on X to report “illegal conduct,” including noncitizen voting and ballot-box stuffing, to the FBI.
Trump last week promised a $1 million bounty to anyone who reports voter fraud that leads to a conviction, without saying how someone could collect.
Where to get help
Read our guide to your voting rights. If you witness or experience intimidation or coercion at the polls, or run into problems casting a ballot, report it to:
- Your local or state election officials. Find yours at vote.gov.
- The U.S. Department of Justice voting rights hotline, 800-253-3931, or online at civilrights.justice.gov/report.
- The nonpartisan Election Protection Hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE or 866ourvote.org.
- For threats or violence at a polling place, call 911.
The post Will Trump or others interfere with voting? What to know about election security. appeared first on Washington Post.
