Election Officials Are Getting Ready for ICE to Show Up at the Polls

A week later, during the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting, now acting attorney general Todd Blanche endorsed the idea of ICE at the polls and repeated the conspiracy theory about noncitizens voting as an excuse to deploy ICE. “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?” he asked. “Illegals can’t vote. It doesn’t make any sense.”

When asked for comment regarding ICE being deployed to the polls, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump has been clear: Securing our elections and ensuring only American citizens vote in American elections is a top priority.”

Similarly, a DHS spokesperson referred WIRED to Mullin’s comments, adding, “Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders.”

Elections have, as specified by the US Constitution, always been run by the states, and despite Trump and his allies calling for elections to be “nationalized,” that will remain the case for the 2026 midterms. Deploying ICE, the National Guard, or any other armed federal agents to polling locations is illegal under US law.

Political messaging, however, has left election officials and voters unsure about what’s to come.

“I think the administration’s track record is such that, as much as I reassure people and tell them that we’ve gotten that assurance [that ICE won’t be at polling locations], I’m not sure how much they believe,” says an election director from an eastern state. “I’m not sure the administration itself really knows the direction it’s going to go in, but we are preparing for all scenarios.” The director asked not to be named due to fears of retribution from the government and concerns that federal election funds could be withheld.

In Maine, secretary of state Shenna Bellows sought to get assurances from the government in writing, sending a letter to the DHS in March seeking confirmation that ICE will not be deployed to the polls. The letter was signed by eight other secretaries of state. Months later, Bellows has yet to receive a response.

“We haven’t received any satisfactory assurances from the federal government, but we don’t expect any,” says Bellows. “Donald Trump doesn’t get to invade our polling places, seize our ballots, or control our elections just because he wants to. The Constitution and federal law could not be more clear that states, not the federal government, are in charge of elections.”

Maine is one of dozens of states the Department of Justice has sued over their refusal to grant access to unredacted voter rolls. Last September, the government filed a lawsuit against Bellows, claiming that in her capacity as secretary of state, Maine had not complied with the National Voter Registration Act. Bellows has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Like many other election directors, Bellows and her colleagues are planning for eventualities they have never had to consider before. “Election officials are the world’s best contingency planners,” says Bellows. “In the past, we’ve planned for natural disasters, for electricity outages, for, most recently, bomb threats, and we have been able to oversee successful elections.”