Immigration raids and federal actions involving election records are prompting Democratic election officials to expand security planning for the fall’s midterm elections, several secretaries of state said during an annual gathering of state election officials on Thursday. The officials pointed to concerns that the Trump administration could seek ways to interfere with how states run elections or how votes get counted. They said they are preparing for scenarios that include immigration enforcement activity near polling locations and attempts to seize voting equipment.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat running for governor, said the focus has shifted beyond ensuring that ballots are delivered and counted securely. Benson said there is now an “election security component” to planning for scenarios like those officials described as possible interference, and she tied the expanded planning to what she said are seeds for future interference by the Trump administration. In her remarks about deterrence and mitigation, she said her office is planning with local election officials across Michigan for crisis scenarios and for court if needed.
Benson said her office’s training now includes the possibility of bomb threats and also includes the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents appearing at polling places. She said her instructions are designed so officials know when to deter and mitigate and when they need law enforcement to help protect voters. Benson also indicated that the planning would cover circumstances in which local election officials might need to respond to threats or disruptive federal activity.
Several of the officials said the renewed planning is tied to recent federal actions affecting election administration. They referenced Thursday’s FBI search of an election center in the Atlanta-area, in Georgia’s most populous county, where federal agents took ballots and other records related to the 2020 election. The search, the report said, renewed Trump’s longstanding grievances over the 2020 presidential election, which he has repeatedly claimed—without evidence presented in the reporting here—that widespread fraud marred the results.
The AP report also described how aggressive immigration enforcement in Minnesota, which resulted in the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal agents, is part of the background informing election officials’ concerns. Benson said her office is now planning for various crisis scenarios in coordination with officials across the state and with attention to what could occur during the midterm voting period.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she is preparing for the midterm elections by revamping prior contingency plans and conducting disaster simulations with state leadership and local clerks. She said one of the most worrisome changes under the Trump administration has been a dismantling of efforts to track election interference and foreign meddling. Griswold also said she is concerned about whether the administration could make changes through the U.S. Postal Service, given steps already taken that worry officials in states that rely heavily on mail ballots.
Griswold’s comments also placed the spotlight on how federal actions and policy moves could intersect with election logistics and voter access. The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the election officials’ concerns, according to the report. The story also cited that Trump has signed a wide-ranging executive order on election changes that has been largely halted by courts, and it noted that the Constitution gives states—and to an extent, Congress—authority over elections.
The AP report further described how administration officials connected the deportation agenda to election administration in a way that alarmed democracy advocates. It said Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urging him to share the state’s voter rolls as part of an effort to “help bring back law and order,” and it described Minnesota as having faced widespread protests linked to increased immigration enforcement and the deadly shootings by federal immigration agents.
Finally, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said federal law will be on the side of states in constraining what she described as the most extraordinary conduct—especially if armed federal agents show up around polling places. Bellows said that would not be a hard case under the law, but she added that she worries show-of-force by immigration officers, arrests, and deportations in cities could deter some people from going out to vote. She said that fear could extend beyond daily life and affect voters’ willingness to leave their homes to cast ballots while ICE or other federal agents are patrolling.