How Trump could interfere in US midterm elections

As US midterm elections approach, state election officials are wary of potential interference from President Donald Trump's administration. Concerns include federal authorities disrupting voting, challenging ballot counts, and attempting to block unfavorable results. Trump's Republican party is struggling to maintain control of Congress. The White House claims its actions are aimed at protecting election security, but many feared scenarios remain hypothetical.

Key potential flashpoints include:

Before election day, the Justice Department has obtained voter registration lists from 30 states, seeking to identify non-citizens. They have lost more than two dozen cases in court. The department has also requested that ballots be set aside for about 20,000 individuals in California and over 400 in Washington state who are suspected of being non-citizens. Both requests have been rejected by federal judges, citing disruption to ongoing elections.

During polling stations, the Justice Department plans to deploy around 1,000 election monitors nationwide, a historic deployment. Democrats and voting rights groups fear these monitors could intimidate voters. The monitors will be unarmed and barred from interfering with voting, and will be drawn from sources other than the FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Other concerns include federal agents seeking warrants or subpoenas for election materials, potentially disrupting the counting process. In January, the FBI seized ballots and other 2020 election records from Fulton County, Georgia, in connection with Trump's false claims of victory. Courts have ruled that the president has no direct role in running elections, and federal courts have rejected the administration's main legal challenges so far.