Paul López, Denver's clerk and recorder overseeing elections, has noticed voters have a new concern this year. "Every single meeting I have, there's somebody that asks the question, 'What can we do if federal agents are at the polls?'" López said. Federal interference at the polls is against the law.
But it is increasingly a scenario López and other voting officials and civil rights groups are planning for and trying to prevent, since Trump administration officials have repeatedly floated the possibility of federal officers at polling locations. López is part of a coalition that filed a lawsuit last week. Another coalition filed one early Friday.
Each is aimed at blocking federal officers from the polls under different aspects of federal law. NPR is the first to report on the latest lawsuit, which was brought by civil rights groups and unions. President Trump, when asked in May about the idea that federal agents could be deployed to polling places, said he would do "anything necessary" to make sure the U.S. has "honest" elections.
Earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could serve warrants at polling places. And border czar Tom Homan told Fox News last week that agents would not be "sweeping polling places," but earlier in the year also questioned why anyone would be concerned by such activity. In a statement to NPR, the DHS similarly said ICE "is not planning operations targeting polling locations." Though the next line of the statement said "ICE conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action." At a contentious congressional hearing Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel similarly refused to rule out the possibility of FBI agents at the polls, though he did say agents would "follow the law." During primary elections, there were also multiple reports in various states of federal law enforcement activity inside or near polling sites.
Furthermore, as the election nears, DHS has been surging resources to hunt for non-U.S. citizens who may be on state voter rolls or have cast ballots in the past. That's even as prior audits and investigations have found noncitizen voting to be extremely rare. The administration's actions and shifting messages about federal agents appearing at or near polling places are having a real impact on voters.
Roughly 40% of voters now think it's likely ICE agents will be present at voting locations in their area, according to new polling released this week from the University of California San Diego. The survey also found voters of color were significantly more likely than white voters to say they feared voting could put them at risk of being questioned by immigration authorities despite being U.S. citizens, something election officials worry could dampen turnout even if no enforcement efforts materialize. Denver's López said he tells voters if federal officers show up at the polls, he hopes they will be arrested.
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