How officials are preparing for Election Day disruptions — including from Trump

By Gabe Cohen, Marshall Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Election officials have spent months preparing to run the 2026 vote — and bracing for what could disrupt it. They’re training workers, tightening security and readying legal challenges for threats that could stretch well beyond Election Day.

“Lately we have to take into account really horrible, worst-case scenarios, whether that is outside actors or foreign actors,” Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin said. “But the most important thing is that we have to be prepared.”

Planning for trouble is part of running elections. But this year’s preparations by state and local officials come amid a ramped-up campaign by President Donald Trump and his allies to undermine confidence in voting integrity and assert greater federal control over elections.

“Sadly, a new hazard on the list this time that’s never been on the list before is the possibility that our own federal government would try to interfere somehow, directly or indirectly,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, told CNN.

What Trump could do

Officials have spent months considering what that might look like: a last-minute executive order, ballot seizures, federal agents at the polls or efforts to undermine trust in the results.

Trump and his allies continue to allege widespread noncitizen voting and election fraud, including in midterm voting already underway. They have threatened to prosecute election officials who fail to secure the vote or allow noncitizens to cast ballots and have filed lawsuits to restrict the counting of disputed ballots in California and the certification of results in Alaska.

“The more this stuff comes up, and the fact that it is based on so much disinformation or half-truths, it’s incredibly frustrating,” said Matt Crane, the Executive Director of the Colorado County Clerks Association and a Republican. “We’re going to keep working our asses off to make sure the election runs well on Tuesday and that people can have confidence in the process.”

Some election leaders have prepared for the administration to potentially take even more drastic steps on or after Election Day, like disrupting polling places, confiscating ballots or election equipment, challenging the results or going after election administrators.

So far, however, Trump’s attempts to interfere have mostly played out in the courts and with letters demanding that election officials set aside certain ballots so that those who cast them could be investigated — requests administrators have been rebuffing. Early in-person voting has been underway in states across the country — in some states, for weeks — and there have been no reports of major disruptions involving the federal government.

But officials are prepared in case that changes.

Last week, Trump attacked Minnesota’s elections, as he has other states’, writing on Truth Social that a Republican candidate could lose only “if they cheat by playing games with the Ballots as they come in.”

“The Federal Government will be watching closely,” Trump wrote.

For Minnesota leaders, it only validated their concerns and preparations, which included two trips to closed-door conferences this year where they met with officials from other states to game out doomsday scenarios — and how they’d respond.

“We are sort of shadow boxing here,” Simon said. “We don’t know when or if the blow will land, and hopefully it never will. But we would be foolish not to be thinking through worst case scenario.”

Others fear the biggest threat of federal disruption could come after the midterms, fueled by challenges to the results and allegations of fraud.

“What’s the administration going to say to try to put a cloud over everything?” Crane said. “And then as all that rhetoric ratchets up over here, the concern is always that violence against election officials and our facilities increases as that disinformation increases too.”

Fearing disruptions at the polls

State and local leaders have been drilling poll workers and coordinating with local police on how to respond if ICE officers or other federal agents show up at voting sites.

Wisconsin’s Elections Commission advised poll leaders to alert municipal clerks, inspect badges or warrants, document encounters and keep agents outside when possible. Cherokee County, Georgia, led by a Republican election director, added similar training for its poll workers after its Trump-aligned State Election Board asked the administration to investigate Georgia’s election systems.

Arlington County, Virginia, sued to keep armed federal officers away from its polling places. In Arizona, the voting-rights group LUCHA has trained election observers to watch for immigration agents.

Minnesota officials have spent months reassuring voters that polling places are safe and officials are ready if ICE shows up, following a major immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Some local leaders have rehearsed an even more disruptive scenario: federal agents arriving to seize ballots or voting equipment. Boulder County, Colorado conducted trainings for election officials on what federal warrants look like and encouraged them to strategize with the county attorney’s office on how to respond. Others in the state focused on airtight chain-of-custody records so they can pinpoint what’s been taken if ballots are seized.

“This is new territory, I think, for just about everybody,” Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick told CNN. “So, we’ve provided guidance around making sure that you always follow the law.”

For Fulton County, Georgia, that concern follows the FBI search of an election hub in January, when agents took hundreds of boxes of ballots and records from the 2020 election. County Board Chairman Robb Pitts says he still doesn’t know where the records are and is fighting to recover them. He fears another intervention on Election Day.

“Worst possible scenario: Election Day, before the votes are counted, they come in, confiscate the ballots, take them off. What do we do now?” Pitts told CNN. “People say that’s impossible. Well, what I’ve learned with this administration: the impossible is always possible. We’re prepared, though.”

The Justice Department plans to send more than 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states has opened another front. They’re federal lawyers — not law enforcement — with narrowly defined powers, but election leaders fear a DOJ reshaped under Trump could push past those limits.

Minnesota and Wyoming are among several states barring DOJ monitors from direct access to polling places. Wyoming’s Republican leaders accused two monitors of overstepping during the August primary by seeking to question voters and workers and inspect voting machines.

Colorado offered access with conditions, including an escort from the secretary of state’s office. DOJ declined and will keep its monitors outside. Meanwhile, Minnesota is sending state observers to keep tabs on their federal counterparts — effectively monitoring the monitors.

The administration says its monitors, a longstanding presence in US elections, won’t disrupt voting. Their role is to observe and document potential problems for post-election investigations and challenges.

“What’s concerning is that they are looking for something. Something no other election monitor has ever been able to find,” Ingham County, Michigan Clerk Barb Byrum told CNN.

Byrum has served in her post since 2013 and has never seen DOJ monitors in her county until this year. She said she was suspicious of their presence during the August primary – because the DOJ’s justification included incorrect claims about long lines and improper balloting in her county – but things went smoothly.

“They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” she added. “So why are they coming back? Well, they’re coming back, I think, to cast more doubt on the integrity of our elections.”

Lawsuits ready to go

States have pre-drafted potential legal challenges before any confrontation occurs. Others have preemptively hired outside attorneys. They’re prepared to rush to court and get immediate relief or an injection if federal interference becomes a reality.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar described preparing “Mad Libs” legal filings, leaving names and jurisdictions blank so lawyers can move quickly, especially if agents come to the polls or attempt to confiscate machines or ballots.

“We made sure to have pre-drafted legal finds and a lot of legal research completed and ready to go to be able to respond in moments if something is actually occurring,” Aguilar said. “And the top two major issues was one, federal agents had polling locations, and two, the feds coming in and taking the machines and the ballots.”

Nevada is already under federal scrutiny. The Department of Homeland Security says it identified thousands of possible noncitizens registered to vote there — figures state leaders dispute.

Nevada officials have received seven grand jury subpoenas in recent months, though they declined to discuss details, citing legal constraints. Aguilar says he has been told he is under DOJ investigation.

His staff is juggling those demands with the work of running an election.

“It’s mostly having to reassure them that we will work to protect them,” he said.

DOJ issued subpoenas to California election officials and sued the state last month, alleging that roughly 20,000 possible noncitizens are on its voter rolls and may be voting in the midterms. The administration wants those ballots separated and withheld from the count until citizenship can be verified.

Crane, the Republican head of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said the local officials he works with have those subpoenas “in the back of their minds” as they try to carry out the election.

“There’s more pressure now because you know one little mistake can be amplified into a national disinformation campaign,” Crane told CNN.

‘They want us talking about it’

Election officials are walking a delicate line heading into Election Day: preparing for the worst without making voters fear the polls.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes pushed back on concerns about federal action, saying he thinks fear is part of the administration’s strategy — and its threats run up against legal limits.

“The threats themselves are the voter intimidation. The idea that voters are worried means that the administration is getting what they want,” Fontes told CNN. “I don’t mean to be blithe about it, but the reality is that until something happens, it’s just an empty threat.”

Other election leaders share his concern that the administration’s promises to scrutinize the midterms could keep voters home. They stress that they have no evidence of planned Election Day disruptions that would prevent people from casting ballots.

Their preparations, they say, are a precaution — not a reason to stay away.

Still, Fontes has spent months making sure local officials understand states’ authority over elections and that local law enforcement is prepared to enforce the boundaries of federal oversight.

His message: Anyone who interferes with voters will face consequences, whether an activist or a federal agent.

“If they’re breaking the law, we’re going to prosecute them,” he said. “It’s just that simple.”

Safety concerns for poll workers

Election officials are also preparing in case private citizens, activists or partisan observers disrupt disrupting polling places and ballot-counting sites.

Online, activists are already pushing recycled claims of rigged elections and alleged problems with ballots and voting machines. Minnesota charged two right-wing influencers, including James O’Keefe, with felony counts of unlawful voting and identity theft for a stunt they recorded at several polling places during the August primary.

Officials fear those narratives could become ammunition to challenge results or undermine public trust in the outcome.

Election offices have spent years strengthening their defenses against threats with added cameras, bullet-resistant glass and tighter access controls. In recent weeks, Georgia election workers have handled mail wearing gloves and masks after suspicious letters reached election offices and lawmakers nationwide.

In Irwin County, Georgia, poll workers are getting another piece of equipment for Election Day: panic buttons.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.