Democratic leaders are taking the Trump administration to court over the possibility of armed federal agents appearing at polling places during November’s midterm elections.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Governors Association filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block armed federal law enforcement officers from being deployed at or near voting locations.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to prohibit armed officers from being ordered into the vicinity of polling places, ballot drop boxes, curbside voting locations and other sites where votes are collected, counted or certified.
And Democrats say the administration’s own words are a major reason they’re going to court.
The dispute centers partly on a series of statements from senior Trump administration officials about circumstances in which federal agents could appear at voting locations.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said ICE will not patrol polling places.
But he also left open important exceptions.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place,” Mullin said earlier this month, “or we’re serving a warrant.”
“If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be.”
DHS has separately said that it is “not planning operations targeting polling locations.”
FBI Director Kash Patel has similarly stopped short of saying agents could never appear.
Asked about the issue during congressional testimony, Patel said:
“If there’s a reason to go there because there’s been a violation, we will. Otherwise, we won’t.”
The Democratic plaintiffs argue that statements like those leave open precisely the kind of federal law-enforcement presence they want the court to prohibit.
The administration disputes that characterization.
The Justice Department previously said it had never announced plans to send federal law enforcement to polling places and described suggestions otherwise as “fearmongering.”
DHS has also denied planning operations specifically targeting polling sites.
But Democrats argue the issue isn’t hypothetical.
Their lawsuit points to incidents involving federal officers at voting locations earlier this year.
One occurred during New York’s June primary in Syracuse.
Two federal officers entered a polling location and confronted election worker Paigelynne Gonyea over a social media post concerning an ICE officer.
DHS said the encounter concerned what it alleged was doxxing of a federal officer. Gonyea disputed the government’s characterization of her conduct.
The New York State Board of Elections said the encounter did not disrupt voting and was unrelated to the election itself.
But another poll worker who witnessed the encounter described it as a “scare tactic.”
Now Democrats are asking a federal court to establish boundaries before November.
Their complaint invokes Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation, as well as a federal statute restricting government officials from bringing armed personnel to places where elections are held.
The plaintiffs argue that merely creating the possibility that armed federal officers could be waiting at polling places could deter some Americans from voting.
“Dispatching armed federal agents to the polls — or even threatening to do so — is forbidden by federal law,” the Democratic plaintiffs argue in their complaint.
The administration has not deployed armed federal officers across polling locations, and no court has yet accepted the Democrats’ claim that an unlawful federal policy exists.
The lawsuit is asking the judiciary to act before that question becomes more than a legal argument.
And this isn’t the first challenge.
Denver, LULAC, UnidosUS and Common Cause filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month. The NAACP and other civil-rights organizations subsequently brought another case seeking restrictions on federal law enforcement at polling locations.
What makes Wednesday’s case different is who has now entered the fight.
The Democratic leaders of both chambers of Congress — along with the organizations charged with electing Democratic senators, representatives and governors — are now plaintiffs themselves.
Their argument boils down to a straightforward demand:
Don’t wait until Election Day to find out what the administration believes it can do.
Put the legal boundaries in place now.
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