Lawsuits seek to prevent federal officers at polls : NPR

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.

“We have a plan put together just in case if that happens and it’s not going to be a good day for any ICE agent or any other federal agent or anybody trying to intimidate anybody at the polls,” López said. “They’re going to face prison sentences.”

The federal lawsuit López is a plaintiff in argues sending armed federal officers to polling places violates a federal law that goes back to the Civil War era. Democracy Forward’s legal director Brian Netter, one of the attorneys litigating the case, called Trump administration officials’ statements on the matter a “striking and disturbing departure from settled U.S. law.”

The new federal lawsuit, filed Friday in Washington, D.C., argues the administration’s suggestions that federal agents could be deployed to the polls violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidating another person from voting.

That lawsuit describes the Trump administration’s hunt for noncitizen voters, and says immigration officers are “reportedly using flawed methodologies and faulty data that will almost certainly result in the surveillance, investigation, and even unlawful detention of U.S. citizens, particularly those from communities of color.”

Earlier this week, a whistleblower report alleged that what DHS has dubbed its Unlawful Voter Initiative is moving at breakneck speed and relying on unreliable data, leading to U.S. citizens being mistakenly flagged. In a statement about that report, DHS said its “investigative efforts are conducted diligently and professionally.” In recent weeks, federal authorities have charged a number of individuals with alleged illegal voting.

The new lawsuit says the administration’s rhetoric, along with surges of immigration enforcement around the country that “targeted and terrorized communities with large Black, Latino and Asian populations,” have led to a “climate in which voters, especially voters of color, are intimidated and fearful of engaging in the democratic process.”

The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment about the allegations in the suit.

“I think what we’re seeing is a replay of all the fears and harms that Black communities experienced during the civil rights era that led to the Voting Rights Act in the first place,” said Bethany Li, executive director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is litigating the case on behalf of nine organizations, including Mi Familia en Acción, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, the NAACP and four national unions.

“The whole idea was to prevent voter intimidation in similar form in the future. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now from the federal government,” Li said.

The organizations bringing the latest lawsuit say voters should not be deterred.

Héctor Sánchez Barba, president and CEO of Mi Familia en Acción, said, “Know your rights, make a plan to vote, and make your voice heard.”