As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, voting experts are watching to see how the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to assert more federal control over elections will play out.
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efforts → head → elections
Since President Donald Trump retook the White House, his administration has tried to force states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls and to restrict mail-in voting.
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administration → retake → voting
The Department of Homeland Security has used its resources to identify and prosecute noncitizen voters, an effort that has unfolded alongside the agency’s massive crackdown on immigrants.
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that → use → immigrants
The president has justified these steps by claiming, without evidence, that American elections are beset by fraud and that illegal voting is tipping the scales in favor of Democrats.
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voting → justify → Democrats
Help Us Report on Key Election Issues
ProPublica’s reporters are on the lookout for what’s going right and what isn’t.
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what → help → lookout
We’re monitoring voter suppression and interference, election observers and poll watchers, extremism tied to the election, and ICE activity at the polls.
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We → monitor → polls
Have you seen something?
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you → see → something
Courts have thwarted most of the administration’s plans to date, but Trump and his top deputies have kept up the pressure.
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Trump → thwart → pressure
Most recently, they’ve threatened to prosecute election officials who don’t reject ballots from people that the federal government has identified as likely noncitizens.
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government → threaten → noncitizens
The administration hasn’t explicitly ruled out sending federal agents to the polls or seizing ballots or voting machines.
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administration → rule → ballots
Election experts say the cumulative effect has been to ramp up anxiety about the midterms and to erode voters’ trust in the system.
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effect → say → system
“The administration has been creating a lot of noise, a lot of confusion, a lot of doubt,” said Ben Hovland, whom Trump fired as a commissioner for the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission earlier this year.
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Trump → create → Commission
He said he worries that this will make voters “sit it out” and “throw their hands up.”
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voters → say → hands
In an emailed response to questions, a DHS spokesperson said Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is not planning operations targeting polling locations,” adding that the agency would only arrest people at the polls to address a safety threat as part of “intelligence-driven targeted enforcement.”
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agency → email → enforcement
The DHS and the Justice Department “are laser focused on identifying, prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens,” the spokesperson added.
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spokesperson → focus → citizens
“Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation.”
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you → vote → charges
Before and on Election Day, it’s typical for the major political parties to mount poll-watching operations, but both Democrats and Republicans say they’ve expanded these activities in this pressurized midterm.
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they → ’ → midterm
Republicans will focus on issues such as voter eligibility and voter-roll accuracy, according to Ally Triolo, the Republican National Committee’s election integrity communications director.
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Republicans → focus → Triolo
Democrats will concentrate on voter intimidation and other hurdles to voting, Angelo Fernández Hernández, a Democratic National Committee spokesperson, said.
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Hernández → concentrate → voting
Here are five issues that voting rights experts say they’re watching as this year’s election unfolds:
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election → say → that
An incident in Leon County, in the Florida Panhandle, illustrates the widespread anxiety about law enforcement at the polls.
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incident → illustrate → polls
Mark Earley, the county’s supervisor of elections, told ProPublica he was “furious” when two marked U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles parked outside the county’s busiest early voting location last month, after he’d been repeatedly reassured by the administration that agents would not do this.
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agents → tell → this
He reported the sighting to the FBI, then learned that the agents, who were headed out of state, had just stopped by to try to vote themselves.
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who → report → state
The episode generated a flurry of news coverage.
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episode → generate → coverage
“Given the negative media coverage regarding federal agents at the polls, it shows pretty bad judgment that they showed up in their official vehicles,” Earley said.
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Earley → give → vehicles
It’s against the law for federal law enforcement to be near polling places.
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enforcement → ’ → places
Nick Brown, Washington’s attorney general, leads a group of Democratic state officials and voting rights advocates who have been planning how to respond if, indeed, there is real federal interference.
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who → lead → officials
The group has “war-gamed” how to react if government agents attempt to commandeer voting equipment or ballots.
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agents → game → equipment
“We’ve seen the tension and chaos that’s in the air,” Brown said.
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Brown → see → air
He called the federal government “the biggest challenge to smooth elections right now, which is not the way it’s supposed to be.”
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it → call → elections
A DOJ spokesperson said “the best preparation for any election official is following federal law.”
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preparation → say → law
It’s routine for DOJ monitors to watch over polling places, and the agency has assured states that, in the midterms, its observers will follow the law and not interfere with voting or election administration.
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observers → ’ → voting
Still, state officials remain concerned.
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officials → remain → ?
During Wyoming’s primary election, poll workers said they felt uneasy when DOJ monitors asked about their training and to inspect voting systems.
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monitors → say → systems
The state’s governor criticized these actions as “a bit aggressive” and “irregular.”
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governor → criticize → actions
What Effect Will Noncitizen Voter Challenges Have?
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Challenges → have → Effect
The Trump administration’s multipronged effort targeting alleged noncitizen voters has already led to eligible voters being improperly removed from the rolls.
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voters → target → rolls
Voting rights groups fear this will block some U.S. citizens from being able to vote when they show up on Tuesday.
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they → fear → Tuesday
Federal officials have made clear they plan to go after anyone they think is committing voter fraud.
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they → make → fraud
On the first day of early voting in Texas, Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, posted a YouTube video announcing his intentions.
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Reitz → post → intentions
…and 60 more, not listed.
The Aporia
