Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S., has reported that as the 2026 midterms approach, concerns about potential disruptions to election administration are being raised. Olivia Hale, the election director in San Joaquin County, California, said on a recent call sponsored by the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, “‘What if ICE shows up?’ That’s what I’m hearing.”
In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) has introduced a bill that would expand the language of the state’s election code to include federal agents. Currently, the law states that “no police officer … shall be within one hundred feet of a polling place” on Election Day. Kenyatta’s proposal would replace “police officer” with the more expansive term “law enforcement officer.”
The prospect of passing any election legislation before the November election is slim, as the bill has yet to receive a vote in the state House. Kenyatta said, “We have become so accustomed to the president blatantly lying about the election, threatening people, using the court process and administrative powers granted to him to try to intimidate voters. So there is in my view a real necessity to clarify the law.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has not articulated any specific plans to send ICE to the polls this year. However, the administration’s messaging has been inconsistent on this issue. In February, former White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said she “can’t guarantee” there wouldn’t be ICE agents around the polls in November. Later that month, Heather Honey, a Department of Homeland Security official, told a group of state election officials that any such suggestion was “disinformation” and that “there will be no ICE presence at polling locations for this election.”
In July, Attorney General Todd Blanche didn’t rule out the possibility. In September, the Department of Homeland Security said it was not “planning” ICE operations targeting polling places but might conduct “targeted enforcement” actions if there is a public safety threat at a polling location. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the department reiterated it is not planning any operations targeting polling places.
The concern that ICE may come to polling places prompted a coalition of civil rights groups and the City of Denver to sue the Trump administration last month to stop any such action. A similar but separate lawsuit was also filed recently by the NAACP and a coalition of civil rights groups and unions.
Voting rights groups are worried in Pennsylvania as well. Kadida Kenner, CEO of the New Pennsylvania Project, said, “There are some concerns that immigrant communities or underserved communities have that there could be ICE at the polls.”
