DNC suing Trump admin after silence over armed Feds at polls 

There’s a new lawsuit that might sound dramatic at first, but the question at the center of it is actually pretty simple.  

Are armed federal agents going to show up at polling places in the next election? Yes or no?  

The Democratic National Committee is now suing the Trump administration because they say they can’t get a clear answer. Since October, they’ve filed 11 Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and the Department of Defense asking whether there are any plans or discussions about deploying federal officers or troops to polling locations, ballot drop boxes or election offices.  

According to the lawsuit, those agencies have largely gone silent.  

The lawsuit reads in part “To ensure that the American people obtain timely knowledge of potential threats to free and fair elections and to enable the DNC to take appropriate action to ensure voting rights are protected, the DNC now seeks this Court’s aid to enforce.”   

To be clear, there are no confirmed plans to send armed agents to the polls. And federal law already bars military personnel or armed federal officers from interfering with elections or even showing up in an official capacity at polling places. The reason this lawsuit exists is because of mixed signals.  

President Trump has previously said he’d like to “take over” elections. Some outside advisers have suggested declaring a national emergency to seize voting machines. And when asked directly whether federal agents could be near polling locations, the White House press secretary said she couldn’t guarantee that wouldn’t happen.  

That ambiguity is exactly what Democrats say they want clarified.  

And the backdrop here is something bigger: months of renewed claims that elections in America are riddled with fraud. The president has repeatedly suggested Democrats can only win by cheating, which is backed in no evidence.  

And when you look at the actual data, those claims don’t hold up.  

Even the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has tracked election fraud cases across the country for more than two decades, found a rate of about 0.0000845 percent, with no election outcomes changed by ballot fraud.  

Think about that for a second. Every major election has lawyers from both parties inside counting rooms watching the process. For widespread fraud to exist, you’d have to believe thousands of Republican and Democratic attorneys are either incompetent or complicit.  

Still, the rhetoric is escalating. Just weeks ago, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said this: “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again.”  

Members of Congress are trying to shut the door on that possibility altogether. A new bill called the Democracy Without Intimidation Act would make it illegal for federal law enforcement agencies to deploy officers to polling places, and would limit immigration enforcement in the weeks leading up to an election.  

Because in a democracy, voting is supposed to feel routine — not militarized.  

If the administration simply made clear it will follow existing law and acknowledge the long history of voter intimidation in this country, this wouldn’t even be a debate. There’s no evidence ICE agents near polling places are needed to protect election integrity. So a clear answer would go a long way toward restoring confidence and letting voters focus on the one thing that actually matters: casting their ballot. 

Lindsey Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.   

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