There is a troubling question that looms over the Nov. 3 midterms: Will President Donald Trump's continuing attempts to exert unconstitutional control over elections include sending armed federal agents or troops to polling places?

The Trump administration's answer to that question so far has been to ask: Why would that be a problem?

Lawyers have an answer: It's against the law. And election administrators have another: Sending armed agents or troops into polling places would cause chaos, confusion and concern for voters.

Federal law makes it illegal to station "troops or armed men" at polling places "unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States."

Three federal lawsuits – filed on Sept. 24 by Democratic Party officials, filed on Sept. 18 by civil rights groups and labor unions, filed on Sept. 10 by Latino groups – all ask the same federal district court in Washington, DC, to block Trump from sending armed agents to polling places.

Election administrators across the country, now deep into planning for the midterms just five weeks away, are closely watching those lawsuits as they are forced to prepare for the possibility of armed federal agents at polling places.

At polling places and beyond, election workers are ready to fight back

Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar, Nevada's secretary of state, told me that he thinks the threat of federal agents is........

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