Anxiety is growing Trump may try to disrupt the midterm elections. States like Michigan are prepping.

Local and state election officials across the country are preparing for possible federal interference in the midterms, after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE could serve warrants at polling places, prompting a lawsuit from Denver. Officials in Michigan and elsewhere describe adding “federal misbehavior” to the list of contingencies they plan for, alongside tornadoes and bomb threats.

Trump has declined to rule out a national emergency declaration or deploying ICE to polls, while Defense Secretary Hegseth calls questions about troops at polling places a hypothetical and the Pentagon says it has no deployment plans. Mullin separately sought a DOJ probe into ballot tabulation machines using barcodes, a move experts worry could be used to challenge ballot validity.

Legal experts and election administrators say decentralized state control makes large-scale interference unlikely to succeed, and courts would likely block any deployment of federal agents to polling places. Still, a UC San Diego survey found only 49% of respondents expect the midterms to be free and fair.

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