By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-25 21:21:49 | Updated at 2026-09-25 22:04:28
1 hour ago
Democratic leaders sued the federal government on Sept. 23, asking a federal judge to keep armed federal agents away from polling places during the November midterm elections.
The 29-page complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Governors Association, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
It names U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, acting ICE Director David Venturella, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and FBI Director Kash Patel as defendants.
The plaintiffs ask the court to bar the defendants from “operating or carrying weapons in the vicinity of open polling places, including drop boxes, curbside voting locations, and any similar places where votes are taken, collected, received, counted, or certified.” The ban would cover early voting, Election Day, and any post-election ballot-curing period. The plaintiffs also ask the court to bar the agencies from “threatening to engage in any such action.”
“We are taking strong, joint legal action to block Donald Trump’s threats to deploy federal agents, including ICE and FBI agents, to polling places this November,” Jeffries, Schumer, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, and Democratic Governors Association Chair Andy Beshear said in a joint statement on Sept. 24.
“Sending armed federal agents into American neighborhoods to intimidate voters is not only wrong—it’s illegal and would mark a new and extremely dangerous escalation of this administration’s disregard for the rule of law and repeated attempts to rig the midterms.”
“Federal law explicitly forbids voter intimidation and stationing armed federal agents at polling places,” they added. “Our case is clear, and we’re confident we'll defeat Trump in court yet again.”
The lawsuit relies on two federal laws. One is a criminal statute that bars anyone in the “civil, military, or naval service of the United States” from bringing “troops or armed men” to “any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.”
The other is Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidating, threatening, or coercing anyone “for voting or attempting to vote.” The complaint also brings a claim under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The complaint does not point to an announced deployment. Instead, it argues that public statements by administration officials amount to what it calls a “Polling Place Policy” that authorizes armed officers at voting sites.
“Defendants have repeatedly been offered the opportunity to disavow any plans to send armed federal officers to polling locations,” the complaint states. “Each time, they have refused to state clearly that federal officers will not be present at polls during the 2026 general election.”
The plaintiffs cite remarks Mullin made on Sept. 1.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Mullin said in an interview with Politico.
White House border czar Tom Homan said on Sept. 13 that ICE had no such plans.
“I have not seen any operational plans or any discussions on any immigration enforcement operation at polling places,” Homan said on Fox News. ”This is another fear tactic. This is another attack on ICE and this administration.”
The complaint also cites Patel’s Sept. 15 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. There, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Patel whether he would commit to not sending FBI agents to the polls on Election Day.
“The FBI will follow the law. If there’s a reason to go there because there’s been a violation of the law, we will,” Patel said. “Otherwise, we won’t.”
When Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked whether the FBI was sending agents to the polls, Patel said, “We have election crisis coordinators manned at all 56 field offices. Election integrity is of paramount importance. This FBI will not shy away from that effort.”
The suit is the latest challenge over federal agents at polling places. The city of Denver sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Sept. 10, arguing that ICE activity at voting sites violates the statute.
DHS and the FBI did not respond to requests for comment on the suit by The Epoch Times before publication.
