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Election officials heading into Election Day describe widespread stress and anxiety over the Trump administration’s ongoing threats against election officials and efforts to challenge state voting laws amid the key midterm contest.
The Justice Department’s flurry of legal actions in the waning days of the campaign have created a climate of fear in election offices around the country, causing additional stress as they prepare for a highly-charged midterm election this week.
“The federal government’s conduct has had and continues to have a severe chilling effect on my staff and me,” said Matt Moreles, the registrar of voters in Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, in a declaration filed as part of a lawsuit filed against the Justice Department by a union representing California election workers and its allies. “They and I are worried about retaliation and harassment—including through civil litigation and criminal prosecution—for simply carrying out our jobs.”
That lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in northern California, asked the courts to stop the Trump administration from threatening election officials. In response, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson issued an extraordinary nationwide restraining order over the weekend that says federal officials cannot “threaten, intimidate or coerce” election workers “to demand that they halt processing the ballots of any registered voter solely on the basis that the ballot belongs to an individual alleged by Defendants to be ineligible to vote.”
It also bars the federal government from threatening election workers with criminal prosecution for failure to comply with such demands.
“In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election,” Thompson wrote in directing Trump administration officials to stop.
The order comes as the Justice Department has been actively pressuring officials in California to set aside ballots of up to 20,000 individuals who the administration claims may be noncitizen voters. The department this weekend also mailed letters to officials in all 50 states warning of criminal prosecution for violating election record-keeping laws
The Justice Department is expected to ask the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift Thompson’s order, arguing that describing the law isn’t a threat. In court filings, the Trump administration lawyers said the ban could impede lawful investigations of the unfolding election.
“An order that places a civil court in supervision of grand jury subpoenas, search warrant
applications, and prosecutors’ public statements inflicts a structural injury that cannot be remedied after the fact,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
California governor says he has ‘grave concerns’ about federal interference
The widespread anxiety comes as election officials are dealing with attempted intimidation efforts and all the normal pressures of administering the closely watched midterm elections under intense White House scrutiny.
Ahead of Election Day, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent off an unusual alert warning federal judges that federal prosecutors might request authorization to seize ballots or voting equipment after Election Day.
“I have grave concerns federal agents will seek search warrants to seize ballots and ballot materials before the election results are certified,” Newsom wrote to the four U.S. District Courts that cover California. “The tactics and rhetoric federal officials are using strongly suggest that, having lost repeatedly in federal civil proceedings thus far, they will quickly pivot to the criminal forum.”
Newsom’s concerns come as the Trump administration is trying to compel California election officials to set aside as many as 20,000 ballots in the ongoing midterm race. Two courts have already ruled against the Justice Department in that case, but election officials say that federal agents have been turning up at their offices to try and get them to set aside ballots.
Kristin Connelly, clerk-recorder for the San Francisco Bay Area’s Contra Costa County, said in a court declaration that two Department of Homeland Security officials turned up unannounced at her office on Oct. 23 with a demand that she set aside as many as 407 ballots they said might be from suspected noncitizens. The Trump administration gave Connelly 48 hours to comply.
“I had never had an interaction like this with federal officials before,” Connelly said. “In my experience, federal threats have been a substantial distraction for California election officials.”
Connelly said she felt trapped.
“The stress of being asked by the federal government, under threat of prosecution, to potentially violate federal civil rights law by not tallying presumptively lawful votes weighs heavily on me as a registrar,” she said.
David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on election administration, said in a court declaration that election officials across the country are anxious about the federal threats.
“Election officials report being scared and exhausted by the onslaught of threats,” Becker said in the filing. “They are caught between, on the one hand, following state and federal legal requirements regarding maintaining voter rolls, ensuring every registered eligible voter has their vote counted, and maintaining the chain of custody over election records, and on the other hand, placing themselves in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors, putting themselves in personal jeopardy as they simply seek to do their jobs.”
Tammy Patrick, chief program officers at the Election Center, told Votebeat that election officials across the nation have been voicing such concerns for months.
“It should surprise no one that, in this moment, they have grave concerns about what is happening, but they have a job to do, and they will do it while drowning out the noise and distractions to the best of their ability,” Patrick said.
Dion Nissenbaum is Votebeat’s senior national reporter and is based in Houston. Contact Dion at dnissenbaum@votebeat.org.
