US Election Officials Prepare for Potential Interference and Chaos Ahead of Midterms

Supporters of mail-in voting rallied outside the US Capitol the day after the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's attempt to make mail-in voting more restrictive in Washington. US President Donald Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court for rejecting his push to curb mail-in voting, raising fears that the US president might use federal powers to meddle in November’s midterm elections.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” the president lashed out after the court verdict on Monday. The justices “are merely a shell of their original selves, a court that is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings”. The ruling means states can continue administering mail-in voting under their existing procedures.

Mail-in and absentee ballots have been used in the United States for decades and now account for roughly a third of votes cast nationwide. Despite the ruling, political analysts and some officials fear that Trump may not let the electoral process proceed as planned, and might pull some other strings to tilt the election in his favour.

Election officials across the country are concerned about the prospects of interference, from the potential for ballot seizures to voter-fraud investigations. A Reuters investigation based on interviews with dozens of state and local election officials showed that they are adopting new strategies to prepare for political interference, misinformation, cyberattacks and intimidation tactics.

According to the report, more than a dozen local and state election officials said they are hiring outside lawyers or seeking legal training for themselves and their staff to prepare for potential demands by the administration for access to sensitive voting records or election equipment. Nearly twice that many said they are expanding public outreach and social media campaigns to counter misinformation.

Campaigners have fiercely resisted Trump’s executive actions attempting to dictate federal voting procedures. Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Brennan Center for Justice have sued the administration, arguing that the Constitution gives authority over federal elections primarily to states and Congress, rather than the president.

A bipartisan group of 261 current and former members of Congress filed a brief with the Supreme Court challenging Trump’s executive order and the subsequent Postal Service rule, arguing that the measures violated the separation of powers. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin described Trump’s attempt to use the US Postal Service to regulate mailed ballots as “a naked power grab”. Senator Alex Padilla similarly argued that neither the president nor the Postal Service had the authority to determine how states administer elections.

The White House rejected accusations that it is seeking to interfere in the midterms, saying its measures are aimed at preventing illegal voting and ensuring confidence in the electoral system. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to cast doubt on the security of mail-in voting, citing debunked claims and pushing for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act).

In March 2026, Trump signed an executive order directing the US Postal Service to take control of mail-in voting by designing new envelopes with special barcodes. The attorney general has also demanded that 47 states and Washington, DC, hand over their complete voter registration lists, prompting lawsuits against states that refused.