Developing Force and coercion Updated
Federal agents at polling places
Armed federal law enforcement, immigration agents, or prosecutors are sent to polling places or election offices. Federal law bars armed federal personnel from polls except to repel armed enemies of the United States, so a deployment would intimidate voters and election workers and invite legal challenge.
What has happened
- Added a May 20 San Antonio incident: ICE agents joined a state trooper's arrest in the lot of the Las Palmas library early voting site until the Bexar County sheriff told them to leave. The county said voting was not disrupted. Texas joins the map: 4 states.
- Leon County's elections supervisor says two federal immigration vehicles sat at Tallahassee's busiest early voting site for ten minutes on Oct. 19 and filed an FBI complaint. Arlington County, Virginia sued in federal court Oct. 20 to bar armed agents from polls. Map stays at 3 states.
- Masked, armed Border Patrol agents stopped a driver at the entrance of a Key Largo early voting site just before 1 p.m. Monroe County's elections supervisor called the stop unnecessary and said DHS had assured her it would not happen. DHS has not commented. Florida joins the map: 3 states.
- Voting groups and Denver amended their lawsuit against armed federal agents at polling places, citing the Santa Maria arrest and immigration arrests near an early voting site in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and adding Hennepin County as a plaintiff.
- An ICE spokesperson told Noozhawk the agency has no record of activity at Allan Hancock College. The college and the student's family say officers made the arrest. It remains disputed.
- ICE officers detained a student's parent in a parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, around 9:45 a.m., the college says. Santa Barbara County's ballot drop boxes opened that day, including a walk-up box in another lot on the same campus. California joins the map.
- The Justice Department ended primary season monitoring, reporting eleven states and hundreds of locations, against nine states in the 2022 midterms.
- They did it before. On May 20, during early voting for the Texas runoff, ICE officers joined a state trooper's traffic stop in the lot of San Antonio's Las Palmas Library, a voting site, witnesses and KSAT report. Bexar County says voting was not disrupted. Not mapped. Map stays at 2 states.
Where it has been observed
No state is marked for this threat yet.
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