2026-10-04T10:30:46.839Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/04/politics/democrats-election-interference-trump
在11月中期选举到来之际，民主党高层正在针对唐纳德·特朗普总统及其政府干预投票流程的各种末日场景制定预案，并为强力应对措施打下基础。
在闭门会议中，参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默召集了民主党参议员、法律专家和前官员，讨论高度具体的假设性情况，包括特朗普派遣国土安全部特工和国民警卫队前往投票站、联邦官员在政府宣布外国对手入侵投票系统后扣押选票，以及人工智能生成的虚假欺诈选举视频引发特朗普要求干预，进而导致符合资格的选民被从选民名册中清除。
“这些会议不仅帮助我们理清了如何挫败特朗普的一些恶劣威胁，还让我们得以设想特朗普及其党羽可能给我们制造的种种波折，以及我们的准备工作可能存在哪些漏洞。我现在更有信心——美国民众也应该如此——经过我们的努力，我们在大选前的准备更加充分了，”舒默在给CNN的一份声明中说道。
负责众议院选举筹备工作的民主党众议员乔·莫雷尔列出了150多种可能在选举日及之后出现的威胁。这位国会议员还带领众议院民主党人进行了情景推演，包括移民海关执法局特工出现在投票点，以及社交媒体影响者传播虚假信息称投票地点已变更。
“我们每天都在努力确保做好准备，”莫雷尔告诉CNN。“大家应该相信选举制度是有效的，它具有韧性。但我们仍将继续走在前列，阻止他们试图采取的任何行动。”
国会山的民主党人已经筹备了数月之久：在参议院成立了新的选举保护专项工作组，启动了一项新的两党计划，派遣国会观察员前往投票站。众议院民主党人一直在全国范围内举行听证会，讨论他们发现的威胁以及应对准备措施。无党派团体也在进行最坏情况预案规划，并培训志愿者监督选举的各个环节，包括计票和结果认证。律师们也提前做好准备，应对可能出现的法律挑战。
曾与莫雷尔合作开展威胁评估计划的民主党众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔表示，民主党已经学会在法律策略上采取更积极的态度。
“我们必须随时准备立即提起诉讼，”她告诉CNN。“没有时间撰写辩护状。所以，我认为至少已经初步起草了大量相关辩护状，我们已经准备就绪。”
这场广泛的幕后筹备突显了国会民主党人及其盟友对联邦干预选举威胁的重视程度。民主党内部普遍乐观地认为，他们可以拿下众议院甚至参议院，但民主党人担心任何出于政治动机的选举干预行为都可能危及这一目标。
白宫发言人劳伦·比斯在给CNN的声明中表示：“每个美国人都应该问问，为什么激进左派和民主党人拒绝通过《拯救美国法案》，该法案包含了绝大多数美国人强烈支持的常识性选举诚信措施，比如选民身份证法。这项立法将确保只有美国人才能决定我们的选举。”
当被问及特朗普是否考虑在11月派遣移民海关执法局特工前往投票站时，时任白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特在今年2月表示：“我从未听说总统考虑过这件事，没有。”
国会山的这项工作是民主党全国范围内前所未有的努力的一部分，该行动旨在动员议员、律师、州官员和外部团体组成协调团队。民主党已经在应对特朗普的选举法律挑战，以及司法部“史上规模最大的选举观察员项目”，这项民主党主导的工作正在推进中，并将持续到选举认证程序，直至2027年1月3日新一届国会就职。
“这代表着律师、组织者、传播者以及支持选举管理员、州务卿和州总检察长的人员的最大规模动员，”前美国副司法部长瓦妮塔·古普塔说道，她曾参与参议院民主党人的情景推演，并与其他团体密切合作。
舒默主持的情景推演活动邀请参与者扮演关键人物的替身，如国土安全部部长、国家情报总监和司法部长。
在没有资金充足的全国委员会可依赖的非总统选举年，民主党议员从零开始搭建了自己的选举安全机构。今年春天，众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯与莫雷尔会面，共同制定计划，确保11月的选举安全，并反击特朗普政府可能带来的任何威胁。
“我要你打造美国历史上最伟大的选举保护和选举安全项目，”据莫雷尔转述，杰弗里斯这样说道。
舒默于4月启动了选举专项工作组，开展大规模的选举保护工作。该工作组的参与者之一、民主党参议员亚历克斯·帕迪利亚启动了首个两党参议院选举观察员项目，准备在选举日派遣工作人员前往投票点进行监督，贯穿整个计票和选举认证过程，以补充众议院已有的成熟选举观察员项目。选举观察员的职责是记录任何选举干预企图或投票流程中的违规行为。
“我们的选举是安全可靠的。我们已经为2026年中期选举筹备了数月之久，”曾担任加利福尼亚州务卿的帕迪利亚在给CNN的声明中说道。“尽管我们不能对唐纳德·特朗普掉以轻心，但国会、选举官员和投票权律师已经准备好迅速应对任何对我们选举的潜在威胁。”
这项协调一致的努力还包括律师提前准备法庭诉状，例如在联邦特工试图扣押选票时，请求法官保护已投票选票的保管链。
国会民主党高层及其他人士还主动提起诉讼，试图阻止移民海关执法局或其他联邦执法人员在投票地点或计票场所及其附近部署。
尽管联邦法律已经禁止在投票地点部署联邦“军队或武装人员”，除非是为了击退“美国武装敌人”，但特朗普及其盟友并未排除这一想法。今年早些时候，当被问及是否会派遣移民海关执法局官员或国民警卫队前往投票站时，特朗普回应称，他会“采取一切必要措施确保选举公正”。
代表民主党全国的最大律师事务所伊莱亚斯律师集团已经在41个州提起了85起投票和选举相关诉讼。
“我们基本上都准备好随时被派往任何出现威胁或需要处理潜在诉讼的州，”该律所合伙人阿里亚·布兰奇告诉CNN。“我们基本上都准备好了应急包。”
议员们讨论过的一种假设情景已经部分成真。今年6月，参议院民主党人讨论了如何应对联邦通信委员会威胁因其不同意的政治内容而吊销执照的可能性。三个月后，也就是晚些时候，深夜脱口秀主持人吉米·坎摩尔表示，特朗普政府向ABC施压，要求其不要播出与得克萨斯州民主党参议院候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科的采访。
“这让我深受警醒，”参与组织这次情景推演的参议院民主党助手告诉CNN。
今年在法庭和国会取得的初步成功帮助政党领导人和利益相关者增强了对其战略的信心。
民主党人阻止了共和党多次试图通过特朗普备受关注的选举改革法案的努力，该法案在共和党内部存在分歧，本将大幅改变美国的投票制度。最高法院驳回了特朗普改变全国范围内邮寄选票寄送方式的有争议计划，并维持了计算选举日后到达的邮寄选票的州法律。根据布伦南司法中心的数据，联邦政府已起诉30个州和华盛顿特区，要求移交与选举相关的记录和数据，其中26起诉讼已被驳回。
全国各地的法院还驳回了特朗普及其团队试图推翻2020年总统选举结果的至少60次尝试。
“我的信心源于我们已经做好了准备，我们应对了每一项挑战，并化解了每一项挑战，”莫雷尔说道。
无党派团体也在积极准备。
美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）已承诺投入2500万美元用于本次选举周期的“选举保障”工作，并与盟友合作培训了约1万名志愿者，以应对潜在问题，该组织首席政治与宣传官员迪尔德丽·希夫林表示，这标志着该组织历史上规模最大的选举相关行动。
该组织培训的志愿者将重点关注七个摇摆州，监督从选举日投票到计票过程的所有选举活动。
总体而言，该组织已经推演了25种潜在场景——从篡改选票到当地官员拒绝认证选举结果——这些场景可能会扰乱选举或新当选国会议员的就职。美国公民自由联盟已经起草了法律文件、新闻稿和基层动员计划，以应对每一种场景。
参与更广泛选举筹备工作的人士表示，他们不能有任何侥幸心理。
“考虑到2020年‘大谎言’事件的发生，我们不能缺乏想象力，”古普塔说道。“特朗普一直在寻找人为制造的问题，目的是抹黑他不认可的选举结果。这就是为什么每个人都在尽一切努力做好准备。到目前为止，他的努力都失败了，选民们现在正在投票。”
民主党启动这项广泛的努力，部分原因是为了回应他们在国会之外听到的担忧——并希望这也能为未来的选举抢占先机。
“在建立起这样的机构之前，你会受到来自众多利益相关者和公众各界的持续质疑：你正在采取哪些措施确保未来的选举不会受到破坏。你不能等到2028年再行动，”一位众议院领导层高级助手告诉CNN。
Inside Democrats’ efforts to secure Election Day and respond to fears of Trump interference
2026-10-04T10:30:46.839Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/04/politics/democrats-election-interference-trump
Ahead of the November midterm elections, top Democrats are planning for doomsday scenarios for how President Donald Trump and his administration could intervene in the voting process and laying the groundwork for a forceful response.
In closed-door meetings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has convened Democratic senators, legal experts, and former officials to discuss highly specific hypothetical situations, including Trump deploying Department of Homeland Security agents and the National Guard to the polls, federal officials seizing ballots after the administration announces a foreign adversary compromised voting systems, and fake, AI-generated videos alleging election fraud sparking demands for intervention from Trump that lead to a purge of eligible voters from the rolls.
“These sessions didn’t just help us work out how we can thwart some of Trump’s egregious threats. They have been critical in helping us imagine the many twists and turns Trump and his cronies could throw at us, and where gaps in our preparation could potentially exist. I feel more confident — and the American people should, too — that we’re better prepared heading into the election because of our efforts,” Schumer said in a statement to CNN.
Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle, who’s overseeing election prep efforts in the House, has outlined more than 150 possible threats that could occur on Election Day and beyond. The congressman has also led House Democrats through hypothetical situations, including the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showing up at voting locations and social media influencers spreading misinformation suggesting that election locations have been changed.
“We’re working every day to make sure we’re prepared,” Morelle told CNN. “You should have confidence that the system works. It’s resilient. And yet we’re going to continue to make sure that we’re on the forefront of stopping anything that they try to do.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill have prepared for months, setting up a new election protection task force in the Senate and launching a new bipartisan program to send congressional observers to polling places. House Democrats have been holding hearings around the country to discuss the threats they have identified and how they are preparing for them. Nonpartisan groups are also engaged in worst-case scenario planning and training volunteers to monitor all aspects of the election, including vote-counting and certification of the results. Lawyers have prepared in advance for potential legal challenges.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who has worked with Morelle on his threat assessment plans, said that Democrats have learned to be much more aggressive with their legal strategy.
“We just have to be ready to go to court immediately,” she told CNN. “There is no time to write briefs. So, I think a lot of those briefs are being at least preliminarily drafted, so we are ready.”
The extensive behind-the-scenes planning underscores how much congressional Democrats and their allies are taking seriously the threat of federal interference in the election. There is widespread optimism within the party that they can win the House and even the Senate, but Democrats fear that any attempt at politically motivated election inference could put that in jeopardy.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to CNN, “Every American should be asking why the radical Left and Democrats refuse to pass the SAVE America Act which includes commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID, that are strongly supported by the vast majority of Americans. This legislation would make sure Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections. ”
Asked if Trump is considering sending ICE agents to the polls in November, then-White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in February, “That’s not something I’ve ever heard the president consider. No.”
The work on Capitol Hill is part of an unprecedented effort across the Democratic party to mobilize a coordinated team of lawmakers, lawyers, state officials and outside groups. Already up against Trump’s election legal challenges, and the Department of Justice’s “biggest election observer program in history, the Democratic endeavor is underway and will continue through the election certification process up until a new Congress is seated on January 3, 2027.
“This represents the largest mobilization of lawyers, organizers, communicators, and people working to support election administrators and secretaries of states and state AGs,” said Vanita Gupta, a former US associate attorney general, who has participated in the exercises with Senate Democrats and worked closely with other groups.
The exercises led by Schumer have included participants acting as stand-ins for key figures, such as the Homeland Security Secretary, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General.
In a non-presidential year without a well-funded national committee to lean on, Democratic lawmakers have worked to build up their own election security apparatus from scratch. This spring, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Morelle to hatch a plan for how Democrats would ensure the November elections are secure and to fight back against any potential threats from the Trump administration.
“I want you to go out and build the greatest election protection and election security program in American history,” Jeffries said, according to Morelle.
Schumer launched an elections task force in April to conduct a massive election protection effort. One of the group’s participants, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, launched the first-ever bipartisan Senate election observer program, which is preparing to send staffers to observe polling locations on Election Day through the vote counting and election certification process this fall to compliment the robust election observer program that already exists in the House. Election observers are charged with documenting any attempts at election interference or irregularities in the voting process.
“Our elections are safe and secure. We’ve been preparing for the 2026 midterm elections for months and months already,” Padilla, who formerly served as California’s Secretary of State, said in a statement to CNN. “And while we don’t put anything past Donald Trump, Congress, election officials, and voting rights lawyers stand ready to swiftly address any potential threats to our elections.”
The coordinated effort also includes lawyers preparing advance court pleadings such as asking judges to protect the chain of custody for voted ballots in the event that federal agents try to seize them.
Top Democratic leaders in Congress and others have also proactively filed a lawsuit that seeks to block the deployment of ICE or other federal law enforcement officers at or near polling locations or places where ballots are being counted.
Even though federal law already prohibits deploying federal “troops or armed men” to polling places, except to repel “armed enemies of the United States” Trump and his allies have declined to rule out the idea. Asked earlier this year whether he would send ICE officers or National Guard troops to the polls, Trump responded he would do “anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”
Elias Law Group, the nation’s largest law firm representing the Democratic Party, is already litigating 85 voting and election cases in 41 states.
“We all basically are prepared to be deployed to a state at a moment’s notice if there is a threat or potential litigation that needs to be handled” one of the law firm’s partners, Aria Branch, told CNN. “We basically have go-bags prepared.”
One of the hypothetical scenarios lawmakers discussed has in part come to fruition. In June, Senate Democrats discussed how to handle the possibility of the Federal Communications Commission threatening to crack down on licenses over political content it didn’t agree with. Three months later, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said the Trump administration had pressured ABC not to air an interview withTexas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
“It was sobering for me,” a Senate Democratic aide involved in organizing the exercise told CNN.
Early successes in court and Congress this year have helped party leaders and stakeholders build confidence in their strategy.
Democrats blocked multiple Republican attempts to pass Trump’s high-profile elections overhaul bill that divided Republicans and would have dramatically changed the US voting system. The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s controversial plan to change how mail-in ballots are sent to voters across the country and upheld state laws that count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. The federal government has sued 30 states and Washington DC to hand over election-related records and data, and 26 of those lawsuits have been dismissed according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
And courts across the country threw out at least 60 attempts by Trump and his team to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
“My confidence stems from the fact that we are prepared and we have met every challenge and deflected every challenge,” Morelle said.
Nonpartisan groups also are gearing up.
The ACLU has committed $25 million to “election safeguarding” in this cycle and has worked with allies to train some 10,000 volunteers to date as it prepares to respond to potential problems, said Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer, who said it marks the largest election effort in the organization’s history.
The volunteers it has trained will focus heavily on seven battleground states and will monitor election activity, ranging from Election Day voting to the counting process.
In all, the organization has gamed out 25 potential scenarios — ranging from ballot-tampering to rogue local officials refusing to certify results — that could disrupt the election or the seating of newly elected members of Congress. The ACLU already has drafted legal filings, news releases and grassroots mobilization plans to respond to each scenario.
Those involved in the broader election planning say they can’t leave anything to chance.
“We can’t have a failure of imagination, given what happened with the Big Lie in 2020,” said Gupta. “Trump is hunting for fabricated problems, with a goal of discrediting results he doesn’t like. That’s why everyone’s doing everything they can to be prepared. So far, his efforts have failed and voters are now voting.”
Democrats began the broad-based effort in part to respond to concerns they were hearing outside the halls of Congress — and hope it will give them a head start for future elections as well.
“Until you had that apparatus in place, you’re going to be questioned left and right from a host of stakeholders and people in the public sphere on what are you doing to guarantee that the elections will not be compromised going forward. And you couldn’t wait until 2028,” a senior House leadership aide told CNN.