Sen. Adam Schiff expresses concern over possibility of ICE or military personnel at polling places
Executive orders from President Donald Trump, legislation like the Save Act, and new rules from the United States Postal Service have all taken aim at mail-in ballots.
And that has Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sounding the alarm, because nearly 90% of voters in the 2026 California primary voted by mail.
"All around the country, there's this attack on voting. There's a case right now before the Supreme Court. If the administration is successful, it will completely upend absentee voting. It will be chaos, which I think they hope for," said Schiff.
ABC7 political reporter Josh Haskell asked Senator Schiff whether a decision by the Supreme Court actually upend the midterms elections, which are rapidly approaching.
"It could. I mean. I don't have much hope for the supreme court, but I would hope at a minimum they would realize just what kind of chaos they would cause. It's also a violation of the law and constitution. The president doesn't have the unilateral authority to simply change the election system to his pleasure," said Schiff.
Trump has said he would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections, but election officials say fraud remains extremely rare and not widespread enough to influence the results of an election. In an interview, Schiff shared his fears of what could happen at polling places this November.
"I'm also concerned, though, apart from these legal efforts or illegal efforts, that you could see interference at polling places on election day. You could see them dispatching the military or ICE, as they threaten to do. When you consider that the last big contested election, the president was willing to incite people to attack the capitol, you really can't put anything beyond or out of bounds," said Schiff.
Haskell then asked Schiff: "Is there any actual intelligence that that could happen at our polling places, ICE or the military going to our polling place? Or, is this just a concern that you have?"
"Well, you hear some of the president's people, like Steve Bannon, say absolutely, they're gonna send ice or border patrol to the ballot places," Schiff said. "Now, there's something to be gained by them saying these things. They want to discourage citizens of Latino origin from going to the polling place out of concern. I hope what will happen, similar to the cases where the supreme court has struck down the voting rights act, that it will have the opposite effect."
Federal law prohibits troops from being sent to where an election is taking place. But, after ICE agents were deployed to airports and the FBI raided the election office in Fulton County, Georgia, Schiff told Eyewitness News that success in the midterm elections for Trump is dependent on discouraging people from voting.
