Daniel Wolfram
Even Republicans are starting to sound the alarm over Trump’s potential midterm election interference.
There are fewer than 70 days until the midterm election takes place on the first Tuesday in November. Nearly all of the primary elections in the 50 states have been conducted.
The upcoming election will no doubt be contentious and highly controversial, as the president has been willing to try to interfere and change the rules of the election.
Now even Republicans in a deep-red state are starting to sound the alarm.
Aggressive DOJ monitoring on behalf of Trump
Republican leaders in Wyoming gave sharp criticism after federal agents arrived at polling stations without prior notice. The unexpected visits occurred during recent primary elections, leaving local staff caught off guard.
During a state canvassing board meeting, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon described the DOJ monitors’ conduct as “aggressive” and “irregular.”
“It sounded like the behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive,” Gordon said. He added that he asked the attorney general to “start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff.”
Gordon clarified that he was not “objecting to the observers” entirely, but noted that their “behavior seemed to exceed what the authority that Congress had given them was.”
Crossing a red line
Local election administrators reported similar frustrations. Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, a Republican, called the deployment “a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and the administration of our elections.”
Lee explained to NBC News that federal officials sent advance notice to the wrong email address. She also argued that the monitors asked questions “outside the scope of federal voting rights laws.”
According to Lee, the visitors “requested training guides, asked how our new election equipment was acquired, and wanted to examine our tabulators.” She quickly denied requests from the monitors to interview voters.
Growing political tension
The DOJ defended the oversight effort as standard practice. In a statement, U.S. Attorney Darin Smith said, “Voters deserve absolute confidence that their ballots are secure and their voices are heard without interference.”
The Justice Department has dispatched more than 80 observers across seven states during this year’s primaries to monitor elections. While federal monitoring is common, expanded deployment plans have alarmed voting rights advocates.
Such pushback from Republican leaders is particularly notable. Up until now, Republican lawmakers, especially in red states, have not strayed from supporting and pushing Trump’s election agenda.
