NATIONWIDE –In a series of statements that sounded alarm bells Thursday, President Donald Trump told Fox News Sean Hannity he plans to send law enforcement and U.S. attorneys to polls in November in order to ensure election security.
“We’re going to have everything,” Trump said. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement. And we’re going to have hopefully U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals.”
The president has repeatedly stated that widespread mail-in voting would lead to fraud, despite a lack of evidence supporting it. Indeed, the Trump campaign has sued Nevada and New Jersey over mail-in voting plans.
Trump recently told supporters “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
It’s not known how Trump could compel sheriffs and other law enforcement to monitor polling locations, and he likely doesn’t have the authority to do so. However, University of California at Irvine election law expert Rick Hasen told CNN he could hire off-duty police officers to patrol the polls.
Trump’s comments Thursday night immediately raised concern among Democrats about voter intimidation, with election attorney Marc Elias tweeting, “Not without a legal fight he won’t!”
Monitoring the polls is not uncommon and in fact is standard practice for both parties. Those doing the monitoring might test equipment and look for irregularities. The Trump campaign earlier this year was said to be recruiting approximately 50,000 poll-watchers.
