Partisan redistricting, President Donald Trump’s executive orders, and mounting attacks on election officials pose serious threats to the integrity of the 2026 midterm elections, warned political analysts at a Sept. 18 Brennan Center for Justice news briefing.
“The federal government is attempting to interfere with our elections in big ways, in small ways, in technical ways, in messaging ways,” said Jasleen Singh, senior counsel and manager in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “And we’re seeing this strategy play out in election security, attempts to rewrite our election rules, and supporting people who have a history of denying the election or otherwise interfering with the election.”
“The Justice Department is turning the ship around in terms of walking away from voting rights and protecting voters, to aggressively looking for supposed voter fraud, and creating task forces to do that. This is really unprecedented. It is not the role the federal government has typically played,” said Singh.
Functional Democracy
“Voting rights are the rights that undergird all the other ones,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. “If we don’t have a democracy that functions, and that respects the will of the people, then all the other rights that we have and all the other protections we have will cease to exist and to matter.”
“And we were at this moment like none I have ever seen in my lifetime: a fight over who is going to have access to that democracy, who’s going to get to participate, and are the rules going to be enforced? Are we going to let maps be drawn to favor one party or another,” he queried.
Redistricting
Morales-Doyle criticized both Texas and California for redrawing their Congressional District maps ahead of the midterm elections. Redistricting is normally done every 10 years, after the Census, to reflect new demographics. But on Aug. 22, the Texas state Legislature approved new gerrymandered maps that would give Republicans 5 more House seats.
Earlier last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his own redistricting plan, which would give Democrats an edge in Congressional districts now held by Republicans. Voters will vote on his proposal — which bypasses California’s independent redistricting commission — in a special election Nov. 4.
“I think should offend all Americans of any party to think that it is okay for a state to say explicitly, we as the government are favoring this party over that party and we’re gonna make sure they can win more elections,” said Morales-Doyle. “It sends a really terrible message to voters because it tells voters that the rules are rigged against them before they even go cast a ballot.”
Proof of Citizenship
In March, Trump issued an executive order which mandates those registering to vote to show proof of US citizenship, via a US passport, birth certificate, or naturalization document. Such a policy would immediately disenfranchise about 21 million people, said Singh. She noted that millions of women have married names that differ from their birth certificates or passports. Transgendered people would also face the same issue.
The federal government — rather than state election officials — would have oversight in determining voter eligibility, noted the experts, in a conversation moderated by Brennan Center for Justice President Michael Waldman.
The President does not have the power to change voting rights, stated Singh, adding that the EO is being challenged in court. Concurrently, Congress is considering the SAVE Act, which has many of the same provisions.
All experts roundly agreed that Trump cannot simply cancel elections.
Atmosphere of Fear
Elections officials who refuse to capitulate to Trump’s demands are being targeted by the Administration, noted Morales-Doyle and Singh, adding there is a threat of prosecution.
Though it is illegal, Singh said she expects to see armed federal agents at polling places during the mid-term elections.
Morales-Doyle said he has faith that lower courts will push back against more egregious actions, but added that he has lost faith in the current Supreme Court to protect voting rights.
“The Supreme Court has been now for a couple of decades retreating from its role as a protector of voting rights and has, in fact, affirmatively done harm to many of the laws that we have in place to protect voting rights. It really looks like they may want to knock the other leg out of the chair,” said Morales-Doyle.
