Trump administration mobilizes for sweeping election monitoring; Democrats counter with National Guard deployment

[Financial News] The Trump administration launched a government-wide effort to monitor voting in the U.S. midterm elections held on the 3rd (local time), citing the need to ensure election fairness.
Democrats also mounted a counter-operation by mobilizing the National Guard and deploying separate monitoring personnel, as voting proceeded amid heightened tensions.
The U.S. Justice Department issued a press release early that day, saying that ensuring fair elections was its mission and that it would conduct the largest election-monitoring operation in its history.
The Justice Department said it would deploy about 1,000 election monitors and observers, with operations taking place in all 50 states for the first time, and that its Civil Rights Division would oversee the effort.
It added that the department would receive inquiries and complaints related to voting rights for a week starting that day.


The government’s monitoring force for this election was reportedly three times the size of the one deployed for the 2022 midterms. With President Trump repeatedly raising the possibility of election fraud as a heavy defeat looms, the Justice Department, led by his close ally Todd Blanche, is launching an extensive election-monitoring operation.
There also appears to be an effort to gather cases that could become issues during the voting process in preparation for a crushing defeat in this election.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the enforcement of immigration policy, also joined in. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin posted on X: “If you vote illegally, if you are not eligible to vote, the Department of Homeland Security will track you down and prosecute you to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
Secretary Mullin stressed that “only American citizens can decide the outcome of U.S. elections.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also posted on X: “If you vote illegally, we will find you,” adding, “We will track you down, arrest you and prosecute you.”
It also posted a series of photos of people arrested on suspicion of illegal voting. The threat of arrest was intended to keep immigrants without proper identification from even showing up at polling places.
The voter identification procedures required by the United States vary from state to state. Areas where support for the Democrats is generally strong tend to use relatively less stringent methods of verifying voters’ identities.
The Justice Department reportedly sent 20 letters last week to Democratic figures in connection with allegations that Democrats tried to split the vote in Alaska’s Senate race by fielding a candidate with the same name as the Republican nominee, notifying them that they could be targets of an investigation or demanding that they preserve relevant records.


In response to the Trump administration’s sweeping election monitoring, states with Democratic governors deployed the National Guard to conduct counter-monitoring.
At the suggestion of Democratic Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, about 100 National Guard members began monitoring elections in seven counties in the state.
Gov. Ferguson cited an incident during the 2024 presidential election in which an arson attack on a ballot drop box in Vancouver, Washington, damaged hundreds of ballots, stressing the need to deploy the National Guard.
The National Guard also monitored elections in North Carolina, which likewise has a Democratic governor. In Colorado, National Guard members were deployed to support election cybersecurity.
The Hill, a publication specializing in Congress, reported that seven states had officially announced plans to deploy the National Guard for this year’s midterm elections.
Minnesota and California, among other states led by Democratic governors, also planned to monitor the Justice Department’s monitoring teams in turn.
Ahead of the election, President Trump repeatedly made remarks suggesting that Democrats would attempt election fraud in battleground states. In an interview with The New York Times last January, he also said he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in battleground states when he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Democrats have consequently worried that the Trump administration could deploy military personnel or ICE agents to obstruct voters from casting their ballots and go further by refusing to accept election results or seizing voting machines and ballots.


[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Correspondent Reporter