Far right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon is calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to “surround” polling places in the upcoming midterm elections, a move that would amount to an unprecedented effort to intimidate voters.
The ally of President Trump claimed that ICE agents, who have spearheaded the president’s nationwide mass deportation campaign, could be assigned to prevent supposed election fraud, even though their mission is limited to immigration enforcement.
“You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon said this week on his “War Room” podcast. “We’re not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”
Bannon even suggested that the U.S. military could be deployed at polling places as part of Trump’s call to “nationalize” elections in more than a dozen Democratic-led states.
“You’ve got to call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne on the Insurrection Act,” Bannon said. “You’ve got to get around every (polling place) and make sure only people with IDs, people are actually registered to vote, and people that are United States citizens vote in this election. Full stop. We will not accept anything less.”
Trump has not spelled out exactly what he means by his call to “nationalize” election enforcement. The Constitution says states, not the federal government, are responsible for running elections and ensuring free and fair votes.
Trump and Bannon have repeatedly spewed false claims of widespread voter fraud, especially undocumented immigrants somehow being permitted to vote in droves, despite countless studies showing that it is virtually unheard of.
Republicans are pushing new legislation that would require mandatory proof of citizenship to vote. But Democrats oppose the measure, noting that it’s already a crime for undocumented immigrants to vote and tens of millions of native-born Americans don’t have passports or any other proof of U.S. citizenship.
Voting rights advocates say the real goal of any show of law enforcement force around polling places would be to intimidate Americans, especially Latinos, from exercising their right to vote.
The war of words comes as Democrats are favored to make major gains in the 2026 congressional midterms and have a decent chance of flipping the House and maybe even the Senate.
Republicans hold only a four-vote majority in the House, with political analysts projecting about 20 swing seats up for grabs.
Democrats face a steeper climb in the Senate where they would need to flip four GOP-held seats to take control of the upper chamber.
