Protect the 2026 Election

Elections Attorney Mark Elias Warns of more Shenanigans

As a condition of pulling ICE out of Minnesota, in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded that Minnesota allow the Department of Justice to have access to its voter rolls. As Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison commented, “She said the quiet part out loud.”1 Elections Attorney Mark Elias of Democracy Docket has been sounding the alarm regarding the 2026 elections. In September 2025, he argued that Trump is planning to steal the 2026 election.

Here’s what Elias lays out in this video: URGENT: Trump’s Plan to Steal the 2026 Election Revealed.

Trump’s 2026 Elections Plan:

  • Make it harder to register to vote.
  • Make it harder to cast ballots.
  • Make it easier to discard ballots.
  • Make it easier to purge voters from the rolls.
  • Make people wait in lines so long they give up voting.
  • Intimidate voters.
  • If the above tactics don’t work, Trump wants the final say in what votes count and what votes don’t count.

Prepare to Protect the Elections

Given what we know about Trump’s intentions (based on his own words), we must be prepared to protect the 2016 elections. I don’t know what that means, but I think it will be useful if we start to formulate some ideas about it. As a starting point, Elias recommends:

  • Be informed. Pay attention to state and local election board meetings.
  • Write to Congress and your state legislature and tell them that you expect free and fair elections.

I would add:

  • Attend this forum: “Truth, Trust & the Ballot Box: Understanding Election Security,” on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 6:30 PM – 7:45 PM at the Ramsey County Public Library, Roseville, MN
  • Become an election judge (Minnesota)
  • Join local groups involved in protecting the vote, registering people to vote, or working on other election issues. For example, FairVote MN advocates for Ranked-Choice Voting. There is also American Promise. They are “building a non-partisan citizen action campaign for a constitutional amendment that will protect free speech and bring reasonable, transparent and accountable rules for how money is used to influence elections.”
  • If you are organizing in your neighborhood, see if there is anyone who can follow these issues and keep the neighbors updated about any actions that are needed.

Ways Trump Will Try to Subvert a Free and Fair Election

So how will Trump try to make voting harder, as Elias predicts?

Voter Registration

  • Trump is trying to make it harder to register to vote. This is what is behind a “proof of citizenship” push which would require a certified birth certificate or a passport (I’m not sure what Elias would say about whether Real ID qualifies). It is not always simple or fast to get an original birth certificate (it’s also not free). Most people don’t have passports. This would mostly impact new registrants, college students and married women who changed their names (or anyone who changed their name). Under these rules, in addition to a birth certificate, married women would also need a certified marriage license to register to vote. Given that states issue marriage certificates, this leaves open the possibility that one state might reject the documents of another state. If we look at how Trump never accepted President Barack Obama’s birth certificate after harassing him about his citizenship status, we can see how offering these documents would not likely satisfy people who are really aimed at suppressing voters as opposed to interested in election integrity.
  • Given that Trump is trying to get rid of birthright citizenship, even a certified birth certificate wouldn’t be enough to prove that you are a citizen.
  • “Donald Trump wants to set up a regime in which you can’t prove that you are a U.S. citizen if he doesn’t want you to be able to.” (Min. 10:16)

Casting a Ballot

  • “We have never seen a president try to ban voting equipment as Trump is trying to do.” (Min. 1042)
  • Trump says that no one should be able to vote by mail. He’s targeting this because more Democrats vote by mail than Republicans do. Some blue states rely on vote-by-mail (Colorado, Oregon, Washington). Other blue states have a large percentage of people who vote by mail.

Banning voting by mail is the ultimate goal. But it might not be attainable. In 2025, Mainers rejected a measure to abolish mail-in-voting. So, what else will Trump try? Elias warns:

  • Slower mail service is by design so that ballots will not arrive on time.
  • Trump wants rules to throw away more ballots. For example, in his world, a ballot that arrived a day after Election Day would be thrown out, even if it were postmarked a week earlier.
  • He’s trying to achieve these rules through executive orders. The Republican National Committee has also been suing over these ballots.
  • Republicans are reducing the number of days and locations for early voting.
  • Long lines to vote are by design.
  • We will see the military or ICE at the polls on Election Day in major cities. The main point will be to slow down the lines. The second point will be intimidation.
  • Georgia, 2020 primary, metro counties of Atlanta: Precincts with 90+ percent Black voters waited 51 minutes to vote. Precincts with 90+ percent white voters waited on average 6 minutes to vote. After the election: Georgia banned the practice of handing out food and water to people waiting in line.
  • Other tactics to suppress voting will be used including, a shortage of locations, not enough equipment, making it easier for people to challenge voters, voter purges.
  • “We have an epidemic of voter purges in this country.” (Min. 22.53)

Counting the Votes

  • Trump is just as focused on vote counting and certification as he was in 2020 elections where he tried to extract 11,780 votes from Georgia.
  • Trump wants to make it harder to count ballots for signature-match issues. This would mostly impact young people and woman. (Min. 15:18)
  • Trump talks about banning voting equipment. Elias says that Trump will certainly focus on equipment used in blue states.
  • All Republicans are 2020 election deniers. Trump requires it.

Remember, the States are merely and an “agent” for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by The President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do. – Donald J. Trump, Truth Social, August 18, 2025

  • Trump’s claiming that he has the power to tell the states how to count votes is an indication that he plans to rig the outcome of the 2026 elections. “Take him literally. He literally means that he gets to decide which votes count and which votes don’t count.” (Min. 27:35).
  • The President has no Constitutional role in the counting of votes. Federal Law is consistent with this.
  • Trumps claim that he alone is in charge of counting the votes is the biggest threat going into the 2026 elections.

How might Trump Interfere with the 2026 Elections?

This falls under the umbrella of “same lies, different election.” Trump will claim:

  • The vote counting was fraudulent.
  • People voted illegally.
  • Mail-in ballots should be thrown out.
  • Election results should be set aside.

On December 18, 2020, White House personnel threatened to resign if Trump went ahead with a plan to use the military to seize voting machines. In 2026, we have no such guardrails. There isn’t anyone left in the White House who we can trust to do the right thing.

Bondi’s recent demands for Minnesota’s voter rolls (and in other states) proves the point. An FBI raid on Fulton County in Georgia proves the point. Trump is desperate. Elias predicts that he will only become more desperate as we get closer to the election.