House Democrats layout election security efforts ahead of midterms

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Just ahead of Election Day, Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., laid out House Democrats’ plans to protect the integrity of the midterm elections amid President Donald Trump’s continuing efforts to cast doubt on their security.

During a virtual media briefing on Friday, Morelle, the Ranking Member on the Committee on House Administration, explained how the party is preparing for potential election interference.

“As the top Democrat on the committee of House Administration, which as most of you know, has jurisdiction over federal election law, have been charged by Leader Jeffries in leading our caucus-wide effort to secure this election and make sure that we do everything we can to make sure that Donald Trump, in all the ways that he tries to subvert elections, that he is not successful,” said the congressman.

Trump has made numerous unsubstantiated claims of rampant voter fraud, including last Monday, when he offered a $1 million award for reporting voter fraud in a post on Truth Social.

Morelle said his caucus has a team of lawmakers, litigators, activists and organizers deployed across the country who will be working on election security efforts.

“Every eligible American must have an opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot,” he said. “Voting in America must be free from threats, intimidation, and violence. Ballots cast by voters must be counted fairly and accurately.”

Administration claims and charges

Throughout this election cycle, the Trump administration has repeatedly suggested that tens of thousands of immigrants and other ineligible voters are casting ballots in elections. However, the Justice Department has only charged a few dozen people with election-related crimes this year.

Oversight efforts

The Democratic oversight effort includes 300 House staff members who have volunteered to be observers in places where close results are expected.

“They’ll be deployed around the country, probably in 60 to 70 different places where we expect elections may be very close,“ said Morelle. “So we want to have firsthand contemporaneous notes and observations of people so that should there be any challenges, we’ll have folks who are on the ground, observing, right with the folks who are tabulating the results.”

In the days leading up to the midterms, the Trump administation attempted to take action in elections being held in Alaska and California. Both efforts were blocked by the eve of Election Day.

In Alaska, the administation sought to block state officials from certifying the U.S. Senate race results so an investigation could be carried out, focusing on whether voters were confused by the fact that two candidates with similar names appeared on ballots. A federal judge throughout the lawsuit Sunday.

In California, an attempt to force the state to set aside 20,000 ballots, based on claims of the ballots belonging to likely noncitizens, was rejected by the Supreme Court on Monday.