U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he delivers remarks during a visit to a Mack Trucks' assembly plant, in Macungie, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 23, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Even though the White House has failed in its court cases to meddle in state elections, it is still planning to seize ballots and worse. President Donald Trump's cult-like supporters are embedded everywhere and poll workers and Democrats need to stop being in denial about that — at least according to one election security expert.
"This is where I depart from some of the happy talk that you sometimes get," election rights attorney Marc Elias told MS NOW anchor Jacob Soboroff on Wednesday after Soboroff claimed if Trump tries to steal the election, poll workers will stop him.
"There's a tendency for everyone to want to say, 'Well, don't worry, the poll workers will take care of it,'" Elias said. "Well, here are two problems for you. The first is that it's a lot to ask poll workers to stand up to the federal government. It's one thing if it's a bunch of guys in polo shirts — jokers looking to maybe cause a little bit of disruption, but otherwise fine. But let's imagine it's not that. Let's imagine it's ICE agents with guns. Let's imagine it's people with much more aggressive tactics. It's a lot to put on the poll workers. But here's the second problem, and I need everyone to pay attention to this."
He added, "There are a lot of really good election officials, but Tina Peters [a Coloradan imprisoned for trying to meddle in elections] was an election official. Republicans have been putting election deniers in key positions in key states and counties around this country. The election deniers aren't just running for statewide offices. They're not just running for Secretary of State — they're running for, or being placed in, these local election official positions as well. So do I think that in Minneapolis we're in good shape? Yes. But what happens when you're in a state like Texas or Florida, where the Republican Party runs the state government but has also infiltrated a lot of these local county positions at a MAGA level? That's where I worry it isn't just going to be election officials standing up to the federal government. Remember, I mentioned we've won 21 cases — the Department of Justice sued 30 states. There were 20 states that turned it over voluntarily, and those are the places I'm, in some ways, more worried about."
The states in question were "Iowa, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Montana."
"It's unbelievable, and that's why I think you're so right — you can't just rely on the poll workers," Soboroff told Elias. "You can't just rely on the lawyers. You can't just rely on other elected officials or election ministers who've been at this for years. It's all hands on deck — a mayday situation."