This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The Department of Homeland Security told election officials from across the country on Wednesday that DHS would not send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations during the midterm elections. The topic came up during an election security planning meeting that was initiated by the FBI.
In response to a question, Heather Honey, a deputy assistant secretary for Election Integrity, said the idea that ICE would be at polling locations was misinformation.
Colorado state election staff listened to the call and briefed Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who could not attend because of a scheduling conflict. Griswold said the idea of ICE at polling places is not so far-fetched.
“Well, the idea comes from Steve Bannon, Trump's close ally, so we continue to not know what is happening there,” Griswold said.
Earlier in February, Bannon said on his War Room podcast that the Trump Administration should send ICE agents to voting locations. “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,” said Bannon.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also refused to rule it out but also noted she hadn’t heard the President talk about it. Griswold said after Wednesday's call, she’s not at all reassured it’s off the table.
“The representative from the Department of Homeland Security absolutely should not be trusted in her assertions on elections.”
Many state election officials are wary of Honey, who had no previous professional election work experience and has pushed false claims of a rigged 2020 election.
Griswold said she was also concerned that DOJ and DHS officials refused to take a stand on Trump’s assertions that he would like to nationalize elections in 15 states.
“I believe Secretary Shenna Bellows from Maine asked both DHS and DOJ to commit to including in their communications ahead of the election season that it's the state's constitutional role to oversee elections and both DHS and the DOJ could not commit to that.”
Griswold said federal officials also declined to answer a question about how a DHS database that historically helped states check for citizenship would be used this cycle. Under the second Trump administration, a feature to mass upload information into this database is new. The issue is tied to Colorado’s refusal to turn over personal voter information to the federal government.
The call comes at a fraught time between state and local election officials and the Trump administration. Last month, the FBI seized thousands of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, stemming from Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. The DOJ has sought state voter roll data and is suing roughly half the states in the country for it, including Colorado. There have also been cuts to federal election cybersecurity programs.
The FBI said earlier this month that the federal government would like to support states in the midterm elections and “discuss our preparations for the cycle, as well as updates and resources we can provide to you and your staff.”
On Wednesday, much of the video call was a slide presentation of existing security tools available to states, but Griswold said Colorado will take a cautious approach and limit any cooperation with the federal government. One topic that didn’t come up on the call was the use of mail ballots. Trump has consistently attacked Colorado and other states for all mail ballot elections. During his State of the Union address, Trump said he wanted to put in place voter ID checks and restrict the use of mail ballots.
“No more crooked mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Griswold said Colorado would shore up contingencies and push back on any federal attempt to meddle in the 2026 election. Griswold said typically, election security plans are more local and not discussed in a national meeting.
“Outside of the context of Trump's presidency, maybe this would've been normal.”
