California U.S. Senator Alex Padilla

Building on their newly announced Election Protection Task Force, Senate Democrats met with election experts to safeguard voting rights

June 4, 2026 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee which oversees federal elections, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), members of the Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force, met with key election experts to stress-test responses to several threats to the 2026 midterms, including foreign interference and misinformation, the deployment of federal agents to polling places, and law enforcement agents seizing ballots from local election officials. The meeting was the second convening of the Election Protection Task Force since its April launch. Participants included former Attorney General Eric Holder, Marc Elias of the Elias Law Group, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, and election law expert Norm Eisen. 

“As millions of Americans exercised their right to vote yesterday, Donald Trump and his MAGA allies were working overtime — not to make life better for families who are struggling to make ends meet, but scheming to silence the voices of countless voters across the country. They have already moved to seize ballots, purge eligible voters from the rolls, dismantle the core protections of the Voting Rights Act, and now handed control of America’s most sensitive national security apparatus to a Trump loyalist whose only qualification is his willingness to do Trump’s bidding, including election interference. Between now and the November midterms, we expect these attacks will only intensify. That is exactly why this task force exists. We will fight back in the Senate, in the courts, and in the states, and we will ensure that Donald Trump can’t ‘takeover’ our elections. Our democracy is not his to take,” said Senator Padilla.

“Donald Trump and his enablers are not hiding their intention to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections — indeed they are already working to suppress the vote — and our Task Force is preparing for all the contingencies. In the specific scenario that I proposed for today, we confronted how this administration’s weaponization of federal law enforcement — including ICE or CBP — could be used to intimidate voters and depress turnout. This and the other scenarios we workshopped today will help ensure readiness across the country to confront these threats, combat attacks on our elections, and identify any gaps in our democracy’s defenses,” said Senator Schiff.

“Trump and Republicans are hellbent on rigging our elections and undermining our democracy. Democrats won’t let that happen,” said Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.“ Our Election Protection Task Force, the most expansive effort to date to protect the 2026 midterms, is readying for the threats we know are coming – and today we gamed out how we can thwart them before Republicans can undermine our free and fair elections. Democrats will be ready with lawyers and response teams to respond the moment Trump or his allies try to interfere with our elections. Democracy is on the line. Democrats are going to fight like hell to make sure our elections belong to the voters – not Donald Trump.”

As their agenda grows more unpopular due to a worsening affordability crisis and mounting corruption scandals, the Trump Administration has worked to disrupt free and fair elections and tip the scales toward Republicans ahead of the midterms. Trump has said he’ll deploy an “election integrity army” to polling places across the country and is making it harder to vote-by-mail. His Justice Department sought to seize state voter rolls. FBI agents and the Director of National Intelligence raided election offices in Georgia. Republicans pressed election officials in Arizona to turn over documents. Poll workers are being threatened nationwide.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Senators’ Task Force will continue to announce additional steps in the fight to safeguard the right to vote and ensure that every American has fair access to the ballot box this November.

Source: Senator Alex Padilla