Officials Fear DHS Has Become a Threat to Midterm Elections

Voting officials across the United States are expressing deepening alarm that the Department of Homeland Security, traditionally a trusted partner in safeguarding elections, has transformed into a potential threat to the integrity of the 2026 midterm elections under President Donald Trump. The concern, detailed in a comprehensive investigation by NPR, centers on DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a longtime election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College results and has installed allies with similar views in key positions across the department.

A Systematic Dismantling of Election Security

The Trump administration has systematically dismantled the federal election security infrastructure built over the past decade. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), created by Trump himself in his first term to counter cyber threats after Russian interference in the 2016 election, has been gutted. All three dozen or so CISA employees specializing in elections have been fired or transferred, and the agency has operated without a Senate-confirmed leader for the entirety of Trump’s second term, according to reporting by ProPublica.

In total, at least 75 career officials across DHS, the Department of Justice, and other departments who played important roles in election security have left or been fired. The Public Integrity Section at DOJ, which reviewed politically sensitive election cases to prevent partisan interference, has been reduced from 36 lawyers to just two.

Funding Cuts Leave Local Jurisdictions Exposed

The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which provided cybersecurity tools to thousands of local election jurisdictions, had its federal funding zeroed out in 2025 as part of DOGE cuts. Membership has dropped to less than 20% of pre-cut levels, as The Record reported. On June 3, Mullin testified that CISA will target 2,800 employees and face $700 million more in budget cuts, according to the Daily Security Review.

“It took years of dedicated, bipartisan, cross-sector partnership to build the security infrastructure we’ve had, and dismantling CISA leaves a gaping hole,” said Kathy Boockvar, a former Pennsylvania secretary of state.

Local Officials: “They’ve Brought the Fox into the Henhouse”

Numerous local election officials from both parties have told NPR they are actively avoiding cooperation with federal authorities, fearing that voter data and security information could be weaponized against them.

“I’m actively discouraging it,” said Matt Crane, a Republican former county clerk who now runs the Colorado election officials association. “I don’t trust how the administration is using that data. I don’t trust that they’re going to keep it confidential. And so I can’t in good conscience advocate that any of my counties do any work with them right now. All of this points to the fact that these are not trusted partners anymore. They’ve brought the fox into the henhouse.”

Paul Lux, a Republican election supervisor in Okaloosa County, Florida, and former EI-ISAC chair, reported radio silence from CISA. “You know, try calling somebody at CISA and see who answers the phone,” Lux said. “Because at the end of the day, it’s been radio silence from CISA when we reach out about just about anything.”

Election Deniers in Positions of Power

Heather Honey, who has a long history of spreading election misinformation — including falsely claiming more ballots were cast in Pennsylvania than voters in 2020 — now serves as DHS’s point person for elections under Mullin. Trump cited her false claim while exhorting followers to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At least 11 administration appointees have ties to the Election Integrity Network, led by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election.

“The election denial movement is now interwoven within the federal government, and they are working together toward a shared goal of reshaping elections,” said Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center. “It’s not just last-minute slapdash attempts to overturn the results, but more systematic efforts to influence how elections are run months ahead of time.”

ICE at the Polls? Legal and Political Concerns

White House border czar Tom Homan has seemed open to deploying immigration enforcement to voting locations, which would violate federal law dating back to the Civil War. The Brennan Center for Justice has warned that sending armed federal agents to polling places is illegal and would constitute voter intimidation. At his confirmation hearing, Mullin said DHS agents would only be present if there was a specific threat.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has sued approximately 30 states demanding their confidential voter registration data. At least four courts that have fully considered these cases have dismissed them.

A Fractured Landscape Ahead of November

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat running for governor, said the cuts have forced states to rebuild networks to protect against foreign interference on their own. “The actions of defunding and dismantling those protections speak for themselves,” she said. “And it’s meant that we as states have had to rebuild networks to protect our respective states from foreign interference.”

The EI-ISAC plans to stand up a virtual situation room for Election Day, similar to one previously provided by CISA — but no one from DHS will be invited. Lux said the federal government would be treated like “that uncle that we keep at arm’s length at Thanksgiving rather than giving him a big bear hug.”

What to Watch For

With Trump’s approval ratings near record lows and polling suggesting Republicans could face significant losses in November, experts warn that the 2026 midterms will serve as an unprecedented stress test of American election integrity. The courts continue to block parts of Trump’s executive orders on elections, but the systematic erosion of guardrails that held in 2020 raises urgent questions about what happens if the president dislikes the results this time around.