Federal actions around voting system expand weeks ahead of midterms

Updated on: October 18, 2026 / 8:38 PM EDT / CBS News

With midterm elections just two weeks away, there are concerns that the federal government's pressure on election officials is breeding distrust in the system.

Federal agents have seized ballots, and voting machines have been examined. The Justice Department is locked in legal battles with states across the country over information about individual voters and this past week threatened to prosecute California election officials if they knowingly count mail-in ballots from 20,000 people the Trump administration says are "likely noncitizens."

It's a kind of interference Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican in a deeply red state, said she's never seen before.

"In the past two elections that I oversaw as lieutenant governor, the threats were all external: non-state actors, cyber security threats and other things," she said. "But now we also have threats coming from within our own government."

In the U.S., elections are local. They're run by towns and counties and states. It's stated in Article I of the Constitution. Congress makes laws regulating elections, but the president doesn't have a role in running them.

Still, during his second term Mr. Trump has signed two executive orders…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/