Investigations into voting system expand weeks ahead of midterms

Updated on: October 18, 2026 / 7:47 PM EDT / CBS News

With midterm elections just two weeks away, there are concerns that the federal government's efforts to investigate the voting process have bred distrust in the system.

Federal agents have seized ballots, and voting machines have been examined. President Trump has suggested voting be nationalized and urged Republican voters to "cheat like hell."

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 in an effort to create new federal voting laws: one requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and another on mail-in ballots.

Secretary of Homeland…

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