David Graham

What we see in these cases this year is the Justice Department going to places that are important elections for Democrats.

So, for example, the New Jersey governor's race, which was expected to be fairly close, or to California, where there is this important referendum on redistricting elections.

And putting monitors there.

So there's a concern about intimidation where there's no real threat of, you know, problems with elections.

And also, I think experts see this as a little bit of a dry run for 2026, where the Justice Department starts sending out monitors now to get people accustomed to the idea.

They send out more monitors potentially next year.

And there's where you start to worry about intimidation or pressure on local officials or on voters as well, who may not want to deal with inconvenience or may feel that there's some sort of threat to them.

I looked at Maricopa because it's a perfect spot for a lot of these questions.

There aren't that many competitive districts in the House at this point because so many states have already gerrymandered.

But in around Maricopa County, there are two districts that are expected to be very competitive in next year's elections.

And it's also a purple state where you can imagine a lot of focus from both parties.

And it's a state where you have both Republican and Democratic officials who will be influential in that race and where Trump has tried to interfere in the past.

I don't know how realistic it is, but I think everything that I lay out in the scenario is something that experts told me could happen and something that they want to be prepared for.

And this is maybe the worst case scenario where you have, for example, the presence of Marines coming in, where you have the FBI getting involved, where you have voting machines getting seized.

But these are all things that Trump or his allies have talked about or considered and things that match with kind of actions that have taken place so far.

Yeah, it's amazing the way American elections work.

And in some ways, it's amazing they work so well.

They depend on a patchwork of local officials with different laws in every state, different rules in different counties.

They require volunteers.

They require people who are poorly paid and who have become real targets for harassment, particularly in the last few years.