The 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6 came as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) underwent a dramatic shift in priorities. Once dedicated to protecting voting rights for all Americans, the DOJ under President Donald Trump’s leadership has redirected its focus toward supporting the president’s claims about election integrity – and preparing for potential disputes in the 2026 midterms, still over a year away.
According to critics, the DOJ is now led by officials who echo Trump’s unfounded assertions that noncitizens have illegally influenced past elections. These claims form the basis for current DOJ demands for extensive voter data from state election administrators – an effort seen as laying the groundwork for challenging midterm results before ballots are cast.
Analysts say this strategy is rooted in lessons Trump and his allies drew from the 2020 election: first, launch attacks on election processes before Election Day; and second, ensure only loyalists hold key positions in the administration. In Trump’s second term, figures like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have replaced former aides who in 2020 refused to support his false claims of victory.
Pam Bondi, a vocal Trump supporter during the 2020 disputes, was present at a press conference in Philadelphia shortly after Election Day, asserting that Trump had already won Pennsylvania despite ongoing vote counts. The state ultimately went to Joe Biden. Trump’s team now appears determined to avoid what they view as the missteps of that year by pressuring state election systems well in advance.
Reports indicate that state election officials – both Republican and Democrat – have been receiving requests for voter rolls and past election records from DOJ officials for months. David Becker, a former DOJ lawyer and founder of The Center for Election Innovation and Research, says these officials have expressed concerns over what he calls “an unprecedented level of federal interference in state election processes.”
Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at The Brennan Center for Justice, describes the effort as removing “the brakes” that safeguard democratic processes. “They’re starting earlier,” she said, warning that Trump is “laser-focused on interfering in elections by any means necessary.”
Constitutionally, U.S. elections are administered by the states, with the president’s role limited to enforcing federal voting laws. Critics argue the current DOJ actions amount to an attempt to shift that balance of power toward the White House, despite no congressional authorization.
With Democrats in the minority in Congress and Republicans aligned with Trump, federal oversight of the DOJ’s activities is unlikely. That leaves state election officials as the last line of defense. Many of these officials have already faced threats and harassment from Trump supporters – a tactic that observers say is intended to intimidate them into compliance.
Whether state election leaders can withstand that pressure, as some officials did in 2020, may prove decisive in determining how the 2026 midterm elections are conducted and whether their results are trusted.
