▲ A polling station in Washington, D.C.
The ongoing U.S. midterm elections are taking place amid intense tension, with the Donald Trump administration dispatching its largest-ever monitoring team and deploying the National Guard across multiple states.
As President Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of election fraud, the possibility of clashes between government monitors and Democratic-led counter-monitoring personnel at polling stations in battleground areas cannot be ruled out.
In a press release issued on November 3, the U.S. Department of Justice stated, "One of the Department of Justice's most sacred duties is to ensure the integrity of our elections, support free and fair elections, and protect the right of citizens to vote across America," adding, "Today, the department is reinforcing that mission through its largest-scale election monitoring operation in history."
The Justice Department explained that it has deployed about 1,000 election monitors and observers, with operations taking place across all 50 states for the first time, overseen by the Civil Rights Division.
It added that starting today, the department will accept inquiries and complaints regarding voting rights for a week.
Harmeet Dhillon, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, stated, "Ensuring election integrity is one of the top priorities of this administration and the Civil Rights Division," and added, "We are immensely proud to conduct our largest-scale monitoring effort and to pursue election transparency in an aggressive, non-discriminatory manner."
The scale of this government monitoring deployment is reportedly three times larger than that of the 2022 midterms.
With President Trump repeatedly raising the possibility of election fraud amid deep expectations of defeat, the Justice Department, led by close confidant Todd Blanche, is launching a massive election watch.
The move also appears intended to compile problematic instances during the voting process in preparation for a potential crushing defeat in the election.
Individual states are also mobilizing the National Guard to support the elections.
In particular, states with Democratic governors are deploying the National Guard in response to the administration's dispatch of election monitors, creating a dynamic of counter-monitoring.
At the suggestion of Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, about 100 National Guard members are monitoring elections across seven counties in the state.
Governor Ferguson emphasized the necessity of deploying the National Guard, citing an incident during the 2024 presidential election in Vancouver, Washington, where hundreds of ballots were destroyed in a ballot drop box arson attack.
The National Guard is also participating in election monitoring in North Carolina, which also has a Democratic governor.
In Colorado, the National Guard is providing support for election cybersecurity.
The congressional news outlet The Hill reported that seven states have officially announced the mobilization of the National Guard for the midterm elections this year.
Democratic-led states such as Minnesota and California are also engaging in activities to counter-monitor the operations of the Justice Department's monitors.
Ahead of the election, President Trump made remarks suggesting that Democrats were attempting election fraud in battleground states.
In an interview with The New York Times last January, he even said that he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states during his 2020 election defeat.
Because of this, Democrats have raised concerns that the Trump administration could mobilize military troops or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to suppress voter turnout, and furthermore, refuse to accept election results or seize voting machines and ballots.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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