Local election officials are training to defend the midterms from interference

Politics Local election officials are training to defend the midterms from interference September 14, 20264:43 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Frank Langfitt , A Martínez Local election officials are training to defend the midterms from interference Listen &middot; 3:39 3:39 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5951516/nx-s1-9924985" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Hundreds of election officials from around the country are meeting to discuss how to defend the integrity of the midterm elections, including against interference by the federal government.federal government. Sponsor Message Transcript A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: With Election Day less than two months away, election officials around the country are preparing for a wide variety of threats to the voting process. NPR's Frank Langfitt is just back from Charleston, South Carolina, where he spoke with local election officials during two days of training on how to handle everything from drones at polling places to federal warrants for ballots. Frank is on the line. Frank, this training sounds fascinating. Tell us all about it and what jumped out. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: It really was. This was done by the Association of South Carolina Election Officials. And the big new concern is what you just mentioned and NPR recently reported, and that's a fear that federal agents could try to seize ballots in the midst of the midterms. MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, which was once unthinkable and has never happened before in modern times. LANGFITT: Exactly. And, you know, trainers told election officials they need to prepare for this now. They got to make sure that they have a good relationship with their county attorney. And if he or she doesn't have sort of specialized election law experience, they need to reach out to groups and link up with attorneys who do and prepare for help this fall. And in that way, the idea's this, A - that if the Justice Department does come knocking with a search warrant, they're ready. One of the people I was talking to - her name is Brenda Cabrera. She's one of the trainers and she spent 35 years conducting elections in Virginia. BRENDA CABRERA: One of the things that we talk about is potentially having some motions in your pocket ahead of time - motions to quash or things like that - that you can take some legal action about. But I wouldn't even start executing that until I talked to my local government attorney. MARTÍNEZ: Now, Frank, how worried are people that something like that could actually happen? LANGFITT: Well, I think legal and election officials see it as unlikely, in part because, of course, a judge would have to sign off on a warrant. But they also say they've got to prepare because something like this has already happened before. Back in January, FBI agents, as we and people around the country reported - they seized hundreds of thousands of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, from the 2020 election. And some of the local officials in South Carolina - they were shocked that such a thing might be possible during this election. Jeanine Bostick - she's the director of the Jasper County Board of Elections. This is what she said. JEANINE BOSTICK: To be honest, today was the first day I heard that this was a possibility. LANGFITT: So Bostick told me, you know, she would immediately reach out to the state election commission and its lawyers after this training. BOSTICK: We need to get together and figure out how we, as directors, are going to handle this, 'cause I'm not going to have my poll workers just surrender. They need to call and say, hey, these people here say they're taking these ballots. What am I supposed to do? MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. One of the worries is that if federal agents seize ballots, election officials will then lose control of those ballots and that could call the election into question. So what did local election officials in South Carolina have to say about that? LANGFITT: Well, as you can imagine, I mean, they said this is their nightmare scenario. Their fear is that nobody would trust the eventual results and that they'd have to run another election. One told me that they thought if this thing happened, they would expect a lot of election staff would actually immediately quit. And the seizure of ballots would further undermine, you know, confidence in the elections. This is John Baucom. He's head of elections in Spartanburg County. JOHN BAUCOM: Anything that occurs that causes voters to either think that their vote doesn't matter or that their vote may be thrown out is always the biggest concern. MARTÍNEZ: Frank, what are other challenges that election officials are preparing for this fall? LANGFITT: A lot of them - everything from managing bomb threats to what do you do if drones come buzzing the polls, disinformation from AI. And there's this group called the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. They were training on this issue. They say demand for their services this year is off the charts. MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Frank Langfitt. Frank, thanks. LANGFITT: Happy to do it, A. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews. 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