Taken together, Trump’s comments and actions are pointing toward a possibility Democratic voters have until now only contemplated: the federal government seizing voting machines across the country in a way that disrupts voting in the 2026 midterms. In 2020, Puerto Rico began implementing electronic voting machines, purchased from Dominion Voting Systems on a 2016 contract, to replace outdated paper ballots used in previous elections. Federal investigators asked Puerto Rico to turn over some voting machines and software images voluntarily for analysis as part of a joint investigation with the FBI and ODNI. An attack like this wouldn’t scale, since voting machines are not connected to the internet, but would sow doubt about larger outcomes. It requires an emergency declaration, which Trump made in his March elections order.

Source: The Guardian February 28, 2026 00:04 UTC