By Marc Elias
February 9, 2026
I’ve wanted Marc Elias to be wrong for seven years, or six years, for as long as he’s been coming on my show. I have wanted his warnings to be wrong, but every single one of them has been either affirmed or prescient.
That is how Nicolle Wallace recently began a segment concerning Donald Trump’s latest attacks on free and fair elections. She asked me how I felt now that even moderate Democrats have begun to echo my warnings about the midterm elections.
The truth is that I take no joy in having correctly predicted that Trump would attack our democracy in 2020. I gain no satisfaction from being right about Republican attacks on election certification. I wish I had been wrong about Donald Trump weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents.
But here we are.
Now, with only nine months before the midterm elections, Trump is plotting to prevent Democrats from taking control of Congress. He started by trying to rig congressional maps through midcycle partisan gerrymandering. When that failed, his Department of Justice sought access to state voter files and seized ballots in Fulton County, Georgia. Now he is advocating for a Republican-led federal takeover of elections in blue states.
Most importantly, no Republican has stepped up to stand in his way. His White House is stocked with sycophants and enablers. His Cabinet executes his every wish. Vladimir Putin wishes the Russian Duma were as deferential to him as Republicans in Congress are to Trump.
As Nicolle Wallace pointed out, all Democrats are increasingly being forced to confront this stark reality. The sober-minded traditionalists who typically seek bipartisan agreement have reluctantly come to accept that Trump is torching our democracy — and that there can be no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.
Contrary to many doomsayers, it is not too late to protect the midterm elections. There are steps Democrats can take now — at both the state and federal levels — to safeguard our elections.
Shortly after the 2025 elections, I published a list of seven voting laws every blue state should enact. While I stand by all seven, I want to highlight three:
1. Ban third-party voter challenges and other forms of vigilantism.
States must prohibit anyone — including the federal government — from challenging a person’s voter registration or right to vote. For years, Republicans have compiled private voter databases to challenge voters they want removed from the rolls. Now, the federal government is attempting to do the same. This practice of allowing voter challenges should be banned outright by every blue state.
2. Provide criminal and civil remedies for voter intimidation.
States must enact new laws that provide stronger protections against voter harassment and intimidation. These laws must allow for both civil and criminal remedies and cover a broad range of threats. Federal laws are not broad enough to address current threats. Existing state laws often fail to account for newer intimidation tactics. States need to adopt the broadest measures possible.
3. Revise and strengthen election-certification laws.
We must recognize that the weakest point in our election process is often the post-election counting and certification phase. Blue-state certification laws must be updated with modern language that unambiguously defines certification as a ministerial duty. These laws should allow private parties and state officials to sue to compel certification and impose criminal penalties on election deniers. State courts should also be empowered to certify elections when election officials fail to meet their obligations.
With Congress now negotiating funding priorities for the coming year, I offer the following four suggestions for new federal laws:
1. Prohibit federal law enforcement or the Department of Justice from operating within 500 feet of any polling place, counting location or election office.
Federal law enforcement must be barred from engaging in any legal or law enforcement activity near anyone casting a ballot, administering an election, or counting or certifying votes.
2. Prohibit federal officials from taking investigative steps involving elections from 30 days before Election Day until one week after the last member of the new Congress is seated.
For years, the DOJ has maintained a policy against making public criminal investigations involving candidates or voting in the run-up to Election Day. That policy is insufficient. Congress should codify a ban on any investigative steps — public or private — during this period.
3. Require that any criminal grand jury subpoena, arrest or search warrant involving elections be sought by the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney for the district where the activity occurs.
Donald Trump has attempted to circumvent U.S. attorney offices to pursue political investigations and prosecutions. For example, the search warrant in Fulton County was sought by the U.S. attorney in Missouri, not by federal prosecutors in Georgia. Congress should prohibit this. Only the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney for the relevant district should be authorized to seek such actions. If no U.S. attorney has been confirmed, approval should be required from the longest-serving federal prosecutor in that office.
4. Remove immunity from federal, state and local election officials for any action that interferes with or denies a qualified voter the right to vote or have their ballot counted.
Officials who disenfranchise voters should not be able to hide behind official immunity. Allowing lawsuits against election deniers for voter suppression or vote denial would create a powerful deterrent against such conduct.
None of these steps alone will guarantee a free and fair election in 2026. Taken together, however, they weaken the hand of those seeking to undermine the will of the voters while empowering those committed to protecting democracy.
