Poll: Americans worry Trump will seize ballots, voting machines in midterms

By Natalie Hausmann

A woman prepares to cast her ballot at an electronic counting machine to vote in the 2022 midterm election, at P.S. 101 in the Queens borough of New York, NY, November 8, 2022. (Photo by Anthony Behar/AP Images).

Americans strongly disapprove of executive overreach in elections and are concerned that the Trump administration could interfere in the 2026 midterms, according to a new poll conducted by the States United Democracy Center.

The new public opinion data comes after President Donald Trump has threatened to “take over” voting, hinted at seizing ballots and attempted to restrict voting access — despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution gives states the power to oversee elections.

Nearly half of Americans (49%) worry that the Trump administration will seize ballots in the upcoming midterm elections, according to the poll.

While 81% of Democrats expressed concern that Trump would “use the military to seize ballots and voting machines,” 9% of Republicans and 18% of independents were also worried.

Overall, 29% of Americans were “very concerned” and 20% said they were “somewhat concerned” about potential ballot seizures.

That is not a theoretical fear. In January, Trump said he regretted not seizing ballots during the 2020 presidential election.

A majority of Americans also told States United they don’t believe Trump should be able to cancel or “redo” the 2026 midterm elections.

In conducting the poll, the nonpartisan pro-voting organization interviewed 1,570 American adults Feb. 11-19, 2026. The results have roughly a 2.7% margin of error.

Notably, the interviews were carried out before Trump issued his second executive order taking aim at elections late last month. 

That document calls for restrictions on mail-in voting and the creation of a national list of U.S. citizens eligible to vote. It also instructed the U.S. Postal Service to only send absentee ballots to people on this list.

Democrats and voting rights activists have called the order unconstitutional, and it has already been inundated with legal challenges. 

A separate poll by UMass Amherst this month found that fewer than one in five Americans support the federal government taking control of elections.