Todd Blanche must confirm DOJ won’t seize ballots, senators demand

A group of Democratic U.S. senators are the latest to demand that Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly pledge the Department of Justice (DOJ) won’t seize ballots or election materials during the midterms. 

“We urge the Department of Justice to reaffirm its longstanding election non-interference policy and rule out any attempt to seize ballots or any other election materials or equipment before voting, counting, and/or certification are complete,” wrote Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island in a  letter to Blanche released Friday. “This confirmation is necessary because Department leaders have been sending conflicting public signals.”

Though the letter doesn’t mention it, among those signals is the lawsuit DOJ filed against California Thursday, seeking to bar it from counting ballots from more than 20,000 voters that the department alleges are noncitizens. The letter was sent the same day DOJ filed the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, an escalation of a long-brewing attack from the Trump administration on states’ election authority, appears to be setting the groundwork for DOJ to seize ballots, challenge results, or otherwise intervene in the midterm elections.

The senators underscored the urgency of the issue.

“Mail and absentee ballots have already been sent out to millions of voters, and early voting has begun in several states,” they write “However, the Department has failed to affirm its election non-interference policy against a backdrop of the recent weakening of DOJ policies, upheaval in the agency’s workforce, DOJ’s seizure of 2020 election materials in Georgia and Arizona, personal calls by President Trump directly to DOJ attorneys to influence election-related investigations in California and elsewhere, as well as unprecedented partisan political activity by DOJ leadership. A clear and immediate response from the Department is necessary.”

In the letter, the senators ask Blanche if any DOJ agency has “developed, discussed, requested, sought judicial authorization for, or approved any plan to seize ballots, voting machines, tabulation equipment, or other election materials relating to the 2026 federal elections.”

Several lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration similarly seeking documentation of any plans to deploy troops or perform unlawful federal operations as the election occurs. Military leaders so far have responded that they will not send armed personnel to the polls, but Trump administration officials have mostly evaded or ignored these queries. 

DOJ should strictly adhere to the “non-interference policy” spelled out in the department’s Justice Manual, the senators wrote. That policystates that officials should “avoid interfering or appearing to interfere,” with states’ election administration process (bold in original). 

The senators note that current revisions to the Justice Manual – particularly the suspension of the policy that prosecutors and agents consult with the Public Integrity Section before opening elections-related investigations – are “creating new uncertainty.”

“Given that it is too late for revisions ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, DOJ should restore  this part of its election policy immediately,” the letter reads. “Failure to maintain a strong, explicit election non-interference policy exposes DOJ prosecutors to political pressure to interfere in elections at the request of the President or other Administration leaders, political parties, candidates, and other influences.”

The senators also probe DOJ about the disappearance of its Election Crimes Manual from the internet, which goes into more detail about prohibiting federal election interference. The Justice Department has said the manual was taken down for “revising and updating.”

The senators ask in the letter if DOJ is still adhering to a section that says election-related documents should not be taken from local election officials while votes are being counted. 

“If revisions are underway, provide the current draft, identify the officials responsible for those revisions, and state when the revised guidance will be made public,” the senators requested. 

The senators credited FBI Kash Patel in the letter with recently stating under oath that FBI agents won’t seize ballots. (Patel said  in that same hearing that he would “have them there … for election interference matters.”) 

The senators said they wanted assurance that Patel wouldn’t change his stance if ordered to by Blanche. 

“The FBI Director reports to the Attorney General, so his commitment is contingent on your own,” the senators wrote to Blanche.

Meanwhile, the FBI has already seized ballots from Fulton County, Ga. earlier this year and executed a federal grand jury subpoena for ballots from Maricopa County, Arizona. FBI agents also inspected ballots in Shasta County, California and subpoenaed Nevada’s secretary of state for voter information in September. 

The letter notes that neither Patel nor Blanche have responded to a Sept. 1 letter from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) asking whether DOJ or FBI planned to send armed federal agents or seize “election materials of any kind” during the midterm elections.

“It is hard to miss that the President is laying the groundwork to send armed agents to the polls during the midterm elections,” Slotkin wrote.