Democrats are preparing for President Donald Trump to try to halt voting on Election Day, frighten Americans into not going to the polls or seize voting machines and ballots, the top two Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees told MS NOW.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Trump continues to make false claims of voter fraud and threaten to seize control of vote counting from state and local officials. They said they do not know of specific plans by Trump but argued they had to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

“I remain gravely concerned that the president or his allies may try to interfere in the election,” Warner said. “Whether it’s about Republicans federalizing the elections or his unwillingness to commit that he won’t send ICE or troops to the polls.”

Himes predicted Trump would use similar tactics to the ones he deployed in the wake of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. “Trump has never accepted the results of elections that he loses,” Himes said. “So he will do all in his power to paint his imminent losses as corrupt or rigged.”If Republicans lose control of the House, Himes warned that Trump could pressure Republicans in Congress — especially House Speaker Mike Johnson — to question the results and potentially decline to swear in the newly elected Congress on Jan. 3 as the Constitution mandates.

“Expect the greatest hits of the 2020 election, from frivolous lawsuits to fomenting violence and urging Mike Johnson to ‘do the right thing,’” Himes said. “It’s who he is.”Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said Trump was strengthening U.S. election systems.

“President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections,” she said. “Every American should be asking why the radical Left continues to fight against commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID and citizenship verification to make sure only Americans decide our elections.”

Trump told reporters earlier this month that he would accept the results of the midterms but added a caveat. “Of course I will, but we don’t want cheating,” Trump said. “We don’t want cheating in the midterms.”Days later, Trump falsely claimed at a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, that a “rigged election” caused the Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake, to lose her race there in 2022. He said Democrats had somehow broken election machines in the Republican stronghold where he spoke.

Lake “won that election,” Trump said. “The damn machines were broken in Republican areas. They were broken purposely, and you couldn’t vote.”When Lake tried to prove that she had won in court, judges dismissed her claims and ruled she had lost.

Warner, Himes and other Democrats said they are concerned that Trump could try to use an intelligence claim to take federal control of elections or have Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents patrol near polling places to depress turnout.

The Constitution mandates that state and local governments and Congress administer elections, not the president. As a result, some 10,000 election jurisdictions exist across the country and they use different types of voting and tabulation machines.

Warner said certain Election Day worst-case scenarios alarm him. Trump could exaggerate an unconfirmed piece of intelligence — or fabricate one — such as China hacking into voting machines and use it as a pretext to halt voting in Democratic areas.

“What I’m most concerned about is a raw piece of intelligence that has not been validated, that is invented, be used as an excuse,” Warner said. “A prerequisite to deploy troops or grabbing voting machines.”A 1948 federal law enacted under the Truman administration specifically bars “troops or armed men” from being present “at any place where a general or special election is held” in the U.S. Violating the law is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said Democrats have a duty to prepare for Trump to try to halt or disrupt voting on Election Day.

“Donald Trump has proven he’ll ignore the Constitution and rule of law to hold onto power,” Crow said. “Our election system is safe and secure, but we’re looking at every contingency to protect the right to vote.”“Our margin of victory is our greatest defense,” Crow added.

Warner said more than 75 voting rights groups have prepared prewritten legal motions they can use to ask judges to stop Trump. If voting is delayed in certain areas, judges can extend voting hours or order that a new election be held to ensure voter participation.

“There’s seventy-five plus voting rights groups that meet on a daily basis,” he said. “I think they’ve got every motion possible ready to be filed.”Bis, the White House spokesperson, said Democrats were ignoring voter fraud in the U.S.

“While extreme Democrats and the media continue to dismiss concerns about voter fraud, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to protect our elections including prosecuting election crimes, strengthening election infrastructure security, and protecting vulnerable voters from fraud and coercion,” she said. “President Trump is making clear that anyone who illegally votes in our elections will be held accountable.”Warner noted that the Trump administration had FBI agents and other officials seize 2020 election ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, and voting machines from Puerto Rico as part of a yearslong search — and so far failed — effort to find widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

“I still believe something could happen. I don’t know what it’ll be,” Warner said. “It could be a disaster. Nothing would be more ironic that in our 250th year, we had a corrupted election at a level, at least unprecedented in modern times.”