Election rights groups cite recent ICE activity near polling places and new evidence of intimidation as they expand their lawsuit aimed at keeping armed federal agents away from polling places during the midterm elections.
The most recent examples include an ICE detention that took place Monday in the same area that California voters had to pass through to reach a ballot box.
The detention took place at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria on the first day polls were open in California, according to an amended complaint filed Wednesday.
ICE detained one person in a parking lot while an adjacent parking lot in the same parking area served as an active ballot drop-off location. Voters had to pass through the area where agents were operating to reach the drop box.
The filing also highlights accumulating evidence in Minnesota that the presence of federal immigration agents around polling places is already changing the behavior of voters and election workers.
Hennepin County, which joined the lawsuit Wednesday, claims federal investigators working for the Department of Homeland Security entered election premises three times in the past five months — once at a municipal election office and twice at an early voting location at the Hennepin County Government Center.
ICE agents also made at least two arrests in the lobby of the building located near the current early voting location, according to the complaint. Several election workers who witnessed the arrests were upset, reported feeling unsafe at work and, in some cases, were assigned to other locations.
County election officials have since spent more than 100 hours developing and conducting training on how to respond if federal agents appear at polling locations, including de-escalation techniques, evacuation plans and procedures for removing unauthorized people from polling locations.
Hennepin County also developed eight contingency plans addressing the possibility of federal agents at election sites, accounting for 38 percent of its risk mitigation planning for the November election, according to the complaint.
The filing describes signs that fear of ICE activity could also be affecting voter outreach.
A nonprofit hired by Hennepin County to work with African immigrant communities reported its door-to-door response rate fell to between 5% and 10% this year, compared to 40% to 45% in previous years. The organization said it received no voting pledges and only one voter registration this year, compared to hundreds in previous years.
The complaint does not establish that ICE activity alone caused this decline, but the plaintiffs cite the numbers as evidence that fear surrounding federal agents is spilling over into civic participation.
Hennepin County officials also say their election call center receives questions almost daily from residents concerned about the presence of federal agents at polling places. Callers asked how the county would respond, what protections voters would have and what they should do if fear of federal interference made them reluctant to vote in person.
These developments are now at the heart of an expanded version of the lawsuit initially filed last month by the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, UnidosUS and the City and County of Denver.*
The original case challenged what the plaintiffs described as a DHS policy allowing armed ICE agents to visit polling places to execute arrest warrants and conduct immigration enforcement.
Wednesday’s amended complaint adds Hennepin County as a plaintiff and expands the case to include the Justice Department, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche. It also adds a claim under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation, threats and coercion related to voting.
The plaintiffs now also allege that the FBI adopted a policy allowing armed agents to visit polling places for election monitoring purposes.
They point in part to Patel’s Sept. 15 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. When asked if the FBI would send personnel to polling locations, Patel said the bureau had election crime coordinators in all 56 field offices and that the FBI would not “step back” on election integrity efforts.
The government has not admitted that Patel’s remarks match the formal polling station policy alleged by the plaintiffs.
The amended complaint argues that recent federal law enforcement activities, statements by the administration, and documented effects on voters and election workers together constitute intimidation prohibited by the Voting Rights Act.
The plaintiffs say the threat posed by armed federal agents at polling places is particularly intimidating to naturalized citizens, people from mixed families and voters perceived to be foreign-born.
With voting already underway in some parts of the country, they are asking the Federal Court to intervene before election day.
*Democracy Forward represents the pro-voting plaintiffs in this case. Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias chairs the board of directors of Democracy Forward.
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