"I’m worried about that situation for sure," one current FBI official told MS NOW. "We have all the evidence we need to expect at least one US attorney and one FBI agent to be willing to sign on to such actions, such as Georgia and Arizona."
The report, by Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig, stresses an important distinction: no such order has been confirmed. What the agents describe is a fear, built on what they have already seen this year from the Donald Trump administration — not an order that has already been given.
Georgia and Arizona: the two cases agents keep pointing to
The anxiety traces back to two federal operations tied to the 2020 election. In January 2026, the FBI seized ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, after obtaining a warrant tied largely to fraud claims that had already been discredited. In March, agents took voting equipment and electronic records in Arizona linked to the Republican-led 2020 review in Maricopa County. Neither operation has produced criminal charges, according to the reports.
Rob D’Amico, a former FBI supervisory agent and MS NOW contributor, said agents who question such moves risk being removed. "The Fulton County, Georgia, search warrant demonstrated how people who questioned such moves will be removed, and so many have already," D’Amico said. In July, two FBI analysts based in Atlanta were reportedly fired after refusing to participate in the administration’s investigation into the 2020 election.
"I and others are worried that the FBI will be the administration’s arm into seizing voting machines or issuing warrants on questionable probable cause," D’Amico added.
What the law says — and what officials have refused to rule out
Federal law generally prohibits armed federal agents at polling places, with limited exceptions, under a statute dating to 1865. But the officials who spoke to MS NOW worry the Justice Department could seek warrants based on thin or speculative allegations of voting irregularities — warrants that, in theory, would allow armed officers to legally sweep in and take ballots or equipment.
That worry grew after FBI Director Kash Patel, asked at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September whether sending agents to polling places would be illegal, answered: "I don’t know that we can’t legally do it." Attorney General Todd Blanche has likewise refused to rule out Justice Department intervention in the certification of results, while saying he has no plans to "improperly interfere with elections."
The FBI did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
States are already preparing for the worst
According to MS NOW, election officials and advocates are not waiting to find out. One unnamed state attorney general has written to federal judges asking for a chance to respond before any warrant targeting ballots or voting equipment is approved, and election administrators have spent months planning for scenarios including federal agents arriving at polling sites or their top election official being taken into custody.
Advocates for free and fair elections are also preparing ways to give FBI agents legal and ethical advice if they fear they have been assigned a task that is illegal or unethical, according to two former law enforcement officials familiar with the plans.
The stakes are immediate: more than 44 million Americans had already voted as of Thursday evening, October 29, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab — less than two million short of the total from the 2022 midterms. The November 3 vote will decide whether Republicans keep their narrow majorities in the Senate and the House, and with them, Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the final two years of his second term.
Sources: MS NOW (October 28, 2026, via Times Now, MEAWW and Election Law Blog), Reuters (October 30, 2026).