Huffpost: "Before Bondi, Noem and Gabbard canceled, it looked as though they were going to appear before the officials as a show of force as the administration works to force through an unprecedented effort to seize control of the nation’s elections ahead of the 2026 midterms.”
The administration is engaged in an unprecedented effort to seize control of elections from the states.
HUFFPOST
By Paul Blumenthal
Jan 30, 2026, 06:13 PM EST
Three top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration failed to show up at the annual conference of state election officials after making a splashy announcement that they would confront a crowd of top state election officials.
The National Association Of Secretaries of State altered its conference schedule on Thursday to allow Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to speak Friday afternoon. This announcement dwindled to just Gabbard by midday Friday. The entire Trump administration appearance was canceled just as it was supposed to start. None of the agencies nor the White House immediately responded to a request for an explanation for the appearance or the cancellation.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2026, had a simple diagnosis for why they ultimately failed to show: “Cowards.”
Before Bondi, Noem and Gabbard canceled, it looked as though they were going to appear before the officials as a show of force as the administration works to force through an unprecedented effort to seize control of the nation’s elections ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Bondi’s Department of Justice has sued 23 states and Washington, D.C., including the GOP-run Georgia, to obtain sensitive private voter information, including partial Social Security numbers and driver’s license identification numbers. While the department has not explained why it needs this data, states complying with the data requests are feeding into a database controlled by Noem’s Department of Homeland Security that purports to identify noncitizens, although it often produces false positives.
Three federal judges have already tossed these lawsuits out. A judge in California said the suit against the Golden State was “unprecedented and illegal.” In Oregon, a judge issued a rare bench decision dismissing the lawsuit. And in Georgia, a judge dismissed the case for being filed in the wrong jurisdiction.
Following these decisions, Bondi tried to coerce Minnesota to release the data by demanding it in exchange for some reduction in the immigration enforcement operation that has already left two citizens dead at the hands of federal officers.
Another threat to elections emerged on Wednesday when the FBI raided an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots, voter rolls and scanner images as part of an investigation into the result of the 2020 election.
The shocking search and seizure of ballots looks to be part of Trump’s campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes, including those he falsely claims stole the 2020 election from him. After he lost that election, Trump lied that he won the state of Georgia and tried to pressure GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find “11,780” votes.
Oddly, Gabbard was captured in a photograph of the raid, raising questions about what exactly the nation’s top counterintelligence official was doing investigating domestic elections.
“Spies should never be involved in elections,” Bellows said.
Democratic secretaries of state said they wished the administration officials had shown and taken their questions.
Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas wanted to ask Bondi whether her demand that Minnesota turn over its private voter information in exchange for reducing the deadly immigration enforcement operation in the state “is coming to other states.”This concern was echoed by Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, who wanted to know “why the federal government is extorting states in exchange for reducing immigration activities.”
Bellows also raised concerns about how the administration’s immigration enforcement operations, like one launched in Maine earlier this month, could impact the 2026 elections.
While she noted that it is illegal for any federal agent to interfere with a polling place, she said that people are already “afraid to leave their homes” during the current operation. That could dampen turnout if immigration officers are “patrolling streets” on Election Day.