WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to accelerating attacks against the freedom to vote by the Trump administration, Hannah Fried, co-founder and CEO of All Voting is Local, issued the following statement:
“The Trump administration’s actions so far this year have all the hallmarks of an authoritarian regime desperate for absolute power, unquestioned loyalty, and silenced dissent. The frenzied pace of attacks on our freedom to vote is an attempt to overwhelm us through deceit, division, and distraction so we feel hopeless. It’s an effort to make us miss what’s happening right in front of our own eyes. Trump is testing what he can get away with in our elections in a pathetic attempt to rig the system.
“Hope and the power of progress are still within our reach, but we cannot look away. This is a moment that calls for us to come together under a unified call to action: Hands off our vote.
“Nothing Trump and his allies are doing will make our elections safer. This is about silencing voters and snatching control of our elections and their outcomes. It’s an attempt to undo how elections in America have always been conducted—by our trusted, state and local election officials and administrators, including volunteer poll workers, county clerks, recorders, and registrars.
“Now is a moment to connect the dots, to make clear that the attacks we see across the country are a part of a desperate authoritarian takeover. It’s time for everyone who cares about free and fair elections—from state and local election officials charged with running our elections smoothly to voters making their voice heard—to unify and make it clear that our freedom to vote will not be seized from us.”
Background Information:
In January 2026, the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi used deadly ICE enforcement in Minnesota to order the governor to turn over the state’s voter rolls, which include highly sensitive voter information, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, etc.—a coercive measure meant to pressure Minnesota officials into complying.
That same month, President Trump also expressed regret for not using the National Guard to seize voting machines in 2020. He then urged the Republican Party to “nationalize” elections, claiming there are 15 states where the results cannot be trusted. Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced the so-called MEGA Act, sweeping legislation that seeks to create new barriers to voting. We also await a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais, a landmark case that could undo some of the Voting Rights Act’s remaining protections.
FBI agents executed a warrant to seize ballots, voter rolls, scanned images, scanned electronic media, and other materials related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., in late January. The Missouri-based U.S. attorney who oversaw the warrant received a special appointment from Bondi to investigate election cases nationwide, and the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was at the raid—signaling that Fulton County is only the beginning.