‘Everything Is On The Table’: Officials Prepare For Trump To Try To Steal The 2026 Election

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Seizing ballots, voting machines, tabulators or any other piece of election infrastructure directly threatens a “fair process” and an “accurate result” because it breaks the chain of custody that is required by state and federal law. Under Foley’s theory of Bost, a candidate could then file suit in advance of the election to seek an injunction barring any executive branch agency from seizing election materials.

But even if candidates choose not to test out the court’s Bost decision on the theory that it applies to threatened executive actions, states and election administrators can also step in.

Asked about using the Bost precedent to get a court order preventing federal interference in advance, Griswold noted that, while she wouldn’t divulge her litigation strategy, states have used preemptive action before: She pointed to Oregon and Illinois, which went to court to block National Guard deployments in 2025.

“So, absolutely, everything is on the table,” Griswold said.

Courts could also halt interference ahead of time by simply not approving DOJ warrants seeking ballots or other materials. The warrant in Fulton County also targeted materials from a now-six-year-old election, not an election that is underway or just completed. Any judge would be far more skeptical about a similar warrant for an ongoing election, Weiser said.

Similarly, a subpoena provides an opportunity to counter it: States and election officials may be able to step in and sue for an injunction before any materials are seized. And state election officials are already on high alert to the administration’s efforts to interfere in elections, having worked successfully to defeat Trump’s executive order on elections and lawsuits to seize sensitive voter roll records by getting judges to block the effort repeatedly in court.

“They are trying very aggressively to meddle in elections and expand inappropriate powers, but there’s been a lot of success in reining that in,” Weiser said of the administration. “These are not paths that are viable for them.”