The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice emailed a memo to federal prosecutors around the country Wednesday morning stating that armed federal officers can be sent to ballot counting locations to investigate claims of election fraud. The memo explains the Trump administration’s legal justification for ignoring a federal law that bars armed federal agents from polling places on Election Day. It claims that ballot counting locations are distinct from polling places and that the officers would be deployed, when the DOJ determines, after Election Day.
According to the Constitution, the states are responsible for holding elections and counting ballots. The law is explicit that the federal government cannot interfere with the tallying of the vote. However, election fraud can be enforced by the federal government. Armed federal officers invading a ballot counting location on the pretext of investigating a complaint of election fraud allows for the agents to delay the count based on spurious claims, including potentially confiscating ballots.