1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

We call on state and federal leaders to defend the integrity of our elections, protect voter privacy, and strictly enforce the law against any attempt to deploy armed military personnel to polling places or retaliate against states over election outcomes. Using armed federal forces around voting locations, demanding private state voter databases, or threatening state officials with "repercussions" simply because an opposing candidate won directly violates fundamental federal statutes and constitutional rights: 1. Criminal Prohibition of Armed Troops at Polling Sites (18 U.S.C. § 592 & § 593): Federal law explicitly makes it a felony for any civil or military officer to order, keep, or bring armed troops to any polling location. Furthermore, 18 U.S.C. § 593 makes it a federal crime for any member of the Armed Forces to interfere with election officers, fix voter qualifications, or attempt to prevent qualified citizens from voting through force, threats, or intimidation. Brennan Center for Justice+ 1 2. The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385): Federal law strictly bars the deployment of active-duty military personnel (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force) to execute domestic law enforcement or manage civilian election sites without explicit congressional authorization. 3. First Amendment Protection Against Political Retaliation: The executive branch cannot deploy law enforcement threats or demand state data to penalize voters or election officials for exercising their constitutional right to elect their candidate of choice. Using federal power to target states based on who won an election is illegal governmental retaliation. 4. Tenth Amendment (Anti-Commandeering Doctrine): Under the U.S. Constitution, states hold primary authority over election administration (Printz v. United States). The federal government cannot commandeer state election machinery, nor can it threaten state officers for refusing to surrender private state voter files. 5. Fourteenth Amendment (Equal Protection Clause): Selectively auditing, harassing, or demanding unredacted data from specific states based on political results creates an arbitrary double standard that violates equal protection under the law. 6. Federal Anti-Intimidation Laws (18 U.S.C. § 594): Intimidating election workers, threatening state leaders, or using armed federal posturing to pressure election personnel violates federal criminal statutes prohibiting voter and election interference. Brennan Center for Justice Our Demand: 1 State Secretaries of State and Governors must reject unconstitutional federal demands for unredacted state voter files and refuse any unauthorized federal or military presence at polling locations. 2 Federal Lawmakers and Courts must enforce existing criminal statutory guardrails (18 U.S.C. §§ 592, 593, 1385) to ensure that political defeat never serves as a pretext for military intimidation, federal overreach, or voter suppression.