1. United States
2. S.D.
3. Letter

I am writing as a constituent deeply concerned about a coordinated federal campaign to intimidate election officials, override state authority, and restrict voting rights ahead of the 2026 elections. These threats are no longer theoretical. They are already unfolding. In late January, federal agents seized ballots and election materials from a county election office related to the 2020 presidential election—an election that had already been counted, audited, recounted, and fully litigated years ago. Constitutional and election law experts warned that the raid posed a serious danger to ballot custody, election worker independence, and public trust in state-administered elections. This action followed public statements by Donald Trump, who recently lamented that he had not seized state ballot boxes in 2020 and again falsely claimed the election was “rigged,” warning that prosecutions were coming. Shortly after the raid, Trump revived long-discredited conspiracy theories about foreign interference in U.S. elections—claims that have been rejected by courts, audits, and federal investigators. What makes this episode especially alarming is how it was carried out. The warrant did not originate from local federal prosecutors, but from Thomas Albus, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who was designated as a special assistant to the attorney general. That designation grants nationwide authority and appears to have been used to bypass career prosecutors and local U.S. attorneys—creating a politically loyal, roaming prosecutor empowered to intervene in election matters anywhere in the country. The danger going forward is obvious. While seizing old ballots is troubling enough, the same authority could be used to interfere with active elections—including during or immediately after Election Day in 2026—by seizing ballots, tabulators, voting machines, or other critical election infrastructure. States and counties have limited equipment and resources; even temporary disruption could alter outcomes or sow chaos. At the same time, Congress is advancing the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act, following the earlier SAVE Act. These bills would federalize election administration and override state election laws by imposing proof-of-citizenship and strict photo ID requirements that millions of eligible voters do not possess, discarding valid mail-in ballots, banning universal vote-by-mail systems, and prohibiting ranked-choice voting in federal elections. Election fraud remains vanishingly rare. Mass disenfranchisement is not. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has demanded unredacted voter files from all 50 states and has sued numerous states for refusing to comply. These files contain highly sensitive personal data. Without them, federal authorities lack a key tool for voter suppression and election interference. With them, the risks to voters and election integrity grow dramatically. These actions form a single, dangerous pattern: federal intimidation of election officials, centralization of prosecutorial power, conspiracy-driven investigations, and legislation designed to suppress turnout and override state authority. This is not election security. It is an assault on democratic self-government. Recent elections—including unexpected outcomes in districts long considered politically “safe”—have shown that voters are engaged and capable of rejecting extremism. That reality appears to be driving efforts to interfere with how votes are cast, counted, and certified. I urge you to act now by:       •       Publicly affirming our State’s constitutional authority to administer elections free from federal intimidation.       •       Opposing the MEGA Act, the SAVE Act, and any federal legislation that overrides state election law or disenfranchises voters.       •       Resisting unlawful demands for unredacted voter data.       •       Preparing legally and operationally to protect ballot custody, voting equipment, and election workers during the 2026 elections.       •       Coordinating with other states to present a unified response to federal election interference. The Constitution assigns the administration of elections to the states—not to partisan federal actors pursuing conspiracy theories or political advantage. The threat is real, it is active, and it requires leadership now.