Democrats in the U.S. Senate have been running through scenarios for disrupting the election
Senior officials from the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate conducted simulation exercises on possible scenarios for election disruption ahead of the November midterm elections. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin, and Raphael Warnock participated in the meeting in Washington, according to The Guardian.
Lawyers presented the participants with a series of hypothetical situations. In particular, one scenario involved the dissemination, several weeks before the vote, of AI-generated videos purporting to show evidence of widespread fraud. Under the terms of the simulation, experts quickly determine that the videos are synthetic, but right-wing media outlets and the U.S. president continue to spread these claims nonetheless. Afterward, election officials receive threats, and armed individuals appear at polling stations.
This year, Senate Democrats have already conducted two such exercises. They were also joined by representatives of voter rights organizations, including Protect Democracy and Democracy Forward, election lawyer Mark Elias, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and election law expert Norman Eisen.
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Justin Vale, director of Protect Democracy’s Washington office, stated that such tabletop exercises are a standard tool for preparing for potential events, rather than a prediction of how a specific situation will unfold. According to him, their purpose is to identify gaps, test assumptions, strengthen coordination, and develop recommendations for response.
Participants also considered scenarios in which the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) threatens to withhold funding from states that do not submit voter rolls for federal oversight. Other scenarios included potential actions by the Federal Communications Commission against media outlets that report on deepfakes, the online publication of license plate numbers, the arson of an early voting site, and the unilateral deployment of Department of Homeland Security and National Guard agents at polling places.
Sky Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, stated that the U.S. Constitution does not grant the president a role in administering elections. At the same time, she emphasized that protecting the electoral process will require coordinated action by many agencies.
