Election denial has gone mainstream in the U.S. What does that mean for the midterms?
Early on a Wednesday morning in October, a dozen people gathered in a wood-panelled room in Barry County, Mich., to be trained as poll workers for the U.S. midterm elections.
During the three-hour session, they were taught how to operate a vote-tabulating machine, check photo IDs and process absentee ballots.
But before the session began, Sarah VanDenburg, the clerk in this rural county, thanked them for "helping preserve our democracy."
As the clerk of Barry County, Sarah VanDenburg is responsible for staffing polling stations on election day. (Michael Drapack/CBC)
The 2026 midterms are taking place while an election denial movement, empowered by President Donald Trump, has spent months claiming these otherwise routine tasks are the source of rampant fraud.
And even though there is little evidence to support these claims, they’re being used as a pretext by election deniers — many now in positions of authority — to try to interfere in the voting process.
Trump himself has mused openly about invoking a national emergency measure to alter how votes are counted.
President Donald Trump greets Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican candidate for Senate, left, on stage during a campaign rally in Port Huron, Mich., on Oct. 25. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press)
In Barry County, sheriff Dar Leaf has emerged as the loudest voice pushing conspiracies about how elections are run. For the past six years, he has been using his office to circulate claims that foreign nationals hacked voting machines in the county in 2020 to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
More recently, Leaf has been trying to interrogate state election officials as part of a new investigation into claims Michigan’s voter rolls for the 2026 midterms are being deliberately inflated with non-citizens, even though studies have shown non-citizen voting is extremely rare.
"I have a duty to go out and investigate, and I'm not gonna back down," Leaf told CBC News during an interview at sheriff headquarters in Hastings, Mich.
VanDenburg says she tries to maintain a good working relationship with the sheriff, but his beliefs "can make things difficult."
I have a duty to investigate, sheriff says
Leaf is a prominent figure in the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which believes sheriffs have ultimate authority in their county and has encouraged its members to investigate unfounded voter-fraud theories.
"It's just getting the sheriffs woke up to what their duties are really supposed to be," Leaf said about the association.
Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, seen here at a 2024 Trump campaign event, said he would consider seizing ballots during the midterm elections. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo)
With help from his own deputies, Leaf tried to seize several voting machines in the county in 2021 and 2022 to prove his theory, only to be rebuffed by a judge and prosecutor who determined his claims had no merit.
In an unprecedented move last year, another member of the group, California sheriff Chad Bianco, seized 650,000 ballots from the 2024 election to probe claims of irregularities. A court ruled the seizure unlawful and ordered the ballots returned.
But the prospect of ballots, or voting machines, being seized by pro-Trump officials has alarmed elections observers, who worry such manoeuvres could disrupt oversight and make it difficult to verify results.
Asked if he would consider seizing ballots, Leaf told CBC News, "I would have to have a good reason to seize them. We'd probably seize and then go get a court order."
When election deniers are in charge
For decades, the U.S. Department of Justice monitored local compliance with federal election laws. But under Trump, election deniers now occupy senior positions in the department, which has aggressively sought evidence to support the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
For instance, the department is battling 30 states for access to sensitive voter information as part of an effort to find evidence of non-citizen voting.
Earlier this year, the FBI seized ballots in Fulton County, Ga., from the 2020 election. The Justice Department said it was investigating 'irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County,' even though Georgia’s votes in the 2020 presidential race were already counted three times. Each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win. (Mike Stewart/AP Photo)
The FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have also been tasked with investigating voter fraud, even though most studies suggest it's a rare phenomenon.
Trump has used the premise of widespread voter fraud to justify his attempts to have the White House exert more control over elections and rewrite rules in his favour. Since returning to power, he has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail-in voting and pushed Congress to pass a voter ID law that would have made it harder for millions of Americans to vote.
But the Constitution gives states, not the president, authority over elections. And courts, so far, have upheld that principle.
Can Trump call a national emergency?
The failure of these efforts, combined with polls suggesting the Republican majorities in Congress are in jeopardy, has led some in the election denial movement to urge Trump to take even more drastic measures, such as calling a national emergency.
Proponents of the measure argue voting machines are so vulnerable to foreign hacking that an emergency would be warranted on national security grounds.
WATCH | Joly says Canada 'absolutely not' interfering in U.S. election:
Canada 'absolutely not' interfering in U.S. midterms, Joly says
October 14|
Duration
1:19
Asked about the United States Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra's comments about watching for Canadian interference in the U.S. midterm elections, Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly says 'we never do that and we never accept that also being done to us in Canada.' She says her recent visits to the U.S. were 'to attract investments' by American companies and she will continue to do so.In an interview with Time magazine published earlier this month, Trump was asked about the possibility of declaring a state of emergency. "I don't rule anything out or in," he replied.
Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor with ties to the Trump administration and several Republicans in Congress, said calling a national emergency would allow the president to order states to stop using vote-tabulating machines and halt mail-in balloting.
Pastor of 180 Church Lorenzo Sewell delivers a benediction after President Donald Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Associated Press)
"But in terms of getting something like this, he needs people. He needs another January 6th, and that's what I'm advocating for, minus the violence," said Sewell, who spoke at Trump’s second inauguration and the Republican convention this summer.
Many legal experts say the idea is unconstitutional and almost certain to be blocked by the courts.
"Our entire constitution is based on the idea that the president has no power over elections," said David Becker, a former elections lawyer with the Department of Justice who now heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
Training 'democracy defenders'
State lawmakers and progressive voting-rights groups are nevertheless preparing for a wide range of scenarios on election day, including the prospect of confrontations with armed federal agents or pro-Trump crowds.
"It seems the rhetoric has become more violent," said Autumn Butler, deputy executive director of Michigan United, a Detroit-based social justice organization that's been training "democracy defenders" in de-escalation tactics.
Autumn Butler is deputy executive director of Michigan United, a Detroit-based social justice organization that's been training 'democracy defenders' in de-escalation tactics. (Michael Drapack/CBC)
She recalled how, in 2020, a crowd of Trump supporters attempted to disrupt poll workers counting mail-in ballots in Detroit.
"That's why we have our democracy defenders," Butler said. "These are the scenarios that we're thinking about and planning for."
VanDenburg, the Barry County clerk, is hoping her preparations will help prevent tensions from boiling over on election day.
She recently gave a presentation to the sheriff and his deputies about basic election day rules, such as who can enter a polling station (armed officers are not allowed).
Leaf welcomed the information, saying, "some of those things we've never been taught before."
Those working the polls in the county will mostly be people from the community, which VanDenburg says will lighten the atmosphere.
"You walk into the polling place and you feel warmth. You feel invited, which I think is very important for our voters to feel that way."
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