Election deniers stoke Trump-driven ballot security fears before midterms

Prominent election deniers have spent recent weeks stoking fears over US election security before next month’s midterms, echoing claims pushed by Donald Trump to justify asserting more control over voting.

On conservative-friendly media outlets, former or current officials who tried to bolster the US president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020 have in recent weeks made fresh allegations of election vulnerabilities.

Cleta Mitchell, a former politician who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results, capitalized on recent reports that voting machines in Georgia had a privacy vulnerability to assert the state was not doing enough to secure voters’ ballots.

“The problem in Georgia is that they use a version of these machines where … the machine doesn’t count the choices. The machine actually counts a QR code,” Mitchell told the conservative strategist and longtime ally Steve Bannon in an interview on Friday.

Ed Martin, the controversial former US pardon attorney, repeated claims from top administration officials that voting machines, which used parts manufactured in China and other countries, were “compromised”.

Ed Martin speaks during a press conference on 13 May 2025 in Washington DC. Photograph: Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Other election deniers have planted seeds of doubt about the predicted outcome of the 2026 midterm elections.

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which established and published Project 2025, told Fox Business in September that predictions Democrats could flip the Senate were “a psyop” – a term popularized by online theorists to describe something they believe authorities are doing to influence people covertly.

“I think that this prognosticating is a psyop by so many of these polling firms. In order to do what? To depress conservative turnout,” Roberts said.

In conducting media hits about election integrity, some prominent election deniers also revealed that the Trump administration was continuing its effort to assert greater power over states, which are responsible for running elections.

Martin told Eric Bolling of Real America’s Voice on Monday that Trump had met with Tina Peters, a politician convicted of crimes related to her efforts to interfere with 2020 election results.

“Just hours ago, maybe two hours ago, Tina Peters, you know, from Colorado, was in the Oval Office meeting with the president on election integrity, and they were talking about the plans,” Martin said.

“The president is taking it seriously. If the Congress won’t pass the Save America Act, and they won’t, then the president’s going to have to do what he’s going to do,” Martin added.

Trump has sought to undermine public confidence in US elections by promoting false claims of election fraud and making unverified claims of election insecurity. Earlier this year, the president tried to heighten those claims in a prime-time address.

Donald Trump responds to a question from the news media as he walks to board Marine One at the White House in Washington on Monday. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

The president has attempted to crack down on voting, ostensibly to secure elections – despite experts assuring voters that elections are already secure. That includes directing his administration to implement new rules to restrict mail-in ballot voting, a method of voting Trump has criticized despite using it himself, create a federal database of eligible citizens, and force voters to provide proof of citizenship when voting in federal elections.

Most of those actions have been stalled by court challenges. The supreme court has allowed the administration to move forward with compiling a federal database of eligible voters.

Mitchell told Bannon she had “on good authority, from some of the highest levels in the Trump administration”, that the justice department was inquiring with the Georgia secretary of state about voter data it shares with two non-profit groups.

She accused the states, including Georgia, of being “hypocrites” for refusing to share voter data with the federal government.