GSPM Panel Explores Election Security, Federal Involvement and Public Trust

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As things stand, Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said, voters can expect the status quo and for their state elections to proceed as usual during the 2026 midterms.

For now.

But with the cloud of federal involvement and influence hovering, election officials such as Henderson, who also serves as the chief election officer in Utah, are preparing for anything and everything.

"Because we have to," Henderson said.

Speaking virtually to a George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management audience, Henderson-a Republican-noted that it is typical for administrators, county clerks and others who oversee and administer elections to have contingency plans for natural disasters, riots, foreign interference or whatever other unwelcome situations can occur during the voting process.

This cycle, however, has forced some additional situational strategizing.

President Donald Trump, who sought and failed to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election he lost, and his administration have taken numerous actions in anticipation of the midterms, including executive orders attempting to mandate changes to state voting procedures, demands for voter files and data seizures anddeployment of federal agents at polling places.

"I think for the first time, from my knowledge, we have had to add to those scenario plannings and add in some interference from the federal government," said Henderson, who hasexpressed concerns with her party's presidential administration when it comes to voting rights.

Election law attorney and former Florida House of Representatives member Juan-Carlos Planas joined Henderson Tuesday in a conversation moderated by GSPM Professor Todd Belt.

The two drew on their own experiences to examine past election interference, assess the current landscape and explore the challenges facing campaigns and elections officials during this midterm cycle as attendees-many of them GSPM students-gained practical insights into taking actionable steps to protecting the integrity and security of the election process.

"At the Graduate School of Political Management…our mission is to prepare principled leaders who can navigate an increasingly complex political environment while also remaining grounded in the democratic institutions and the constitutional principles that sustain our country, and I think that very few issues are more fundamental to our democracy than having confidence in our elections," said GSPM Director Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

To combat the doubt the Trump administration has sown in modern elections, Henderson and Planas said that officials have a duty to be transparent with the public about procedures, while that public has its own duty of being as informed as possible and knowing its rights when casting ballots.

They centered much of their discussion on voting by mail, one of the most visible and frequently debated parts of modern election administration.

Belt noted that mail-in ballots, long the ire of Trump, have become a primary concern among voters, who have questions of what happens if their ballot gets lost, doesn't get postmarked for a few days or if it will even be counted.

Planas, who served in the Florida House of Representatives as a Republican before switching his political affiliation to Democrat afterward, said modern mail-in voting systems include multiple safeguards designed to ensure ballots are properly identified and verified.

Those measures include signature verification, ballot tracking and canvassing procedures, he said. He contrasted today's systems with the punch-card technology used during the 2000 presidential election, arguing that election administration has become significantly more secure since then.

"We really did create a vote-by-mail system that is better than anything we've ever had," said Planas.

Henderson offered Utah as an example. Voters are able to track their ballots through the state's ballot-tracking system. She encouraged voters to familiarize themselves with the rules in their state, particularly deadlines for returning ballots. Both panelists encouraged anyone voting by mail to submit their ballots at least a week before Election Day on Nov. 3.

That, she said, is increasingly important as states adopt different approaches to how ballots are processed and counted.

"Every state is going to do things a little bit differently," Henderson said.

Those differences also extend to how states identify and address potential problems with voter registration information.

Henderson discussed Utah's experience reviewing its voter rolls for potential noncitizens, saying the process illustrated the difficulty of relying solely on large federal databases to find potential problems. While the state identified a number of potential matches, she said further review found that many were false positives and did not indicate that a noncitizen had improperly voted.

The distinction between identifying a potential issue and establishing actual wrongdoing was a recurring theme throughout the discussion, particularly as the panelists addressed misinformation surrounding elections.

Planas argued that many of the election-fraud concerns driving political debates are not supported by evidence. He pointed to his experience as an election attorney, including work on behalf of Republican candidates, saying investigations had not uncovered the widespread fraud often alleged.

He was particularly critical of Florida's new voter ID requirements, arguing that lawmakers have responded to hypothetical or extremely rare problems by creating restrictions that could make voting more difficult when the legislation goes into effect.

"Unfortunately, these fake issues are driving the conversations," Planas said.

While Henderson and Planas acknowledged that mistakes can occur in a system as large as a statewide election, they said election officials have procedures that include audits, ballot verification and opportunities to correct certain errors-rare as they may be.

Henderson encouraged voters who have questions about how elections are conducted to seek information directly from local election officials rather than relying on social media or claims circulating online.

Both panelists agreed that transparency is one of the most important tools election officials have to maintain public confidence. Henderson said Utah election offices allow members of the public and political observers to see election procedures firsthand, including ballot processing and other parts of the canvassing process. County clerks in her state, she said, offer tours of their election centers.

"It is very difficult to combat all of that misinformation," Henderson said. "The way we have gone about it is to make sure we are a trusted source of good information."

By the time Election Day comes, much of the country will have already voted by mail or early voting. Time will tell what challenges will lie ahead.

For now, the status quo remains. But with election officials preparing for scenarios ranging from misinformation to potential federal interference, Henderson and Planas said maintaining confidence in the process will require preparation, transparency and an informed public.

And that onus is on everybody.