Senate Democrats launched an Election Fraud Task Force on April 29.
“Today, I am launching the Democratic Party’s most expansive effort to date to protect the 2026 midterm elections, and to shield them from the direct threats posed by President Trump and MAGA Republicanism,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor about the task force’s formation.
The unit will focus on “identifying and mitigating threats and safeguarding elections ahead of the midterms” this fall, according to a statement released by the party on Wednesday.
In a post on X, Schumer said that the task force was designed to push back on election-related efforts by President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters, who Schumerhe alleged are working “round the clock to tilt the scales unfairly in their favor.”
“With top election law experts, we’ll identify threats, fight voter suppression efforts, & defend the right to vote ahead of the midterms,” Schumer wrote.
A White House spokesperson reacted to Schumer's announcement in a statement to The Epoch Times on April 29, saying the president is "committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters.
"The Civil Rights Act, National Voting Rights Act, and Help America Vote Act all give the Department of Justice full authority to ensure states comply with federal election laws, which mandate accurate state voter rolls," the spokesperson added.
"This campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House. The President has also urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting."
Schumer spoke about the task force on the Senate floor just hours after the Supreme Court handed down a decision gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 related to race-based congressional districting.
“Even before [today’s] wretched [Supreme Court] decision, we knew that the MAGA far right has been hellbent on trying to undermine our democracy,” Schumer said.
Schumer listed a slate of reasons for the task force’s formation.
First, he referenced an executive order that Trump signed last year. Trump and his allies say that the measure—which requires states to give the federal government voter rolls and places new regulations on United States Postal Service handling of ballots—is intended to ensure against fraud or voting by non-citizens.
Critics say that the measure violates states’ prerogative to manage elections.
“Trump continues to push for his SAVE Act to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans,” Schumer said, referencing the federal voter ID legislation championed by the president.