After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration mandated that cockpit doors be hardened and remain locked during flights.
The U.S. took a lot of other measures, too, ranging from invading Afghanistan and Iraq to requiring everyone take their shoes off before going through airport security, but terrorism experts generally agree that hardening cockpit doors was the most effective at preventing another hijacking.
After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, state and federal governments took a lot of measures, but the 2022 law closing legal loopholes in the electoral count law was probably the most effective.
But just as cockpit locks didn’t end the threat of terrorism, the Electoral Count Reform Act won’t stop the ongoing attempts to undermine free and fair elections in the United States. The next attack on democracy won’t look like Jan. 6.
For the fifth anniversary of the attack, I talked with a number of experts on voting and elections about their biggest concerns as we head into the midterms this year. Their answers vary, but a common theme was concern about what President Donald Trump’s administration may attempt to do.
Here’s what they each said was their top concern:
The normalization of election denial
“In the five years since January 6, we’ve witnessed a deeply troubling normalization of election subversion — marked by the refusal of some political actors to accept legitimate results and the ensuing disregard for voters treated as collateral damage. When defeat itself is cast as illegitimate, bending the rules, laws, and processes becomes easier to justify. Instead of accountability, we now see systematic efforts to reshape the machinery of democracy: mid-decade redistricting, politicized election boards, weaponized voter data, and campaigns to exclude millions from being counted.”
— Chioma Chukwu, executive director, American Oversight
The attempted federalization of elections
“I’m mostly concerned about a radical and unconstitutional rebalancing of the balance of power in elections between the states, and the federal government. Our founders wanted to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of the executive, so they wrote the Elections Clause (Art. I, Sec. 4) into the Constitution, giving the states the primary power to manage elections, with Congress being the sole federal authority. Nevertheless, this administration is continuing its unprecedented effort to seize election power from the states, both red and blue, with attacks on voting processes (false claims about voting machines and mail voting), and unjustified demands for sensitive voter data (Social Security number, driver’s license number, date of birth) that could put voters’ financial security at risk. For the first time in American history, the federal government is positioning itself as the primary destabilizing force in our elections, spreading similar disinformation to that being spread by our adversaries in Russia and China, which could create significant challenges for election officials as we head into an important midterm year.”
— David J. Becker, executive director and founder, The Center for Election Innovation & Research
The collection of voter data
“We are going to have elections in 2026. The open question is how free and fair they are. Right now, the Trump Justice Department is engaged in an unprecedented effort to collect sensitive voter data on every single voter in the country – including their Social Security numbers, partisan affiliation and voting histories. States that are resisting this power grab are being sued. I am proud that my law firm is fighting back against these efforts in over twenty states, but the public needs to understand what’s at stake.”
— Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and partner at Elias Law Group
High turnover among election officials
“My main concern for the 2026 midterms is that nationalized policy changes, declining public investment, and high turnover among election officials make election outcomes vulnerable to distrust. Maintaining trustworthy elections depends on continued support for the workforce that makes secure, accessible, and accurate elections possible.”
— Matthew Weil, vice president of governance, Bipartisan Policy Center
Late-arriving mail ballots being thrown out
“My immediate concern for 2026 is that lots of congressional elections will be challenged because of mail ballots received or counted after Election Day. For the long-term, I’m most concerned that large states that are safely red or blue are complacent about how well executed their election laws are, and that one day a close election in that state will produce a mini-Florida 2000.”
— Charles Stewart III, director, MIT Election Data and Science Lab
New laws making voting harder
“What concerns me most about future elections is the wave of voter suppression laws enacted in recent years. Nearly 60 million Americans live in states that passed new voting restrictions in 2025 alone, meaning the rules will have changed when they head to the polls this November. Voter ID laws — our focus at VoteRiders — have been front and center in this wave of restrictions, and are particularly concerning because they have the potential to directly disenfranchise millions of eligible and at-risk voters while confusing and intimidating millions more.”
— Lauren Kunis, Executive Director, VoteRiders
Public misunderstanding
“My biggest concern for 2026 is the knowledge gap that still exists between how elections are actually secured and how the public believes they work, even as local election officials continue to do extraordinary work under significant pressure and with limited resources. Across the country, election officials carry out robust cyber, physical, and operational security practices, along with extensive testing, tracking, training, verification, and auditing to ensure elections are accurate and secure. We need to continue finding new and innovative ways to better communicate this work so the public can see and understand the professionalism and care that goes into administering every election.”
— Jennifer Morrell, chief executive officer and co-founder, The Elections Group
Interference from the Trump administration
“My worry is that officials at the DOJ and FBI will use their enormous powers to undermine legitimate election results if they don’t go their way. And this worry isn’t based on idle speculation, but in the actions that the administration has already taken, such as the president issuing a sweeping executive order back in March attempting to make election rules that he has no power under the Constitution to dictate. I lead one of multiple cases where courts have struck provisions of that March 2025 Voting Executive Order down. I think we will see more attempts by the federal government to lawlessly slant the playing field in the administration’s favor. Lawyers and all Americans will need to be ready to protect their right to vote and to free and fair elections. That is always part of protecting our freedoms. But what makes this year different is that the executive branch is no longer a partner in this work, and cares far more about preserving power than the rule of law.”
— Anna Baldwin, director of voting rights litigation, Campaign Legal Center
Ineffective political opposition
“One glaring weakness I see heading towards the midterms and beyond is that we don’t have an actual opposition party. There are individuals doing the work to oppose the Trump regime, but there is no unified resistance to stand up to the Republican party if they decide not to honor the results of free and fair elections.”
— Marisa Kabas, founder, The Handbasket
Public mistrust of elections
“For years, the anti-democracy movement has been sowing doubt in our free and fair elections, so they can claim the system is broken if they don’t like the results. What’s new today, as we head into a critical midterm election year, is that we have a federal administration stacked with people who’ve lied about elections and shown a willingness to disregard the rule of law. But we also know the antidote: engaged voters and principled, bipartisan officials stepping up to protect our democracy.”
— Joanna Lydgate, chief executive officer, States United Democracy Center
Americans will give up
“The greatest fear I have about this coming year is that the intentional chaos-making and intimidation by the president and his administration will cause the American people to give up the fight for our democracy, believing we as people do not have it within our power to defend it. It will be incumbent upon all of us to refuse to allow the president and his allies to cause us to believe that we lack power, and to do all within the power we have to oppose extremism and advance democracy.”
— Skye Perryman, president and CEO, Democracy Forward
This is a preview of MS NOW’s Project 47 Newsletter. As President Trump continues implementing his ambitious agenda, get expert analysis on the administration’s latest actions and how others are pushing back sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up now.
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