Himes Prepares for Election Disruption

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Congressman Jim Himes wants voters in Connecticut and throughout the country to know that elections in the U.S. are safe and secure from foreign interference, but he and congressional colleagues worry about interference from a president unhappy with the outcome.

Mr. Himes urges voters to cast ballots early.

In a briefing to reporters, Mr. Himes said he, Rep. Joseph Morelle, and Rep. Jamie Raskin have been working together for months, “anticipating that the president will claim that the election is corrupt” if, as many forecasts predict, the outcome goes decidedly against Republicans.

Mr. Himes, Mr. Raskin, and Mr. Morelle are respectively the ranking members of the House committees on Intelligence, Judiciary, and Administration. (The Administration Committee has jurisdiction over elections.)

“The president has never accepted the results of an election that he didn’t like,” said Mr. Himes.

The congressman said reactions from a disgruntled president could range from more rhetoric about a rigged election to “something much more violent and ominous,” reminiscent of the riot in the Capitol on January 6, 2025.

On the ominous side, Mr. Himes said he and his colleagues can imagine a scenario where the president claims a foreign adversary has hacked voting machines.

“There has never been a successful hack of our election, a messing with the voting rolls, a changing of the results, never,” said Mr. Himes. He said the systems have multiple levels of safeguards and are not connected to the internet. He added that all states (except Louisiana) use paper ballots, which serve as physical backups.

The congressman said he and his colleagues are less worried that the Department of Homeland Security will “march into polling places” than they are by the prospect of violence at polling places, perpetrated by supporters of the president “ginned up” by his false claims that “as he puts it, illegal aliens” are voting.

“Heaven forbid somebody is hurt or killed. And now we have a crime scene. Well, can people vote in crime scenes?”

Mr. Himes said such a scenario is unlikely to happen in Connecticut. But in battleground districts in several parts of the country, it could be another story.

“You could probably identify 20 polling places around the country where if you could compromise them, it might actually be to your advantage,” he said. “You tell a bunch of guys to go drink a bottle of whiskey, get their AR-15s, and show up at these three locations.”

Thus his advice to cast ballots before Election Day by mail or on early voting days. Those begin in Connecticut on October 19.

Mr. Himes said a number of civic groups are organizing observers and lawyers who will be prepared to get temporary restraining orders that prevent seizure of voting machines. There will be “a huge infrastructure of election protection,” he said.