PHILO PHOTO: Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf testifies at a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs at Dirksen Senate Office Building August 6, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Pool via REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s top official said on Sunday that his department did not have the authority to send legislation to polling stations during the November election, despite Trump’s suggesting that federal officers could deploy to protect against election fraud.
“We do not do that in the Homeland Security department,” Acting Secretary Chad Wolf told CNN’s State of the Union. “We have express authorities authorized by Congress and this is not one of them,” he added.
Trump has said several times and without proof that a shift to universal post-voting – something most states have not proposed doing – will lead to fraud in the November 3 election. The Republican president is running against Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who currently has a substantial lead in public opinion polls.
Trump told Fox News on Thursday that legislation, including sheriffs and U.S. attorneys, would be deployed to polling stations around the country to stop fraud.
Civil liberties groups said sending police to polling stations could be seen as intimidating voters, which is prohibited under federal and state laws. Several states are blocking police presence at polling stations, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan institute of public policy.
Law enforcement officers with the Department of Homeland Security were deployed to Portland, Oregon in July to respond to protests against racial injustice. This created tensions with state and local officials, but Wolf defended the movement.
Wolf also said on Sunday that he had not seen any evidence that countries such as Russia and China were planning to forge e-mail votes to influence the U.S. election, another Trump said.
Wolf said the department was targeting cybersecurity threats, such as campaigns by other nations to spread false information online.
Report by Ted Hesson; Edited by Mary Milliken and Chizu Nomiyama
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