WASHINGTON DC — Senate Democrats held two election disruption exercises this year to prepare for complex interference scenarios involving technology and physical threats. The tabletop sessions included participation from Chuck Schumer, Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin and Raphael Warnock.

Protect Democracy, election attorney Marc Elias, former attorney general Eric Holder, election law expert Norman Eisen and members of Democracy Forward participated in the exercises. Legal experts presented scenarios involving realistic deepfake videos showing evidence of widespread election fraud spreading through social media weeks before voting.

In the exercise scenario, forensic experts discredit the deepfake videos as synthetic, but rightwing media and the US president amplify the claims. Senators considered a threat of Federal Communications Commission action against news outlets covering deepfakes.

The exercise scenario included election workers receiving death threats and armed men appearing at polls. Armed vigilantes in tactical gear appeared at ballot drop boxes in Arizona during the 2022 midterms. Senators planned responses for online license-plate doxxing and a midnight firebombing of an early voting site.

Senators considered how to react to a threat to withhold Office of Management and Budget funding for states that do not submit their voter rolls for federal oversight. Senators planned responses for a last-minute unilateral deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents and the national guard to polling stations.

Donald Trump made false claims about a stolen election in 2020. The Trump administration billed his primetime TV address last month as a presentation of new evidence that the 2020 election was illegitimate. During the address, Donald Trump claimed China had illicitly acquired voter information on 220 million Americans.

During the address, Donald Trump claimed China had undermined his 2020 campaign in unspecified ways. Donald he argued that intelligence officials had suppressed information about Chinese interference. Trump's intelligence officials concluded that China refrained from interfering in the US election out of concern for potential political blowback if caught.

Donald Trump threatened the broadcast licenses of networks that refused to carry his address live. Donald Trump demanded the US Congress pass a package of federalized oversights of elections. Donald Trump implored Congress to pass the Save America Act.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE Act or SAVE America Act, is a proposed United States federal law that requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in U.S. federal elections. The Save America Act would ban mail-in ballots nationwide. The Save America Act would impose new identification requirements on voters when they register and report to polls.

Republican senators refuse to dispense with the 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass the Save America Act. "Signaling his unmistakable intent to attack these elections and our voting rights, just as he tried to throw out our votes and seize the presidency in 2020," said Senator Jon Ossoff.

The exercises reflect a pattern of minority-party preparation documented in research titled The Surprisingly Effective Lawmaking of Minority-Party Democrats in the Senate during the Trump Era published in 2024 in Disruption?. Additional analysis appeared in 2025 in research titled Trump wins again as ‘big beautiful bill’ passes the Senate. What are the lessons for the Democrats?.

Legislative history shows previous iterations of similar proposals, such as the State and Local Spending Will Help Save America Act of 2010 sponsored by Rep. Kucinich, Dennis J. [D-OH-10], which was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. A study titled "Surprise election for Trump connections" was published in 2020 in Journal of Financial Economics. PureSource News reported on 2026-08-05 and 2026-08-04 regarding Washington Primary fields for Congress and the Legislature.

Why It Matters

These exercises prepare lawmakers for scenarios where disinformation, physical threats, and federal overreach converge to disrupt voting. The simulations address specific risks like deepfake fraud claims amplified by the president and the unilateral deployment of security forces to polling stations. Such planning responds to documented incidents of armed vigilantes at drop boxes and proposed legislation that would alter ballot access nationwide.