Americans don't want ICE at the polls. Republicans do.

I was recently discussing the midterm elections with Nicolle Wallace when she described Donald Trump's voter suppression efforts as reaching a crescendo. There is no question that with less than five weeks until the midterms, Trump is escalating his attacks on free and fair elections.

I have been warning for more than a year that his plan is to make it harder for you to vote and easier for him to cheat. His goal is purely partisan: to ensure Republicans control Congress by any means necessary.

During the conversation, Nicolle pointed out that his efforts are not popular. And she is correct.

A poll released earlier this week by G. Elliott Morris highlights a Trump threat that is both dangerous and unpopular. As the headline of his analysis bluntly states: "By 30 points, voters oppose sending ICE agents to the polls."

Other measures in the poll are similarly opposed by a majority of Americans. By wide margins, the public opposes the federal government or the military seizing voting machines or ballots, as well as the deployment of the National Guard to polling locations.

Focusing only on the aggregate numbers, however, doesn't tell the full story.

Republicans support each of these actions.

They support ICE or the National Guard being stationed at the polls. They support the federal government or military taking custody of ballots and voting equipment. They support Department of Justice monitors at polling places, even as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon works to deploy an astonishing 1,000 monitors this fall.

This divide between Republicans and the rest of the population is notable.

While independents and Democrats realize that Trump is infringing on their rights and threatening to break the law with his plans to deploy armed agents to polls or seize voting machines, Trump has convinced Republican voters that these are policies they should support. They are seemingly happy to sacrifice democracy if it means standing by Trump.

Once, our two political parties were divided on tax policy and government regulation. They fought over the size of government and entitlements. They disagreed on health care and climate change.

All these issues are important — but there are places to find common ground. It is much more difficult to grapple with a disagreement on democracy itself.

It was not always this way. As recently as 2006, the Senate unanimously voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Now, there is near-universal opposition from the Republican side of the aisle.

I wish I could say I am surprised, but I'm not.

Over the last decade, Trump has normalized the erosion of our democracy. Through the Big Lie and conspiracy theories about free and fair elections, he has made Republican voters believe they must be willing to sacrifice their rights and liberties to keep him in power. Over time, Republican voters have become numb to losing the freedoms they once so stridently championed.

Republican support of ICE at our polling stations is just the latest example. The long-forgotten version of the GOP would have been horrified by this idea. In 2013, after the Boston Marathon bombing, former Rep. Ron Paul said that the military-style occupation of the city "should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself."

Now, more than a decade later, Republicans have supported and championed the military in our streets. They are advocating for armed troops at the polls.

We know that Donald Trump is prepared to send armed federal agents to our polling locations. He has made this very clear.

Back in May, when a reporter asked the president whether he would send the National Guard or ICE agents to voting locations in November, he said that he would "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections."

It's obvious why Trump is so intent on surrounding voting locations with armed troops, and it has nothing to do with honest elections. He wants to keep people home on Election Day and stop them from casting their ballots out of fear.

He has tricked his base into thinking the presence of agents is necessary to secure our elections. It is not.

Trump's plan to rig the election through gerrymandering has not delivered what he hoped. His plot to collect voter data and boot voters off the rolls has failed in court after court. And even his vendetta against mail-in voting has been blocked. What's left? Voter intimidation. But that plan may fail, too.

According to Morris' poll, a majority of Americans — 54% — said ICE presence would not stop them from voting in person on Election Day. Only 10% of those surveyed said ICE agents would make them "much less likely to vote."

I am encouraged by the resilience of the American people and their determination to cast their ballots, and I am proud that they refuse to be bullied into staying home. Even if Republican voters have parted with our old idea of democracy, it is clear that the majority of Americans have not. There is power in those numbers.

Still, that doesn't mean that ICE agents won't block roads. It doesn't mean they won't cause traffic jams. It doesn't mean they won't throw up physical barriers to keep voters from reaching their polling locations.

We must consider every worst-case scenario if we want to be prepared and keep Trump from getting a step ahead of us.

Now is the time to make a plan — a plan to vote, a plan to protect your vote, and a plan to stop Trump from silencing your vote. He has convinced the Republican Party that it doesn't need democracy — but that does not mean he gets to take it away.