The Republican National Committee is launching a program to intimidate voters — and if Donald Trump gets his way, there will be a figurative army marching through at least 17 states on Election Day.

Voting used to look very different in the United States. Before secret ballots and private voting booths secured by thick curtains, the practice was a loud, public affair. Your vote was no secret, and in turn, there were heated debates, fighting and even violence. Voter intimidation and harassment were rampant.

This was remedied in the 1888 presidential election — when the United States finally adopted secret ballots. But that didn’t stop voter intimidation.

After the passage of the 15th Amendment, white voter intimidators would target Black neighbors, threatening voters with guns. This continued well into the Jim Crow era.

But sadly, Republican voter suppression did not end in 1965.

In 1981, the RNC established a National Ballot Security Task Force with the mission of suppressing Black and brown voters. In that year’s gubernatorial election, the RNC targeted minority neighborhoods for aggressive voter challenges. On Election Day, the RNC posted signs warning that the area was being patrolled.

That wasn’t all. The RNC also recruited off-duty law enforcement to patrol polling locations in minority neighborhoods. The officers displayed guns and police radios while wearing armbands that identified them as members of the “National Ballot Security Task Force.”

As a result of this behavior and similar tactics in future elections, Republicans were placed under a court-monitored consent decree that limited their ability to run voter suppression programs. That is, until 2017, when the decree expired.

Republicans were quick to take advantage of their newfound vote suppressing freedom.

In 2020, a Trump campaign operative was recorded boasting that “traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places.” He argued that Republicans should “start playing offense a little bit.” Discussing their $20 million voter suppression program, he promised, “That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”

This is the backdrop of Trump’s recent Truth Social post that mentioned other Democrats and me, in which he previewed the Republican voter intimidation plan for the midterms: “During my Historic Election in 2024 … the Republicans had an Election Integrity Army in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote. We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger.”

Swiftly, on Tuesday, the RNC rolled out the strategy with an announcement that it would be deploying “poll watchers” and “election observers” to at least 17 states. This, they claim, is part of their “election integrity” operation.

As RNC chair Joe Gruters wrote on social media, “The RNC is aggressively fighting to win in November - and we will not stop until we do.”

To be clear, there is nothing truthful or honest about what Republicans call “election integrity.” Their operation has always been nothing but a voter suppression and election subversion machine, trying to mislead voters into thinking they are strengthening and protecting our electoral system.

If you’re a close reader of my writing, you already know that they are not.

They are weakening our elections, step by step and day by day, trying to strip away voter protections and making it harder for people to simply cast their ballots. Like the voter intimidators who came before them, they are trying to control who votes so they can control the outcome of the election.

We have to consider what Republicans have already told us they will do. When Trump says he is raising an “Election Integrity Army,” he means it. In the past, that has only been off-duty police and an array of GOP thugs. But what about this time?

When asked about sending ICE to the polls, Trump didn’t dismiss the idea. “I’d do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”

If we have learned anything from Trump, it is that when he says he will do “anything,” we need to believe him. The Republican National Committee is making its plans for 2026, and knowing its track record, it will be aggressive. When it comes to suppressing voters, the Party of Lincoln does not hold back.

That means we can’t hold back either. We must make our own plans to defend the right to vote with the same commitment that the GOP has to undermine it. Thankfully, it is only May, and they are showing us their playbook.

If they plan to send an army, we must prepare our poll workers. We must make sure voters know their rights. We must send lawyers to help voters who are facing threats. Already, my law firm is litigating more than 80 cases in nearly every state. That number will grow.

But we need others — lawyers and non-lawyers — to join this effort. We must organize, amplify and litigate. We can’t afford to sit on our heels as we watch Republicans steal an election. If the RNC is aggressively fighting to win in November, so must we.