Federal law makes it a crime to threaten voting workers with guns.
S. 5491 — Freedom from Intimidation in Elections Act · Filed by Alex Padilla (D-CA) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill makes it a federal crime to threaten voting workers and poll workers. It says showing a gun near someone running a vote is a threat. The person with the gun must prove it was not a threat. Police acting as police are exempt from this rule. National Guard members are not exempt.
Who it affects
Voting workers and poll workers get federal protection against threats and armed people near them. Voters benefit from safer voting with less interference.
One thing to notice
The person with the gun must prove they were not trying to threaten anyone. National Guard members do not get the same exemption as police.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 8 Democrats.
- Sep 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- threaten — to frighten or scare someone to make them do what you want
- poll workers — people who help run voting places on voting day
- exempt — not required to follow a rule that applies to others
- National Guard — military troops that each state can call on in emergencies
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,610 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal law makes it a crime to threaten voting workers with guns.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5491/simple Report an error
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