THE BLOCKADE BRIEF: October 28, 2026

THIS WEEK’S BLOCKADES

Trump Offers $1 Million “Voter Fraud Bounties” and Claims Republicans Can Only Lose if Democrats Cheat

Trump announced Monday that he’ll pay $1 million to anyone whose voter fraud tip leads to an arrest and conviction, and the White House won’t say where the money comes from. He’s chasing fraud that doesn’t exists: in Pennsylvania, a review found just 176 allegedly fraudulent ballots out of more than 67 million cast since 2015. Hours later, Trump claimed his Minnesota Senate candidate can only lose if Democrats cheat, warned the federal government will be watching the count, and falsely claimed he won Minnesota three times. Minnesotans rejected him in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Asked whether he’ll respect the midterm results, he would only commit if he decides the elections were honest. He’s writing his excuse for losing before a single vote is counted.

Trump’s DOJ Sends Poll Monitors Into Democratic Strongholds in Georgia and Michigan

Trump’s Justice Department is deploying about 1,000 election monitors across the country, its largest monitoring operation ever, and in the battlegrounds it’s going straight for Democratic territory. In Georgia, monitors are headed to Bibb, Chatham, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties, all Democratic strongholds, in the same state where federal agents seized Fulton County’s 2020 election materials this year. In Michigan, they’re going to Detroit, Flint, Lansing, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck and Warren while election deniers flood the state with false claims aimed at majority-Black cities. During Wyoming’s primary, DOJ monitors showed up planning to interview voters, and even the state’s Republican governor called them aggressive. Republicans want voters in these cities to feel watched when they cast their ballot.

North Carolina Republicans’ Envelope Rule Puts Thousands of Mail Ballots at Risk

A rule passed by the GOP-controlled State Board of Elections is spoiling mail ballots over unsealed inner envelopes, and the damage is growing. Nearly 6% of mail ballots counted so far have been flagged, and 3,672 are at risk of rejection, compared with a 2.2% rejection rate statewide in 2022. In rural Anson County, a third of ballots have been flagged. Voters can’t fix a bad seal with a form, so they have to send a new ballot or vote in person, and some Wake County voters have had to resubmit four or five times. Republicans rewrote the rules weeks before Election Day, and eligible North Carolinians are paying for it.

MALLY SMITH, Try And Stop Us Senior Adviser:

“Donald Trump is offering a million-dollar reward for mythical voter fraud his administration has spent years failing to find, his Justice Department is sending monitors into Democratic cities, and North Carolina Republicans are throwing out ballots over envelope flaps. They’re doing all of it because they know voters are about to reject them. Trump is already telling everyone the only way his candidates lose is cheating, which tells you exactly how confident he is. The courts keep tossing his schemes, election officials in every state are ready, eligible voters’ ballots will be counted, and they, not Trump and his goons, will get the final word.”