Too Big To Ignore: Will of the People Weekly

Tomorrow, after everything they have thrown at this election, we vote. Trump’s Justice Department spent its final week losing everywhere it turned: a federal judge refused to let it set aside 20,000 Californians’ ballots and the appeals court backed him twice, another judge threw out its suit to block Alaska’s certification, and a Friday-night order now bars the department and DHS from threatening election officials anywhere in the country. It is escalating anyway, , running to the Supreme Court this morning over those same California ballots, mailing prison-threat letters to all 50 states, posting a $1 million bounty for fraud tips, subpoenaing California election workers to a grand jury the day after the election, and sending 1,000 monitors into Democratic strongholds with the locations kept secret until the polls open. The answer is already arriving: more than 40 million people have voted, with early turnout running well ahead of 2022, and tomorrow decides the rest. What happens next is up to us, not them. When all of us show up, the will of the people wins. Try and stop us.

In the Administration

• Trump’s DOJ mailed prison-threat letters to all 50 states days before the election, citing no violation by anyone. The letters, dated last Thursday and signed by the department’s second-ranking official, open with “It is a crime to willfully fail to comply with Section 20701” and warn of a year in prison over records preservation, a 1960 requirement states already follow. Texas’ copy was addressed to a secretary of state who left office in July.
• Trump’s DOJ is sending 1,000 election monitors into Democratic strongholds tomorrow and keeping the locations secret. The deployments reported so far span 21 states, including Philadelphia, Detroit and six Georgia counties, with monitors drawn from agencies like the DEA rather than the civil rights lawyers who historically did this work. The department has sought entry into polling places instead of observing from the 100 feet the law requires.
• Trump’s prosecutors subpoenaed California election workers to a grand jury the day after the election. Three Los Angeles County registrar employees are ordered to appear Wednesday in Santa Ana, and Orange County’s registrar was subpoenaed for unredacted records on 60 voters, as the county’s election chief answered that “Threats and intimidation have no place in elections.”
• Trump posted a $1 million bounty for voter fraud tips. The offer promises that “Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000” upon “the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud,” with no funding source identified and the election deniers he hired to find fraud having found none.

In Congress

• Senate Republicans may refuse to seat the Alaska Democrat if she wins. Republicans in Congress have indicated they may refuse to seat the Democratic candidate running for Senate in Alaska if she wins. The House Oversight Chair said, “It’s a big possibility.” One senator wrote she should be excluded if she wins “in a fraudulent manner,” and another has already refused to commit to seating her — even though Alaska law puts certification in the hands of its governor and lieutenant governor, not Congress or the President.

In the Courts

• United States v. California (U.S. Supreme Court)
  • Trump’s DOJ went to the Supreme Court this morning to force California to set aside the 20,000 ballots, its fourth try in a week, warning that “Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back.” A federal judge and the appeals court have refused at every step, with the appeals court writing Friday that “We decline the United States’s invitation to contravene the Elections Clause,” and the Court could rule before the polls open tomorrow.
• Service Employees International Union v. U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California)
  • Late Friday night, a federal court ordered Trump’s DOJ and DHS to stop threatening election officials, in an order with no geographic limit that bars demands to purge voters or set aside ballots and prosecution threats against officials who count them, finding the departments “likely violated Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act.” DOJ must also disclose any warrant applications or grand jury subpoenas built on its voter lists. The department appealed within a day and asked for an immediate stay, which could be decided at any hour.
• United States v. Alaska (U.S. District Court, Alaska)
  • A federal judge threw out the DOJ’s suit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate race on Sunday, ruling the government lacks standing, that segregating ballots to investigate voter intent would “clearly violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot,” and that it offered “no workable plan.” The DOJ appealed the same day. Alaska’s governor, whose own investigation continues, says certification could be “stopped or changed,” and the state’s certification is due Nov. 25.
• League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S. District Court, D.C.)
  • A ruling could land today on blocking DOJ from sending its so-called noncitizen lists to the states, after Saturday argument in which the court asked why the federal government polices voter integrity “when there have been no convictions” and the government’s own lawyer conceded: “I cannot disagree with you that the government has made mistakes.”
• DSCC v. Trump (U.S. District Court, D.C.)
  • Trump’s DOJ moved overnight to dismiss the Democrats’ election-interference suit by pointing at its own losing streak, telling the court that “absent the intervention of a federal court, nothing will change with regard to any election procedures.” The disclosure the court ordered identified five states sent voter-challenge letters, and experts say the California list the department turned over was a stripped-down “reduced columns” file missing the voter ID numbers needed to check its matches, with a ruling on blocking further demands promised by today.

In the States

North Carolina

• The state’s new envelope rule has put 3,672 mail ballots at risk with flag rates reaching 33 percent in rural Anson County, and a spoiled ballot cannot be cured by form: a replacement must reach the county by 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, or the voter can simply vote in person.

Georgia

• Civil rights groups sued Gwinnett County after more than 1,800 voters never received the absentee ballots they requested from a printing vendor whose delays may reach nearly 10,000 voters across metro Atlanta, asking that affected ballots count through Nov. 6 if postmarked by Election Day.

Washington

• Civil rights groups and a union sued Trump and his DOJ on Friday over its eleventh-hour demand that the state set aside 405 ballots, built on a list the secretary of state calls a “dumpster fire” and that the state’s own review found includes U.S. citizens, with the suit awaiting action as the election arrives.

Upcoming Elections & Deadlines

Monday, November 2

• Last day of in-person early or absentee voting in 14 states, including California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas (ends at noon), and Minnesota
• Last day to pick up a mail ballot in person in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York

Tuesday, November 3

• Election day!
• Same-day registration allowed at the polls in 21 states and D.C.
• Mail-ballot receipt deadline in Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Ohio, and Utah

Wednesday, November 4

• Mail-ballot receipt deadline in Texas

Friday, November 6

• Mail-ballot receipt deadline in Kansas and Virginia

Saturday, November 7

• Mail-ballot receipt deadline in Nevada