Try and Stop Us Digest — August 21, 2026

Must Read

DHS Admits It Never Verified Trump’s 16,000 Noncitizen Voters Claim

Trump said Homeland Security found 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada's voter rolls. On a call with state officials last week, DHS put the confirmed number at 185. The New York Times: Emails and recordings obtained through a public records request show federal officials still had more than 14,000 names under review and described the original figure as “the ceiling” rather than a finding. The list DHS handed Nevada does not include names and is nearly impossible to verify, and a DHS official acknowledged on the call that public voter files carry no Social Security numbers, meaning the department could not run them against its immigration database at all. That official, Heather Honey, has a history of making false claims about elections.

Trump Refuses to Declassify Election Report Congress Requires Him To Release

The White House has pushed out a steady stream of declassified election intelligence and left out the one document the law says it must publish. The New York Times: The intelligence community's assessment of foreign meddling in the 2024 election has never been released, though the law requires publication within 60 days of the end of the election cycle. A separate report identifying foreign intelligence threats to the 2026 midterms was due in early May and still has not reached Congress. What has come out rehashes the 2020 election Trump lost while shielding new information about 2024, which he won, and the House Intelligence Committee has attached an amendment to must-pass legislation withholding funds from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until the report arrives.

North Carolina Republicans Just Cut Sunday Early Voting Across The State's Contested Counties

The Republican majority on the state elections board rejected Sunday hours in most counties where local boards could not agree. NC Newsline / Democracy Docket: The board approved 20 early voting plans Thursday, most of them along party lines, siding with county Republicans who argued too few people vote on Sundays and that the day belongs to church and family. “By having Sunday voting, we are requiring people to work on the Lord's day,” said Matthew Longworth, a Republican on the Anson County board. Democrats countered that Sunday hours reach people working long or irregular shifts, long commuters and caregivers; early voting runs Oct. 15 through Oct. 31, and state law makes only weekdays and the final Saturday mandatory.

Trump's 1,000 Poll Monitors Are Mostly Bluster

The Justice Department says it hopes to run the largest monitoring operation in its history. It has managed 75 monitors so far this cycle. The Guardian: Harmeet Dhillon told Bloomberg the department plans to send 1,000 monitors in November and called it probably a historic number for a Republican administration, but DOJ sent 289 in the 2022 midterms and 714 in 2024, and scores of civil rights division staff have left under Trump. Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, who worked on voting rights at the department and the White House, said he doubts they reach 1,000 and that the most anyone should expect is “a handful of suits standing quietly in the back of the room.” Local officials control the door: Hennepin and Ramsey counties refused to let DOJ inside polling places during Minnesota's primary, keeping monitors behind the 100-foot line like any other member of the public.

In The States

DELAWARE — Threats and violence at polling places are now a felony, with the law taking effect before the state's Sept. 15 primary. WDEL: Governor Matt Meyer signed House Substitute 1 for House Bill 301, making breach of peace or violence on election day a Class G felony and extending coverage to elections offices and anywhere ballots are stored, read or counted. The sponsors cited a 2026 Brennan Center survey in which 32% of local election officials reported threats, harassment or abuse because of the job, 52% worried about colleagues' safety and 23% feared assault at home or work. Meyer said the right to vote is the foundation of American democracy and that in Delaware, “we're going to fight like hell to protect it.”

MISSOURI — The state Supreme Court reached down and took the gerrymander referendum case for itself, one day after voters appealed. Democracy Docket: The court bypassed the appellate level entirely and transferred the case directly to itself, citing the general interest and importance of the legal issues, then ordered an expedited briefing schedule with the November ballot due to be finalized within weeks. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green had ruled Wednesday that Missouri's referendum provisions do not reach congressional redistricting, upholding Secretary of State Denny Hoskins' decision to block the measure and leaving the Republican map in place. People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn said his group appreciates the court's speed after months of delay from the Secretary of State.

OKLAHOMA — Voters are deciding whether to write the state's existing voter ID requirement into the constitution. KXII: State Question 846 would not change what counts as valid identification, but it would lift the requirement out of statute, making it harder to alter later while leaving the legislature authority over what qualifies as proof of identity. Early voting for Tuesday's primary runoff opened Thursday, and every registered voter can weigh in on state questions regardless of party, unlike the state's closed candidate primaries. Acceptable identification includes state, tribal or federally issued photo ID, a county-issued voter registration card, or an affidavit with a provisional ballot.

What Experts Are Saying

Nevada's top election official says DHS privately told his office the numbers it gave the public were preliminary and not solid enough to share in full. “...will not risk disenfranchising eligible voters and ripping away their constitutional right to vote.” — Cisco Aguilar, Nevada Secretary of State (D), The New York Times

A former CIA analyst says Trump’s declassification push is cherry-picking. “Olympic-level cherry picking.” — Julia Curlee, former CIA analyst and National Security Council staffer, The New York Times

Headlines

In The States

PBS NewsHour: Missouri court allows new Trump-backed U.S. House districts to be used in November election

CBS Minnesota: Mike Lindell says he will fund statewide hand recount after losing Minnesota GOP primary by double digits

Ohio Capital Journal: Voting rights are under fire in Ohio. Casting a ballot is how you fight back.