Try and Stop Us Digest — November 5, 2026

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Election Deniers Warned Of Rigging. Voters Turned Out, Ballots Were Counted, And Even Trump’s Lies Fell Flat.

Too Big To Rig: Election Day went smoothly, voters turned out in massive numbers, , and Trump now says he will accept the results after weeks of priming his supporters to doubt them. Washington Post: The only Election Day problems were the standard-issue kind, such as flooding that forced more than 20 Florida polling locations to relocate and malfunctioning machines in Westchester County. DOJ sent more than 900 monitors to some 120 jurisdictions in all 50 states, and while no major incidents were reported, Michigan officials fielded reports that monitors asked poll workers about their training and New Mexico officials verified reports of "unusual" questions. Democrats won control of the Senate and House by huge margins. That left little room for a DOJ that would exploit any contestable margin, or for loyal Senate Republicans ready to do the same. Trump told the New York Times, "I am absolutely willing to accept those results," and said, "We'll work with the Democrats, and we'll, you know, look forward to working with them. We'll probably work something out." In a late-night phone call to Fox News, he said, "Sure, I'll accept" the results, adding, "Why wouldn't I?"

Trump's election interference was blocked by courts, local election officials and months of preparation. CNN / The Atlantic: The Supreme Court blocked Trump's March executive order restricting mail voting in September, local election officials brushed off DOJ's threats of prosecution over noncitizen voting, and federal courts rejected DOJ's 11th-hour attempt to force California to segregate 20,000 ballots. David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said, "we're seeing elections go very normally with only minor problems," adding that it's "largely due to the preparation of those local and county election officials." Tammy Patrick, chief programs officer for the National Association of Election Officials, said, "The election administrator's prayer is 'High turnout, wide margins,'" and that "Election professionals were tested and they came out on the other side." Andrew Walchuko, policy director and counsel at Common Cause, said, "I think we really put them on notice that we are watching."

Election deniers on the ballot lost almost across the board and conceded without crying fraud, and the activist network that spent months warning of rigging went silent. WIRED / The Atlantic: A review of pivotal races involving election deniers found that almost all of them lost, and none of them, or the activists backing them, raised questions about the results. In Arizona, Andy Biggs conceded to incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs and blamed turnout, saying "We just didn't get our turnout quite as full as we wanted to," while Wisconsin's Tom Tiffany, Ohio's Vivek Ramaswamy and Colorado's James Wiley also conceded without questioning the results, and Michigan's Mike Rogers, Nevada's Jim Marchant and Pennsylvania's Scott Perry lost. True the Vote's account went quiet after posting dozens of times while voting was open, Cleta Mitchell didn’t post for nearly 24 hours after the results came in, and Scott Presler wrote merely, "I think it would have been a good idea to pass the SAVE America Act."

Alaska's Second Dan Sullivan Drew Under 2% Of The Vote, But DOJ Vows To Keep Fighting

Alaska's Senate race is still too close to call, but the second Dan Sullivan drew under 2% of the vote, fewer than an obscure third Republican. Democracy Docket: As of Wednesday afternoon, with about 74% of ballots counted, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by 626 votes in unofficial results. Daniel J. Sullivan, the retired teacher DOJ sued over, had 3,583 first-choice votes, or about 1.7%, while Republican Gerald Heikes had 4,821 votes, or 2.3%. The New York Times currently projects Peltola will win by 2.9 percentage points, and neither candidate has a majority of first-choice votes. Official ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for Nov. 18 if no candidate wins outright. The preliminary totals do not establish whether voters were confused or how those ballots will ultimately transfer.

Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed on Election Day that DOJ won't stop fighting over Alaska's results. . Democracy Docket / Newsweek: "The Department of Justice has been fighting tooth and nail to stop this process," Blanche said Tuesday, "and we're not going to stop the fight even after today." He described a scenario in which Sullivan loses but, because of ranked-choice voting, voters were confused, and said ballots must be preserved so investigators can look at individual ballots. Alaska's ranked-choice system lets voters rank both Sullivans, and the ballot clearly distinguishes the incumbent senator from the other candidate. Judge Sharon Gleason, who dismissed DOJ's lawsuit Sunday, wrote that segregating ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan so voters could be investigated by law enforcement would "clearly violate Alaskans' right to a secret ballot." DOJ filed a notice of appeal shortly after the ruling but hasn't yet followed up.

DOJ escalated its criminal probe of how the second Dan Sullivan got on Alaska's ballot, sending target letters to about 20 Democrats, including Marc Elias. ABC News / Newsweek: Prosecutors are issuing more than 100 subpoenas and at least 20 target letters and preservation notices, according to sources familiar with the matter. The letters, which went to Democrats investigators believe were involved in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan, are an unusual step at such an early juncture, and sources say a grand jury empaneled in Alaska is probing possible conspiracy and donor fraud offenses. A target letter does not mean the recipient will be charged. Democratic lawyer Marc Elias said, "No one should be surprised that President Trump's Department of Justice is targeting me and my law firm on Election Day. This administration has repeatedly weaponized the DOJ against the President's political enemies despite zero evidence of wrongdoing, and we are the latest targets. We will not be intimidated by a sham investigation."

The Danger Isn’t Over: Mullin Vows To "Hunt Down" Illegal Voters As DOJ Keeps Fighting In California And Alaska

The danger isn't over: DOJ is still pursuing California and Alaska, and experts warn the days after Election Day are especially high-risk for false fraud claims. Washington Post / CNN / The Atlantic: The administration has signaled plans to continue to aggressively investigate claims of noncitizen voters in California and the two Daniel Sullivans on Alaska's ballot. Many of the extreme steps Trump took in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election came weeks after Election Day. Tim Harper, who leads the Elections and Democracy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, cautioned that "The period after Election Day is especially high-risk for false and misleading claims about election fraud, particularly in close races that take longer to call." Los Angeles County's top election official says officials have "contingency plans in place" for any federal effort to stop vote counting early. The months before the new Congress is seated Jan. 3 may still feature bad-faith efforts to undermine the Democratic victory.

DHS Secretary Mullin threatened to "hunt down" anyone who votes illegally on Election Day, even as DHS's own noncitizen claims keep collapsing under scrutiny. The Hill: "If you vote illegally in this country, and you are NOT eligible to vote, @DHSgov will find you, hunt you down, and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Mullin wrote on X, and ICE posted a similar message: "There will be no escape." DHS accused Nevada of having nearly 16,000 possible noncitizens on its voter rolls, a number later revised down to 185. When Nevada officials investigated, all 185 turned out to be U.S. citizens. Multiple studies continue to find that noncitizen voting is not widespread.

Mullin says DHS will go through states' “voting logs” after the election. Democracy Docket: "After this election we'll be gathering all the data, we'll be gathering the voting logs, and we'll be going through those and making sure that no illegals voted," Mullin said in a Fox News interview Tuesday afternoon. Getting that material would take lawsuits or court warrants. Some states complied with the DOJ's earlier demands for unredacted voter rolls, but many didn't. DHS has already scoured almost all states' voter rolls for noncitizens, a process that a whistleblower report and court proceedings revealed involved hundreds of immigration officials, and several lawsuits are challenging it.

In The States

MISSISSIPPI — The Senate race is too close to call and may come down to provisional ballots, in a state with no recount law. Democracy Docket / Democracy Docket: Democrat Scott Colom held a tiny lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as of Wednesday. After Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) flagged 230,000 voter registrations as "inactive," those voters had to cast affidavit ballots, so Mississippians cast huge numbers of them this year. Colom's campaign estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 were still outstanding late Tuesday night and officials will count them along with mail ballots that arrive within the state's five-day grace period. "We will protect the process of this election. We will protect the integrity of this election," Colom told supporters Wednesday. Mississippi has no recount law, and its election handbook has no procedure for contesting a U.S. Senate general election. Notre Dame election law professor Derek Muller wrote, "That's not to say a losing candidate in Mississippi has no remedy. One remedy is to challenge decisions to exclude or to include certain ballots in the tabulation under state or federal law (if one could identify such ballots and then a legal theory)." Muller also noted that the Senate can judge the election returns of its own members. Local certification is due Nov. 13 and statewide certification Dec. 3.