Try and Stop Us Digest — October 1, 2026

Must Read

DOJ Goes 0-26 After Georgia Judge Tosses Voter-Roll Lawsuit

A federal judge dismissed DOJ's lawsuit demanding Georgia's unredacted voter rolls, the department's 26th straight loss in its push to obtain sensitive voting records nationwide. CBS News: Judge Victoria Marie Calvert ruled Georgia law requires the data stay confidential and found nothing in the Civil Rights Act that preempts that protection. It's the second time DOJ has sued Georgia for the same records; the first suit was tossed in January for being filed in the wrong city. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), one of the few Republicans to refuse DHS's demand: "I will always protect the sensitive personal information of Georgians, in accordance with the law and the Constitution. I will not give in and break the law for anyone. Period." Four similar DOJ suits remain pending in Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah.

Five Trump Officials Were Hired To Prove Election Conspiracies. All Five Quit Empty-Handed.

Five Trump administration officials brought on specifically to prove 2020 election conspiracy theories have all resigned in recent months, each coming up empty. Democracy Docket: Kurt Olsen, architect of the Stop the Steal movement and leader of DOJ's "grand conspiracy" probe, quit this week after failing to find evidence. Joe diGenova resigned from the same case amid pressure from Attorney General Todd Blanche to show progress. Ed Martin left after leading a demand for 148,000 Fulton County 2020 ballots that produced nothing. Tulsi Gabbard, who took part in the FBI's Fulton County raid as Director of National Intelligence, resigned in May. Andrew Bailey, who oversaw the FBI's Fulton County investigation as co-deputy director, resigned this week too — the same day as Olsen.

Why Ken Paxton Could Cause Chaos If He Loses His Senate Race

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unique legal powers to investigate and disrupt the state's election if he loses — and a history of using them. Democracy Docket: Texas law lets Paxton launch criminal election investigations on his own initiative and seek court orders to impound ballots, with nothing in state law requiring his recusal from a case touching his own race. He spoke at Trump's D.C. rally before Jan. 6, was impeached by the GOP-controlled Texas House in 2023 (and acquitted by the Senate), and his 2020 lawsuit trying to overturn four states' results drew a Texas Bar disciplinary complaint. Election law expert David Becker, while calling Paxton's past litigation "incredibly troubling," notes no election loser has ever managed to overturn a legitimate, verified result: "In all of that time, there has still not been a single case."

Two Watchdog Groups Sue DHS Over Its Phantom Noncitizen-Voter Numbers

CREW and American Oversight both sued DHS this week after the agency refused to turn over any records backing Trump's claim that 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote. Democracy Docket / The Hill: CREW says DHS won't disclose the methodology behind the number even though three of the four states it named have demanded it, and questions how DHS could have legally obtained the matching data at all, given DOJ is 0-26 in lawsuits seeking that same kind of state voter information. Letters DHS sent to the four states cited a "preliminary review" finding under half the publicized number — about 118,000 — actually matched. American Oversight's Chioma Chukwu: "If DHS has evidence to back up its claims, it should show the American people the receipts." California Secretary of State Shirley Weber told DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin directly: "I have serious doubts about the reliability of your data and accuracy of your claims, since my office has not shared our statewide voter registration list with DHS or any other federal agency or official."

Pentagon Quietly Rewrote Voting Forms For Americans Overseas

The Pentagon made last-minute changes to the two main federal voting forms for overseas and military citizens, removing a checkbox that's existed since 2013 for voters who've never lived in the U.S. NPR: The change came via emergency request weeks before a Sept. 19 ballot-mailing deadline, and follows a wave of GOP lawsuits — successful in North Carolina, rebuffed twice in Michigan — arguing "never-resided" citizens shouldn't be allowed to vote at all. U.S. Vote Foundation's Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat says the changes will create more confusion, not less, with no time for states to retrain staff: "The law hasn't changed... However, the fact that it's being presented differently at the federal level within this 90-day window — it doesn't give the states time." Military-family advocate Sarah Streyder wasn't consulted at all: "That's our form you're messing with. And you didn't even ask us for the input."

Democrats Move Away From Mail Voting Amid Concerns Over Trump Interference

Fewer Democrats plan to vote by mail this November than at the same point in 2024, even though the Supreme Court blocked Trump's attempt to restrict the practice. Politico: A new NBC poll finds just 23% of registered Democrats plan to vote by mail, down from 34% in 2024, while trust that USPS will deliver election mail on time has fallen to 58% from 71%. Collective PAC's Quentin James says Black voters in particular are asking whether their ballots will be secure: "The bigger threat is confusion and fear. That is the thing that a court case will not solve." Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar is now asking Congress to station election observers at postal facilities handling the state's ballots: "We're going to be proactive. We're going to be engaged and we're going to hold them accountable when we need to hold them accountable."

GOP's Voter ID Bill Fails In Senate — Again

Senate Republicans forced a vote on a stock-trading ban poisoned with a mail-voting-gutting voter ID provision, and it failed to clear the 60-vote threshold, 53-47. Democracy Docket: Every Democratic and independent senator voted no. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called it a stunt designed to kill a popular anti-corruption bill: "Republicans know no one in their right mind would go along with this draconian voting restriction, so they attached it to the bill to kill it." It's the sixth time Congress has failed to pass any version of the SAVE America Act.

In The States

MINNESOTA — DOJ indicted 10 more people on noncitizen-voting charges in Minnesota, the sixth such announcement this month.. The Guardian: Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges alongside DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who also claimed without evidence that voting machines have had "some trouble." The Heritage Foundation's own tracker found just 100 noncitizen voting cases nationwide between 1982 and 2025 — 0.000008% of the 1.3 billion votes cast in presidential elections over that span.

NEBRASKA — The RNC asked Nebraska's Supreme Court to strip voting rights from U.S. citizens who've never lived in the state but have a parent registered there, a law on the books since 2005. Nebraska Examiner: Just 116 Nebraskans are registered under the targeted statute, and only six voted in the May primary. RNC attorney J.L. Spray compared the group to "an albino unicorn of some kind," arguing even a handful of votes could "dilute" other Nebraskans' voices. The state's deputy solicitor general countered that the law is simply a "vote-processing rule," and that residency has long meant "domicile," not physical presence.

SOUTH CAROLINA — A federal judge dismissed disabled South Carolina voters' challenge to the state's restrictive voter-assistance laws, leaving the restrictions in place for the midterms. Democracy Docket: The laws limit who can help disabled or low-literacy voters with absentee ballots and cap any one person's assistance at five voters, a particular problem in nursing homes where residents often rely on one trusted staffer. The decision could affect the nearly 15% of South Carolinians who have a disability. Judge Mary Geiger Lewis: "A fear founded on future choices is too fragile for federal jurisdiction." The case was dismissed without prejudice, leaving room for a future challenge.

TEXAS — With Texas facing a voter-registration meltdown, a new secretary of state, and slashed Election Day polling locations, Common Cause says it's training more election-protection volunteers than ever before. Democracy Docket: The group has already trained over 400 volunteers in Texas, calling that pace "unheard of" with early voting still weeks away. Common Cause's Andrew Walchuk says the organization has trained "thousands" nationwide and expects that number "to grow considerably over the coming weeks."