Try and Stop Us Digest — October 8, 2026

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ICE Is Targeting Voter Registration Groups And Plotting To Deport Voters

ICE's investigators flagged a skate retailer and a Muslim civil rights group for "further investigation" as part of a sweep of more than 150 voter registration groups. Democracy Docket / News From The States: Documents Democracy Forward obtained show Homeland Security Investigations flagged Zumiez and the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for further investigation, reviewed 82 Pennsylvania organizations, and checked New Jersey groups that turned up "no derogatory information." In Ohio, HSI and the FBI were pursuing companies tied to Black Fork Strategies, whose founder also founded the Ohio Organizing Collaborative the FBI raided in June. Agents considered undercover work, the records don't show it happened.

ICE is building its voter-group cases on data from a Trump election activist and from DOJ. Popular Information / The Independent: HSI obtained more than 48 million records from Heather Honey, a Cleta Mitchell protégé who helped push Trump's 2020 claims and now serves as DHS's deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, and more than 50 million voter roll records from DOJ. State voter data may also have been entered into Palantir's ELITE app, which ICE uses to identify people for arrest and removal. Before taking the job, Honey told right-wing activists in March 2025 that a president could declare a national emergency over the 2020 election: “We have some additional powers that don't exist right now... we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”

ICE lawyers plotted to deport up to 400 New Jersey residents who were registered to vote by a state error. Democracy Docket: Emails Democracy Forward obtained through FOIA show ICE deputy principal legal advisor Adam Loiacono arguing that “There is no requirement that the alien have knowledge that he or she has illegally voted, and no conviction is required.” ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall said HSI is “heavily working these cases.” About 6,600 people were registered by the error between June 2023 and June 2024, and fewer than 400 of them voted.

ICE is already showing up near voting sites. Democracy Docket: ICE detained someone at a California ballot drop box on the first day of voting. The detention happened Oct. 5 at the Allan Hancock College drop box in Santa Maria. Plaintiffs LULAC, Common Cause, UnidosUS and Denver amended their suit to add Hennepin County, Minnesota, and to name DOJ, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants, with a Voting Rights Act Section 11(b) intimidation claim. Hennepin County says DHS investigators entered election spaces three times in five months and ICE made at least two arrests in the lobby of an early voting site. The suit says election workers are distressed and some have been reassigned, and that one group's door-knock response rate fell from 40-45% to 5-10%. DD notes the complaint doesn't establish that ICE alone caused the drop.

Election Deniers Are Pitching Trump On Seizing Voting Machines

Tina Peters reportedly pitched Trump on using Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to push states toward hand counts. Washington Sun: Peters, convicted of tampering with Mesa County's voting equipment, reportedly urged Trump to invoke a 2019 executive order and have Lutnick pressure states. Ed Martin, who left DOJ in August, said Tuesday on Real America's Voice that "The president is taking it seriously" and that with the SAVE America Act stalled, the president will have to act. American Oversight emails show Chief of Staff Susie Wiles connected activists Will Huff and Conrad Reynolds to Martin partly to get Peters a meeting with Trump. Their proposals included having Lutnick seize voting equipment, eliminating most mail and absentee voting, and sharply curtailing early voting. Reynolds said Lutnick gave them two and a half hours and said he would get on it. The White House wouldn't confirm what was discussed. Schumer says Democrats have spent months preparing to beat such schemes in court.

A Peters ally claims Trump held White House meetings about not certifying the midterm results. Media Matters: Juan O. Savin, whose real name is Wayne Willott, said in an Oct. 5 video that people in direct contact with Trump told him the elections will go forward but "the machines cannot be certified," that results won't be certified and that winners won't take office. The video came the same day Peters reportedly met with Trump.

Kurt Olsen, a leading DOJ proponent of false 2020 claims, lost his DOJ security clearance last month after failing a polygraph. Reuters: The failed test played a role in the decision, though it's unclear whether other factors did. A DOJ spokesperson confirmed Olsen has no active clearance with the department. Olsen came to DOJ from the White House, where he worked with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on re-examining Trump's discredited 2020 claims. He stepped off the Florida criminal investigation of Trump adversaries last week, after prosecutors told former CIA Director John Brennan he's a target and lead prosecutor Joseph diGenova resigned Sept. 10. Olsen remains a senior counsel in the Miami U.S. attorney's office.

Warning Signs: Bipartisan Group Says The House Could Refuse To Seat Midterm Winners

Reps. Don Bacon and Josh Gottheimer are asking House colleagues to promise they won't block any winner from taking office. Wall Street Journal: The letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries opposes any attempt to refuse or delay seating a member-elect who holds a valid certificate. Bacon (R-Neb.) isn't seeking re-election; Gottheimer is a New Jersey Democrat. Republican Reps. Mike Lawler and Brian Fitzpatrick have signed, and the WSJ reports the letter would have a likely majority if every House Democrat signs. The push follows Heritage Foundation scholar Scott Yenor's argument earlier this year that Congress could deny representation to states without voter ID laws or force new elections where rolls aren't properly purged.

Sen. Thom Tillis says refusing to seat winners after certification would be a “dereliction of duty.” CNN: Asked on CNN whether Republicans worry behind the scenes about pressure on Mike Johnson not to seat the new Congress, Tillis said there "may always be pressure." Tillis: "I think that if the elections have been certified, it would be a dereliction of duty not to do that." Hunt also asked about Trump accepting the midterm results. Tillis said he can see why people looking back at Jan. 6 "could say that could be kind of a redo," and that close races headed to automatic recounts could bring pushback.

In The States

GEORGIA — A Georgia judge threw out the RNC's bid to restrict mail ballot drop-off in Gwinnett County, the state's second-largest. Democracy Docket: Gwinnett Superior Court Judge Warren Davis ruled Wednesday that state law "expressly authorizes" the county's policy, dismissing the suit by the RNC, the Gwinnett GOP and Secretary of State candidate Tim Fleming. The county has 13 early voting sites, seven with drop boxes, plus six designated registrar's offices where voters can hand ballots to sworn deputy registrars, a setup it has used since the 2022 general election. It goes further than last week's dismissal of a similar Fulton County suit as moot. The DSCC and Sen. Jon Ossoff intervened in the case.

MONTANA — Montana's Supreme Court struck down Republican-backed limits on ballot initiatives as unconstitutional. Bloomberg Law: The 4-3 ruling scrapped parts of a 2023 law, including a requirement that initiative proponents pay the secretary of state a $3,700 filing fee unless they win a hardship waiver. Justice Beth Baker wrote Tuesday, affirming a state district court, that the legislature may protect the initiative process from fraud and injustice but "it may not impair the people's independent power to make law."

PENNSYLVANIA — Bucks County's sheriff pledged to keep ICE away from polling places and keep ballots out of law enforcement hands. Spotlight PA: Sheriff Danny Ceisler (D) signed the Workers Circle sheriff pledge, which commits sheriffs to no ICE presence at polling places, no voter intimidation and no ballot seizures. Only a handful of sheriffs have signed, including Bristol County, Mass., Sheriff Paul Heroux and Alexandria, Va., Sheriff Sean Casey. Ceisler says sheriffs aren't responsible for seizing ballots to prove baseless fraud claims. The pledge comes after Riverside County, Calif., Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots.