Try and Stop Us Digest — October 13, 2026

Must Read

Another Judge Rules DOJ's Voter-Roll Grab Broke Federal Law

A federal judge ruled that DOJ’s program of collecting states’ voter lists and telling them to remove suspected noncitizens violates federal law. Washington Post: Judge Sparkle Sooknanan found the program violates the Privacy Act and exceeds DOJ’s authority. Eighteen Republican-led states had agreed to hand over their full voter lists and remove voters the federal government flagged. The ruling cites a 2006 audit that found more than 3 million naturalized citizens wrongly listed as noncitizens in Social Security data. “DOJ cannot run roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people,” Sooknanan wrote. DOJ has sued 30 states and D.C. over their voter rolls and has lost all 26 cases decided so far.

Stop The Steal Never Stopped: Trump Has Spread Election Lies On 440 Days Of His Second Term

Trump has made false claims about U.S. elections on 440 days of his second term, more than 70 percent of the days since he returned to office. New York Times: The count runs from Jan. 20, 2025, when he called the 2020 election "rigged" at his inaugural luncheon, through Oct. 7, 2026, and is drawn from his public remarks and Truth Social. Trump still claims to have won three presidential elections, falsely says Democrats use undocumented immigrants to cheat, and falsely claims mail-in ballots produce fraudulent results. He says Democrats will cheat in the midterms unless the SAVE America Act passes, and is now calling most political polls fake.

Steve Bannon says MAGA "can't afford to lose" in November, and agreed Republicans must do whatever it takes to win. Democracy Docket: "The core belief of the MAGA movement is we won the 2020 election," Bannon told Ted Koppel on CBS' Sunday Morning. When Koppel said that means doing whatever it takes to win the fight, Bannon replied, "Exactly." Bannon also said he is "the leader of trying to get President Trump to run for a third term," and that you "could drive a truck through" the 22nd Amendment. Legal scholars disagree. Democracy Docket notes that Bannon has said in recent months that ICE will "surround the polls."

Election Deniers Have Two New Targets: Nursing Homes And WI-FI Routers

Election deniers say an obscure Commerce Department rule on Wi-Fi routers lets Trump's commerce secretary decide how votes are counted. Democracy Docket: The theory has circulated for about a year and resurfaced this week after convicted election denier Tina Peters reportedly discussed it with Trump in the Oval Office and Cleta Mitchell promoted it on social media. It holds that a little-used Commerce supply-chain rule, issued under Trump's 2019 national-emergency order and mostly covering Wi-Fi routers and antivirus apps, authorizes Secretary Howard Lutnick to order sweeping changes to voting machines and mandate hand counts nationwide. Mitchell wants Lutnick to require software upgrades and order pre-certification hand counts in 5% of precincts in every jurisdiction. Peters calls it "the Tina Plan."

Cleta Mitchell's Election Integrity Network is recruiting followers to question nursing homes, claiming without evidence that left-wing groups steal residents' votes. Wired: "These left-wing groups go into the nursing homes, and they go into the group homes, and they basically steal the votes of these most vulnerable," Mitchell said on Steve Bannon's War Room. Her evidence is a 2020 Wisconsin case in which a sheriff alleged that eight care home residents had their votes filled out for them, which the Wisconsin Election Commission rejected. Mitchell told Bannon it could have cost Trump the 2020 election, though he lost Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes. The network is urging followers to download a toolkit and to email and call nursing homes in their area, and has mapped residential care facilities in competitive districts in Arizona, California, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The push follows a July Medicare and Medicaid memo that removed guidance on how staff could help residents vote, such as with mail ballots or rides to polling places, and replaced it with threats of prosecution. The examples the memo cited led to no proven cases of voter fraud, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Alex Padilla wrote in August that the changes would disenfranchise residents.

Elon Musk's Super PAC Is Sending Voters Inaccurate Ballot Information

Elon Musk's super PAC texted Colorado voters that their "ballot request is in," though every active registered voter in the state is mailed a ballot automatically. CNN / New York Times: The texts to voters in Weld and Adams counties read, "Your ballot request is in. Confirm now where and when to return it." They set off calls from confused residents to county offices. "People were like, 'Wait a second. I didn't submit that request. Is something fishy going on? Did someone submit something on my behalf?'" said Carly Koppes, the Republican election chief in Weld County. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold called the messaging misleading, and Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has told voters to steer clear of VoteSafe.org, the PAC's voting information site, which itself warns that its information may not be accurate. The site also collects visitors' phone numbers and email addresses. Musk has now funneled more than $276 million into Republican groups since July, including $76 million to America PAC for a canvassing operation. .

Arizona Republicans Put Three 2020 Election Subverters On The Ballot

Arizona’s Republican nominee to run the state’s elections was sanctioned over his 2020 fraud lawsuits, and the nominees for governor and attorney general also acted to overturn the 2020 result. Washington Post / Votebeat / Politico: Alexander Kolodin’s lawsuits failed in court, and in 2023 the State Bar of Arizona admonished him and sentenced him to 18 months of probation. Andy Biggs, the nominee for governor, challenged the results on Jan. 6, and Warren Petersen, the nominee for attorney general, urged Pence to delay certification. Asked after a debate whether Trump won Arizona in 2020, Kolodin refused to say. Pressed on whether the Maricopa ballot count was accurate, he said, “It’s time for us to go,” and the elevator doors closed.

Democrats And Election Officials Are Bracing For Election Chaos

House Democrats say they are ready to fight any attempt to keep them from taking the majority if they win in November. Washington Post: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “everyone who’s elected by the American people on November 3rd is going to be seated on January 3rd.” Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said Democrats “are prepared to respond to any attempt to undermine Americans’ voices.” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Republican Rep. Don Bacon are circulating a pledge to oppose “any attempt to refuse or delay the seating of any Member-elect.”

Democratic secretaries of state in Oregon and Washington are telling voters to return ballots a week to 10 days early, because Postal Service cuts are getting mail ballots rejected. Votebeat: More than 7,300 Oregon ballots were rejected for improper postmarks in May, and late-postmark rejections in some Washington counties rose more than 300% between the 2024 and 2026 primaries. Reduced pickup times at more than 15,000 post offices mean a ballot dropped off locally can sit until the next day without a postmark. “We can’t count on it,” said Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, who is also pushing drop boxes and adding 20 more. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said, “If you’re going to mail, you better do it right away.”

Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed says Democrats must win by massive margins because Trump has already threatened to deny election outcomes. The Guardian: "Donald Trump has already threatened to do what he did in 2020, which is deny the outcomes of an election," El-Sayed said on NBC's Meet the Press. "So, yes, we have to win by massive numbers."

In The States

ARIZONA — An activist tied to Cleta Mitchell urged her followers to flood Maricopa County's recorder's office with job applications, and a voting rights group wants the attorney general to investigate. Arizona Republic: Merissa Caldwell, who leads the Arizona chapter of Mitchell's Election Integrity Network, used a Telegram chat to push her EZAZ followers to apply for permanent jobs in Republican Recorder Justin Heap's office, including early voting center supervisor, logistics coordinator and IT project manager. "This is your chance to help restore integrity to Arizona's elections and save the Republic," the post read. Mitchell's nonprofit gave $620,000 to Caldwell's Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, which is behind the EZAZ website, according to tax filings. Caldwell married Heap's director of special projects, Jeff Caldwell, on a yacht cruise that Mitchell attended. "Call that what it is: Election interference," said Alejandra Gomez, executive director of the voting rights group Living United for Change in Arizona, which is asking Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate Heap's ties to Caldwell, Mitchell and EZAZ. Heap didn't respond to a request for comment.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Three armed National Guard members stood around a D.C. and the D.C. Council called it unacceptable. WRC: A photo showed armed National Guard members standing around a ballot drop box outside the GW-Foggy Bottom Metro station. "This is clearly not acceptable," the D.C. Council posted on X. Federal law bars "any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held," with an exception for repelling armed enemies of the United States, and some legal experts argue it covers drop boxes as well as polling places. The D.C. Board of Elections is raising its concerns with the Guard and has asked for limits on where members are placed near drop boxes and other voting sites. Trump deployed the Guard to D.C. streets last summer, and earlier this year he did not rule out deploying troops to polling places.

GEORGIA — Georgia’s State Election Board has a Gmail account that was never disclosed in a lawsuit over members’ use of personal email, and American Oversight is demanding answers by Oct. 22. Votebeat: The inbox, with at least 486 messages, appeared on screen during a Sept. 28 board meeting, and nobody outside the board has said who controls it. The board paid $50,000 in 2025 to settle that suit, which named six other addresses. The attorney general’s office said it is “looking into it.”

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey voters sued to stop Ocean County’s Republican-led board from purging 39 Democratic and unaffiliated voters. Democracy Docket: The list came from a local GOP official, and board Chair George Gilmore, who also chairs the county Republican organization, sent the voters a questionnaire warning that their “right to vote may be challenged.” One Democratic voter got a letter while a Republican spouse in the same household did not. Trump pardoned Gilmore in 2021 after a 2019 conviction for failing to turn over payroll taxes and making a false statement on a bank loan application.

What Experts Are Saying

Election-denying Republican nominees for governor in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin could give Trump's party an opening to subvert the 2028 election. "In more than one race this year, voters aren't just deciding between a Democrat and a Republican. They're deciding whether their states should be run by people who don't stand firmly for free and fair elections." — Ben Wikler, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, New York Times