Try and Stop Us Digest — October 15, 2026

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DOJ Threatens California And Gives State Officials 48 Hours To Sideline Ballots From Mystery List Of Supposed Noncitizens

DOJ is threatening to sue California unless it sets aside ballots from voters on an unexplained federal list of “likely noncitizens” by noon Thursday, and the letters cite no clear legal authority. Reuters / NBC News / Democracy Docket: Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter's letters to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan demand that mail ballots from people DOJ "believes are likely noncitizens" be segregated and not tabulated "until citizenship has been determined," or DOJ "will have no choice but to seek emergency relief." The letters cite only a federal law barring noncitizen voting and a 1973 Supreme Court case about Mississippi textbooks for racially discriminatory private schools, and Justin Levitt, a former Obama-era DOJ official, told NBC: "They can send the letter. California doesn't have to do anything about it." The list arrived on a password-protected thumb drive that LA County Registrar Dean Logan hasn't opened: "We do not consider the device a secure medium." DOJ has lost 26 of the 30 voter-roll lawsuits it filed against states without winning one.

Courts Have Blocked Trump's Biggest Election Schemes. These Fights Are Still Open.

Courts have blocked Trump's postal-rule and voter-data schemes, but cases over DHS citizenship lists and federal agents at the polls are still pending. Democracy Docket: The Electronic Privacy Information Center is asking Judge Paula Xinis to block DHS from building state citizenship lists and an online portal for election officials, which GOP-led states could use to purge voters despite the 90-day ban on systematic removals. Xinis sounded deeply skeptical at a Sept. 25 hearing, ordered DOJ to "immediately" notify her if DHS plans to release either, and will probably rule before Election Day. Three suits over ICE and other federal agents at the polls are before Judge Loren AliKhan, who ordered the parties to meet Oct. 16 about consolidating them. No one has asked for a restraining order, so a ruling before Nov. 3 is unlikely unless the administration moves toward deploying armed agents. Democracy Docket is tracking 204 active cases, 76 anti-voting and 91 pro-voting.

Senate Democrats Are Sending 100+ Election Observers To Nine States

Senate Democrats are sending more than 100 staffers to watch voting, tabulation and certification in nine battleground states, starting with Georgia, Ohio and Michigan. Bloomberg Government: Sen. Alex Padilla said the observers will go "across nine states" expected to have contested elections, though the first destinations could change. Schumer said on the call: "We're taking these steps because Donald Trump has made it clear he wants to undermine our elections and interfere with the Democratic process. Our elections are free and secure, we intend to keep them that way." Padilla expects Senate Republicans to run a similar effort and hopes to send observers in bipartisan pairs. The program, announced in June, is modeled on the House Election Observers program.

In The States

GEORGIA — Georgia voters set a first-day record for midterm early voting, with nearly 189,000 ballots cast, more than 50,000 above the first day in 2022. Georgia Recorder: The secretary of state's office says Tuesday's turnout set a new first-day record for a midterm. Sen. Jon Ossoff voted in Atlanta and urged Georgians to turn out in force: "It's up to citizens to use our constitutional rights to vote in unprecedented numbers, to vote early in person, make a plan to vote right now and ensure that we win decisively, so no meddling from this White House can foil the will of the people."

GEORGIA — Georgia's chief justice signaled the state Supreme Court is unlikely to force two election deniers onto the Fulton County election board. Democracy Docket: The Fulton County Republican Party is suing to seat Jason Frazier and Julie Adams after county commissioners rejected them 5-2, citing their histories of election denial. Adams refused to certify the county's 2024 primary results, and Frazier, who sued over Fulton's voter-roll maintenance, was later hired as a State Election Board investigator. A trial court fined the county $10,000 a day until it complied, but an appeals panel reversed. At Wednesday's argument, Chief Justice Nels Peterson appeared to side with the county's lawyer: "It does seem to me that you probably have the better of the legal argument."

IOWA — Iowans lined up before the doors opened for the first day of early voting on Wednesday. Des Moines Register: A line had formed outside the Polk County Election Office half an hour before it opened Wednesday, with open Senate and governor's races and three highly targeted House seats on the ballot. Mazie Stilwell of Progress Iowa urged voters not to wait, citing tighter state limits and possible mail delays: "we certainly encourage all Iowans to vote as early as possible."

TEXAS — Texas counties cleared a backlog of more than 500,000 voter registration records caused by a state software error. Votebeat: Hundreds of thousands of voter registration records went unprocessed for more than a year after a software update to the Department of Public Safety’s online driver’s license portal, and a month after the problem surfaced, neither the secretary of state’s office nor the Texas Association of County Election Officials knows of any county still working through it. Association president Kristin Miles said: “If that means long nights and working weekends, county election officials are not going to fail the voters of Texas.” She added that the state “should be looking at ways to prevent those things from happening again in the future.” Any voter who registered through the DPS portal before the Oct. 5 deadline but isn’t on the roll can cast a provisional ballot that will be counted, per the secretary of state’s office.

WISCONSIN — Wisconsin clerks are telling voters to return absentee ballots quickly after a judge refused to let voters whose mail ballots arrive late cast provisional ballots. Votebeat: Ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson says voters should "actually deliver it to the clerk directly, use a drop box, find an alternate method" rather than mail it this close to the deadline. Dane County Judge Rhonda Lanford denied the League of Women Voters' request for a temporary injunction on Oct. 6, though the lawsuit is still pending. Voters have returned more than 142,000 ballots so far, and a Wisconsin Elections Commission survey found two-thirds of clerks saw absentee mail delivery problems in April.