Try and Stop Us Digest — October 27, 2026

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Trump's DOJ Loses In California And Moves On To Washington State

Trump's DOJ loses in its bid to stop California from counting 20,000 ballots, and a Trump-appointed judge says the emergency was of its own making. Reuters / Democracy Docket: A 2-1 9th Circuit panel ruled Monday that DOJ can't skip the district court to stop California from counting ballots from about 20,000 people it alleges are likely noncitizens. The appeals court said it couldn't hear the appeal because Judge David Carter hasn't ruled yet, and sent the case back to his courtroom for a hearing Tuesday. Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, wrote that DOJ's emergency was, at least in part, "a self-constructed one," and that he would have denied the request on the merits too. Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, wrote that the injunction "would cause widespread confusion among voters and election officials" and "usher in electoral chaos.” This was the first time the administration tried to stop a state from counting votes, and DOJ still hasn’t said how many of the 20,000 people on their list had even returned a ballot. Los Angeles County found that about 1 in 4 people in a sample of DOJ's list said they were born in the U.S.

Fresh off its California loss, DOJ demands that Washington state set aside ballots from 400 voters, using the same kind of list that has already collapsed elsewhere. Associated Press: The Justice Department sent Washington's Secretary of State a letter Monday asking the state to set aside any ballots from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without citizenship until officials confirm they are eligible. DOJ says those people cast 1,500 votes in prior elections, and it concedes some may have since become naturalized citizens. It also says it expects to send another list before Election Day. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs says his office has received about 60 DOJ subpoenas since last month, and he said, "We see what's happening in California and don't want Washingtonians to be harassed." Past lists have fallen apart: In Nevada, the administration alleged 1,500 potential noncitizen voters, and an investigation found zero, and in Maricopa County, the recorder's list of 207 possible noncitizens turned out to include eight.

Alaska Democrats Move To Kill Trump's Senate Lawsuit

Mary Peltola's team asked a judge to kill Trump's Alaska lawsuit before Election Day, warning it's groundwork to challenge a Peltola win. CNBC: Mary Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asked a federal judge late Sunday to dismiss DOJ's Alaska lawsuit this week, before Election Day. They told the court they are "seriously concerned" Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche will use the pending suit to "lay the groundwork for unlawful efforts to challenge a potential Peltola victory." The filing calls the suit an effort to get "an unprecedented order precluding certification of the U.S. Senate election if the candidate the President favors loses narrowly." It warns the case shouldn't "hang like the Sword of Damocles over the ongoing election," lending "false legitimacy" to Trump's and Blanche's "ongoing efforts to spread false narratives about Alaska's elections." Common Cause and the League of Women Voters joined the motion Monday.. DOJ still hasn't said how any investigation could determine whether a voter was confused, even though the ballot labels Sen. Sullivan as the Republican incumbent.

Trump Puts A Million-Dollar Bounty On "Voter Fraud"

Trump offers $1 million to anyone whose voter fraud tip ends in a conviction, and he hasn't said who's paying. NBC News / Democracy Docket: Trump announced Monday on Truth Social that anyone who reports voter fraud in past elections or the 2026 midterms "will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!" He didn't say where the money would come from, and a White House spokesperson offered no details. It follows a supposed $25 million government fraud whistleblower program, where Trump told reporters he'd decide who was worthy of the prize. It also follows his promise of $5,000 payments to Americans if Republicans keep Congress, which he hasn't explained how to fund either.

Trump And MAGA Are Laying The Groundwork To Dispute The Midterms

After Brazil's election, Trump says it "looked like another rigged election," and MAGA influencers warn it's coming here Nov. 3. Axios: Trump and MAGA influencers are echoing Flávio Bolsonaro's claims of a rigged election after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat him in Sunday's runoff. Trump told reporters Monday, "It looked like another rigged election, frankly," and added, "Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me." Steve Bannon urged the administration to sever ties with Brazil, saying, "if we don't take action ... it's happening next Tuesday here in this country," and Jack Posobiec asked, "Do you really think they wouldn't in the United States?" MAGA activists have pushed Trump to take extraordinary measures, like martial law, if they think the U.S. election is rigged.

A new Center for American Progress analysis says Trump’s decade of fraud lies is the setup for a power grab, and DOJ’s lawsuits aren’t meant to win. Center for American Progress: Authors Ben Hovland and Emma Hulbert warn that Trump and his allies could use their false election claims as a pretext to contest the midterm results, and that in DOJ’s lawsuits “the point is likely not to win, but rather to create room for doubt and fuel conspiracy theories.” That was the 2020 playbook: Trump’s campaign and allies filed dozens of baseless lawsuits, and 61 of the 62 were dismissed. DOJ has already lost every one of the 26 resolved cases it brought to get state voter data. In his July primetime speech, Trump cited a declassified memo as proof of “shocking vulnerabilities” in voting systems, but the memo itself concluded that election equipment “would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to alter the election outcome.” The authors also point to Trump’s demand that Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger “find” 11,780 votes in 2020 and his calls to local certification officials, and warn it could happen again if he fears a Congress less friendly to him.

Four Senate Races Could Leave Control Of The Chamber In Limbo

Control of the Senate could stay up in the air well into November, and Trump's DOJ is already trying to exploit the wait in Alaska. Axios: We may not know who will control the Senate well into November, thanks to a slew of tight races and state-specific voting rules. Alaska's results have taken weeks to finalize because of the state's transportation challenges, mail ballots and ranked-choice tabulation, and DOJ is preemptively trying to block results from being finalized if Sen. Dan Sullivan narrowly loses. Maine's ranked-choice voting could lengthen the count if neither Susan Collins nor Troy Jackson gets more than 50% in the first round. Kansas' three-day grace period for mail ballots could delay results in the race between Adam Hamilton and Sen. Roger Marshall. And in Texas, a drawn-out recount is possible between Ken Paxton and state James Talarico, since a candidate can request a recount if the margin is less than 10% of the winner's vote total.

Democrats And Watchdogs Are Mobilizing For Election Day

Tens of thousands of volunteers will be watching the polls for federal interference, because Trump keeps threatening to interfere. Associated Press: Democrats and outside watchdogs are planning a massive presence at the polls on Election Day, driven by concerns that Trump will use the federal government to interfere with the midterms. State Democratic parties have trained an estimated 10,000 volunteers to report anything concerning from federal agents, Common Cause has trained roughly 16,000 more, and a coalition of 300 other groups has trained tens of thousands more. Democratic mayors, attorneys general and secretaries of state have run tabletop exercises on worst-case scenarios, including a surge of ICE officials at voting locations and the seizure of ballots and voting equipment. "We've never had to deal with the president of the United States saying that he may seize ballots, put ICE agents outside polling locations and other kinds of very clear direct threats to the voting process," says DNC vice chair Jane Kleeb. Save America's Mary Corcoran says, "The fear is the point, and we must do something about it."

DOJ is sending about 1,000 monitors to every state, and a Republican governor already called its monitors "aggressive." Associated Press: The Justice Department is planning its largest-ever election monitoring effort, with about 1,000 staff headed to every state, focused on high-population areas, jurisdictions with past problems and close districts. During Wyoming's primary, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said the behavior of two DOJ monitors was "a bit aggressive" and "irregular." A Laramie County clerk said the monitors arrived intending to interview voters, and her office didn't allow it. Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates warn the monitors could intimidate voters or abandon the department's decades-old duty to protect against civil rights violations.

In The States

MICHIGAN — DOJ is sending monitors to seven Michigan cities while election deniers lay the groundwork to challenge the results. Michigan Advance / Democracy Docket: The Justice Department will send monitors to polling places in Detroit, East Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, Lansing and Warren on Nov. 3, after sending them to three cities for the August primary. Attorney General Dana Nessel says "my office stands ready to hold accountable those who attempt to unlawfully interfere with or intimidate Michigan voters or election workers, regardless of who they may be." Meanwhile, election deniers are flooding Michigan with false claims, often aimed at majority-Black Democratic cities, in what looks like groundwork to challenge certification of results Republicans don't like. DOJ made the rare move of filing a statement of interest in a Republican clerk's lawsuit over a state rule on deleting pollbook records, and the judge refused to block the rule for November but said he will revisit it if the case is still pending after the election.

ARIZONA — Only 8 of the 60 voters Maricopa's recorder flagged as noncitizens actually were, and he restored 25 citizens only after being sued. Arizona Mirror: Recorder Justin Heap used the federal SAVE database to flag 207 voters as likely noncitizens, and 60 of them had cast ballots, so he moved them to a "non eligible" category that bars them from voting unless they provide proof of citizenship. A review by the County Attorney's Office found that only eight of the 60 were noncitizens and no more than three ever voted in the same election, and the Attorney General's Office made similar findings. Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes sued to restore 25 of the citizens, and after court-ordered mediation Friday, Heap reinstated them and Mayes dropped the suit. Mayes says, "It should not have taken litigation to make Justin Heap follow the law." Even Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin, a Republican, slammed Heap for falsely accusing dozens of voters of being illegally registered and reinstating them only after he was sued.