Try and Stop Us Digest — October 28, 2026

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Alaska Moves To Kill Trump's Senate Lawsuit

Judge Gleason fast-tracked the state of Alaska's bid to toss Trump's Senate lawsuit. New York Times / Democracy Docket: Alaska asked a federal court Monday to dismiss the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to block certification of its Senate race if Sen. Dan Sullivan narrowly loses, saying DOJ's demand for an open-ended investigation into voters' intent "would gravely threaten the integrity of the electoral process." The state's ballot already tells the two Sullivans apart with middle initials and first names, and it argues ranked-choice voting resolves any remaining confusion. Chief Judge Sharon Gleason has expedited the motion and ordered DOJ to respond by Thursday afternoon. She was openly skeptical of the timing, writing that DOJ sued "After Alaskans had already begun casting their ballots for the November 2026 election—and nearly four months after the Alaska Supreme Court directed the Division of Elections to include Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot for the upcoming United States Senate election." Alaska elections director Carol Beecher says the lawsuit and the relief DOJ wants "cast a cloud over Alaska's election that is contrary to the public interest," and she asked for a ruling by Nov. 2.

California Judge Balks At DOJ's Rush To Block 20,000 Ballots

Judge Carter appears set to rule against DOJ’s bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots, and he warns its prosecutors to stop threatening election workers. New York Times: One day after the 9th Circuit rejected DOJ’s emergency bid to skip his courtroom, Judge David Carter heard arguments Tuesday in Los Angeles on DOJ’s request for a temporary restraining order barring California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens. He will issue a formal ruling Wednesday but appears to be rejecting DOJ’s emergency effort, calling the request a “monumental change” that needs expert testimony and a slower timeframe, not rushed filings that would “have the court just wing it with a ruling.” He asked why prosecutors don’t simply charge anyone DOJ suspects is illegally registered. “Let’s get busy,” he said, and when DOJ lawyer Bilal Essayli answered, “We’re very busy,” Carter replied, “Get busier.” He closed the hearing by saying, “This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately.”

Trump And His Allies Pre-Blame Cheating For Any Loss,

Trump says the only way his Minnesota Senate candidate can lose is if Democrats cheat,

and he warns the feds will be watching. Star Tribune / USA Today: In a post late Monday endorsing Republican Michele Tafoya against Democrat Peggy Flanagan for Senate, Trump wrote, "Don't allow them to play with the votes after the race is over. The federal government will be watching closely." He added, "The only way she can lose is if they cheat by playing games with the ballots as they come in," and claimed, "I won Minnesota three times, but they didn't give me the victories." In fact, Minnesotans chose his Democratic opponent in 2016, 2020 and 2024 by wide margins. Sen. Tina Smith responded, "He's blatantly laying the groundwork to steal an election if his chosen candidate doesn't win." On Tuesday, asked whether he will respect the results of the midterms regardless of the outcome, Trump said, "I will if they're honest elections," and he repeated his false claims that the 2020 elections were “rigged” while campaigning in Texas.

Right-wing influencers have put out more than 7,000 statements questioning the election’s integrity, priming Trump’s supporters to reject a Democratic win. Washington Post: Nearly 600 high-profile right-wing accounts, podcasts and other outlets have published thousands of posts questioning the election’s integrity this year, and claims about noncitizen voting and mail ballots are twice as prevalent as in 2024. Trump has made nearly 300 statements of his own questioning election integrity this term, and he’s mentioning voter ID and mail ballots six times as often in 2026 as he did in 2025. Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says, “We’re making the presumption that the president will not accept the results.”

Election Officials And Volunteers Gear Up To Stop Federal Interference,

Election officials are drilling for federal agents at the polls and seized ballots, something they've never had to do before. New York Times: Officials are teaching poll workers what to do if immigration agents show up and drilling them on the federal statute that bars federal agents from voting places. "This is the first time ever that we have had to engage in scenario planning to safeguard against potential federal interference in elections," says Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who adds that "it seems like the federal government is now adversarial to the states." The open questions include whether federal officials will seize ballots, as they did earlier this year in Fulton County, Ga., in a criminal investigation that has produced no charges, whether Trump will send ICE to polling sites, and whether he'll invoke the Insurrection Act, which he has refused to rule out. "We really are shadowboxing here, because we don't know when or if the blow is going to land," says Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections has helped run about 140 training sessions this year, up from 67 in 2024, and Utah's Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson says her state is planning for interference too.

House Democrats are putting nearly 300 trained staffers in the field to document any attempt to dispute the results. The Bulwark: After Jan. 6, congressional Democrats built infrastructure to track and respond to election disputes, and they've now enlisted nearly 300 staffers to take contemporaneous notes and record witness accounts that could be used in court. A senior Democratic staffer on the House Administration Committee says the list "could be somewhere between sixty or seventy districts." Rep. Joe Morelle says, "The Department of Justice has been anything other than a bulwark. They've been an aggressor." Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias expects the administration to flood the zone with challenges as Trump did after 2020, and says, "Those will be defeated." Rep. Mark Takano warns that ICE being "even visible, even if it's outside of the 200-foot perimeter" of a polling place could intimidate Latino and Asian American voters.

Volunteers across the country are training to document ICE near polling places, and ICE vehicles have already turned up at a California ballot drop box. Wired: Groups including Common Cause, the ACLU and Indivisible are training volunteers to document and report any sighting of federal immigration agents near polling sites. In Columbus, Ohio, 614 ICE Watch has dozens of volunteers patrolling near an early voting site in a neighborhood hit hard by ICE, and it expects about 250 on Election Day. Last week, six ICE vehicles showed up at the Yuba City elections building in Sutter County, California, where a ballot drop box sits, and a local group sent a volunteer and posted an alert. Asked in May whether he'd deploy the National Guard or ICE during the midterms, Trump said, "I'd do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections." Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says, "the number one question I get is about federal agents at polling locations."

Democrats asked a federal judge for an immediate order halting Trump's interference in the midterms. Democracy Docket: The DSCC, the DCCC, the Democratic Governors Association and other party leaders asked a federal judge Monday night for a restraining order and temporary injunction against the Trump administration. They say the administration keeps trying "to unconstitutionally impose themselves upon election administration procedures that the Constitution and federal law assign to the States." Since they sued last week, the administration has demanded that California and Washington act on lists of alleged noncitizens after voting began and sued over the Alaska Senate race, and Attorney General Tod Blanche has threatened "a number of states" with similar suits. The Democrats call DOJ's lists "cartoonishly unreliable" and say they rest on "fundamentally flawed lists that pose an unacceptably high risk of disenfranchising U.S. citizens."

In The States

GEORGIA — DOJ is sending election monitors to six Georgia counties, all Democratic strongholds. Georgia Recorder: The Justice Department will send monitors to Bibb, Chatham, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties on Election Day, part of a roughly 1,000-monitor deployment nationwide. This year, federal officials have also seized 2020 election materials from Fulton County, tried to gain unrestricted access to sensitive voter data, and compiled a report on counties that offer election materials in multiple languages.

NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina's new Republican ballot rule now has nearly 6% of mail ballots flagged, and rural counties are seeing rates as high as a third. Democracy Docket: Data from Common Cause North Carolina show 5.85% of all mail ballots counted so far have been flagged with problems, and 3,672 ballots are currently at risk of rejection. A bad seal spoils the ballot, so voters can't fix it with an attestation form and must submit a new ballot or vote in person, and replacement ballots must arrive by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Wake County’s deputy elections director, Spencer Berg, says some voters have had to resubmit their ballots four or five times. In rural Anson County, 33.3% of ballots have been flagged, and the rate is 21.4% in both Hertford and Northampton counties. "The nearly 6% rate really translates into thousands of ballots that could make the difference in many key races here in the state, local and statewide," says Common Cause North Carolina's state director, Sailor Jones.

D.C. — National Guard troops stood next to a D.C. ballot drop box, and as early voting begins, the city is training for federal interference. Washington Sun: Early voting began Monday in D.C., and someone chalked "NATL GUARD STAY AWAY" on the sidewalk outside a Columbia Heights early-voting center. Earlier this month, Guard members were seen standing next to a ballot drop box in Foggy Bottom, and the D.C. Board of Elections formally asked them to stop because it could intimidate voters. The board now trains site coordinators that the Guard and ICE aren't allowed in vote centers or the 50-foot electioneering area unless they're there to vote, and that they should call its general counsel's office or 911 if they appear. Groups including Free D.C., the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Common Cause will have independent observers at polling places, and they trained more than 120 volunteers Monday night. "D.C. has been a test ground for what federal law enforcement and the National Guard can get away with," says Lauren Bonds of the National Police Accountability Project. Alex Dodds of Free D.C. adds, "We've heard Trump threaten our mayoral candidate from the Oval Office."