Try and Stop Us Digest — October 30, 2026

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How Bad Actors Could Screw With Senate Certification In 13 States

If control of the Senate comes down to a few thousand votes, Trump's DOJ has already shown it's ready to step in. Talking Points Memo: The Alaska lawsuit is the preview of how a close Senate race could turn into a drawn-out certification fight, with a candidate refusing to concede and DOJ doing what it was blocked from doing in 2020. TPM walks through how 13 swing states certify results, who can challenge them, and where the weak points are. In Texas, the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, is also the Republican on the ballot against Democrat James Talarico, and he led the (quickly tossed) 2020 suit to challenge battleground states' certifications. In Alaska, the elections director removed 3,000 voters from the rolls, more than 600 of them wrongly, and gave DOJ the state's unredacted voter list. Georgia and Iowa let individuals file challenges against voters in bulk, and some Georgia county election board members have refused to certify results.

DOJ Swears Its 1,000 Election Monitors Are Routine, While FBI Agents Fear Orders To Seize Ballots

DOJ tells a court no FBI or ICE agents will monitor the midterms, but other federal law enforcement will, and the department won't say where its monitors are going. Democracy Docket / Reuters: In filings in the NAACP's litigation over the monitoring plan, DOJ says its record 1,000-monitor operation is no different from past elections and said FBI or ICE agents would not be involved. The same filings acknowledge that employees of the Bureau of Prisons, ATF and DEA will serve as monitors and DOJ refused the NAACP's request to say where monitors will be deployed, even though it has announced locations publicly in the past. Records obtained by Democracy Forward show DOJ sent an FBI agent and several criminal prosecutors to monitor Arizona's July primary in its two most populous counties. In August, Wyoming's Republican governor, Mark Gordon, called for a state investigation into the "irregular" conduct of two Civil Rights Division attorneys monitoring the primary in Laramie County. The NAACP sued to bar prosecutors and other law enforcement from serving as monitors, arguing the plan amounts to voter intimidation.

FBI agents say they fear being ordered to seize voting machines or ballots, after the raid on Fulton County. MS NOW: Seven people with knowledge of internal discussions say some agents are deeply concerned about being sent to take legally questionable steps over dubious fraud claims. "We have all the evidence we need to expect at least one U.S. attorney and one FBI agent to be willing to sign on to such actions, such as Georgia and Arizona," a current FBI official said. The agents point to January's seizure of ballots in Fulton County, based largely on debunked 2020 fraud claims, which has produced no criminal charges, and to two Atlanta-based intelligence analysts who were fired in July for refusing to take part in the investigation. FBI Director Kash Patel, asked in September whether sending agents to polling places would be legal, said, "I don't know that we can't legally do it," even though an 1865 law bars federal agents from polling places in all but the most extreme circumstances. Meanwhile, state officials are gaming out what to do if agents show up at polling places or the top election official is taken into custody, and one state attorney general has asked federal judges for a chance to respond before any warrant for ballots or voting equipment is issued.

Trump's DOJ Appeals Its California Loss As Its "Noncitizen" Numbers Keep Shrinking

DOJ appealed its California loss within hours, even though two judges on the appeals court have already signaled they won't back the effort. Associated Press / Law Dork: DOJ asked the 9th Circuit late Wednesday to rule quickly on whether California can be barred from counting up to 20,000 ballots it claims came from likely noncitizens, citing "irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis." Judge David Carter had just denied the request, writing, "If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.” He found DOJ's list not credible given its vague procedures and the unreliability of its similar claims in other states, and said that if DOJ has substantial evidence of noncitizens voting, "it should bring Section 611 indictments," which Los Angeles County has said it would cooperate with. More than 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, and two of the three judges on the 9th Circuit panel that dismissed DOJ's first appeal wrote that they wouldn't support setting aside ballots this late. Trump responded by saying, "California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt," and claimed without evidence that there are "hundreds of thousands" and then "millions, in my opinion" of "bad ballots."

DOJ leadership has reportedly ordered prosecutors in California to pursue criminal subpoenas of state and local officials, including the secretary of state. Bloomberg Law: Two people familiar with the situation say prosecutors in Los Angeles and at least one other California district are expected to begin carrying out the directive to pursue criminal subpoenas of election officials on Thursday. The pressure for grand jury subpoenas came from the deputy attorney general’s office, and US Attorney Bill Essayli’s Los Angeles office has been eager to investigate the officials. Some offices in the state’s four federal districts have objected to a mandate that seeks to interfere with the Nov. 3 election. DOJ leaders have suggested California officials could be liable for aiding and abetting criminal activity if they don’t comply with the order to review mail ballots DOJ suspects were cast by noncitizens. The targets and the charges aren’t yet known, and recipients can move to quash the subpoenas, which would likely trigger litigation that extends past the election.

A federal judge ordered DOJ to name every state it has sent election demands, as Washington calls the list of alleged noncitizen voters "deeply flawed." USA Today / Democracy Docket: At the first hearing in Democrats' lawsuit accusing Trump of pressuring states to remove voters and threatening election officials with prosecution, Judge James Boasberg ordered DOJ to identify, by noon Friday. Democrats' lawyer Uzoma Nkwonta argued that other states may have received letters and quietly complied. In Washington, where DOJ asked the state to set aside ballots from about 400 alleged noncitizens a week before the election, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs responded that "This list includes United States citizens and is not reliable." He said DOJ offered no individualized proof of ineligibility, handed over a PDF and printed spreadsheet with duplicate entries and no voter ID numbers or street addresses, and wrote that Election Day is "November 2, 2026." Waiting until the eve of the election and announcing the concerns at a press conference, he wrote, "is not a sign of good faith to ensure a free, fair, and accurate election."

The administration's hunt for noncitizen voters has produced about 160 arrests nationwide, not the hundreds of thousands of noncitizens it claims are on the rolls. CNN: DHS says its review of more than 100 million voter records found 300,000 "potential" noncitizens, but as of mid-September it had opened 1,620 investigations and made around 160 arrests, a number that includes immigration arrests as well as criminal ones. DOJ has brought just 23 California cases alleging noncitizen voting in Trump's second term, most against legal permanent residents, and many are charged with false statements during naturalization rather than with voting. Texas flagged 2,724 possible noncitizens last year, sent 117 cases to state prosecutors, and DOJ has brought nine cases there. In Maricopa County, a review of 60 flagged voters ended with the county attorney confirming that 52 were citizens, leaving eight. "When you dig into the numbers, very often, they fall apart," said Wren Orey of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Elections Project.

Civil rights groups sue to stop DHS from investigating naturalized citizens for voter fraud and from demanding that states refuse or not count ballots from people on its noncitizen list. Washington Sun: The groups argue DHS's investigation targets naturalized citizens and exposes them to disenfranchisement, and the complaint cites a whistleblower report about immigration officers using unreliable information to create records saying U.S. citizens voted before they were naturalized. "This administration knows its data is flawed and unreliable, but they're using it anyway to scare eligible voters away from the polls," said Common Cause president and CEO Virginia Kase Solomón. Last week, a federal judge restricted DHS door-knocking operations in nine states after concluding that DHS was using unreliable data to send federal agents to people's homes.

Trump Demands Mary Peltola Be Prosecuted And Barred From Office Over A Tactic Both Parties Use

Trump demands that Mary Peltola be removed from the ballot and prosecuted over a second "Dan Sullivan," without saying what crime was committed. New York Times / ABC News / Washington Sun / Election Law Blog: After the New York Times reported that advisers to Mary Peltola's Senate campaign and DSCC helped recruit a retiree named Dan J. Sullivan to run against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Trump called it "voter fraud at the highest level" and wrote that Peltola "should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC." Alaska's Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, ordered an investigation into whether the campaign should face criminal charges or civil penalties, while Peltola's campaign says it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign" and DSCC says it was "not involved with Dan J. Sullivan." But ballot-stacking is common, generally legal and has been used by both parties in Alaska and other states, and the Alaska Supreme Court has already found that nothing in state law lets it rule on a candidate's motives. Even Attorney General Todd Blanche, asked on Fox whether recruiting a spoiler is illegal, said only that it "should be." Election Law Blog author Rick Hasen wrote that if DOJ tried to prosecute it as a conspiracy against voters, "I think such a claim would fail."

DOJ escalates its Alaska push, issuing new subpoenas to Democratic officials and reversing itself to seek discovery from the Peltola campaign in its lawsuit. ABC News / New York Times / Washington Sun / Democracy Docket: DOJ has begun issuing a new wave of subpoenas to Democratic officials believed to be tied to the effort, as part of a criminal probe into whether the recruitment could violate federal conspiracy statutes, even though the Alaska Supreme Court has already affirmed that Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy is legal. In the separate civil lawsuit, Judge Sharon Gleason allowed the Peltola campaign and DSCC to intervene, setting up a ruling on their motion to dismiss before the election.. DOJ's lawsuit, which asks the court to pause certification "pending an investigation" if Sen. Sullivan loses, did not allege any specific illegal activity, and DOJ now says it will seek expedited discovery from the campaign about the Times' reporting. The campaign's filing did not address the Times story, arguing the case "is about whether DOJ can enjoin Alaska's lawful certification of the U.S. Senate election if the President's preferred candidate loses."

Postal Delays Could Cost Tens of Thousands Of Voters Their Ballots

Postal Service slowdowns could get thousands of mail ballots rejected, with 20,000 at risk in Washington and a Florida county still waiting on 69,068. Democracy Docket: A new University of Washington report found about 20,000 Washington voters could have ballots rejected because of delays through no fault of their own, and the state says rejections have jumped 300 to 500 percent in some counties. USPS now collects mail only once a day in ZIP codes more than 50 miles from a regional center, a change that will eventually cover up to 70 percent of ZIP codes in the Lower 48. In North Carolina's primary, counties with reduced mail service saw more than double the rate of rejections for late arrival. Florida requires ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and Broward County still has 69,068 of the 184,639 mail ballots it issued outstanding. "If the Postal Service holds up thousands of ballots and those ballots come to us the next day for any reason whatsoever, those ballots are not going to get counted," said Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott.

Democrats And Local Officials Prepare For Federal Interference At The Polls

Democrats are putting more than 4,000 blue-clad volunteers and 15,000 lawyers at polling places to watch for federal agents. MS NOW: The Association of State Democratic Committees, a branch of the DNC, trained the volunteers to alert the party's voter protection programs if federal law enforcement shows up while people are voting on Tuesday. According to a memo shared with MS NOW, they will "provide a peaceful, secure presence at polling locations — countering intimidation, including from ICE and other federal agents, and reinforcing public confidence in the vote." A senior Democratic lawmaker told MS NOW that another 15,000 lawyers will be volunteering at poll sites across the country.

Local election officials in red states are drawing up their own plans for federal interference, often without help from their states. Democracy Docket: Broward County, Florida, Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott says "I do feel like I'm pretty much on my own here in Florida," with no state guidance, and he's relied on the county attorney to build his contingency plans. Wake County, North Carolina, worked through scenarios with local law enforcement, including ICE agents in a parking lot and a search-and-seizure at the elections office, and Harris County, Texas, authorized its county attorney to take quick legal action over any election threat. Fulton County, Georgia, elections director Nadine Williams, whose county was the target of the FBI's ballot seizure, told voters: "Your vote is going to count if you get it in that scanner. And we're going to protect those votes no matter what happens."

In The States

COLORADO — Colorado bars DOJ monitors from coming within 100 feet of Adams County polling centers after DOJ refuses the state's ground rules. Denver Post: Secretary of State Jena Griswold told DOJ its observers could only speak with a voting center's presiding election official, watch from an area that official designates, take no photos, video or audio, and be accompanied by observers appointed by her office. DOJ declined to agree, so Griswold's office announced Thursday that its monitors will not be allowed inside a 100-foot radius around the county's voter centers. Part of Adams County sits in the battleground 8th Congressional District, where Democrat Manny Rutinel is challenging Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, and local officials had raised concerns that the monitoring was meant to intimidate Latino voters. "It is illegal for anyone, including the DOJ, to intimidate or interfere with voters outside of voter centers," Griswold said, adding that her office "will take any suggestion of voter intimidation seriously and will act accordingly." Adams County Clerk Josh Zygielbaum says the monitors would have seen "the best-run elections in the nation."

MICHIGAN — A Michigan court orders every clerk to preserve electronic pollbooks after Election Day, in a lawsuit brought by a township clerk and the state GOP. Michigan Advance: The Court of Claims granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday directing clerks statewide to copy the pollbook from their precinct laptops onto encrypted flash drives and store them until the court says otherwise. State rules require that software and files be deleted within seven days of certification, and Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer and the Michigan Republican Party argue that conflicts with a federal law requiring election records be kept for 22 months. The same court denied a statewide order on Oct. 5, but now says it does not expect to resolve the case before the election. The Department of State notes that the court "did not rule on the merits or determine that the Bureau of Elections' guidance conflicts with state or federal law." Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie has said every step is backed up by the paper poll book, which is retained for 22 months: "There is no step in the process that you cannot recreate in 22 months under federal law."

TEXAS — A Texas county GOP asks Trump-appointed judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to block certification of the Nov. 3 results unless every ballot in the state is hand counted. Texas Tribune / Democracy Docket: The Potter County Republican Party filed the suit Tuesday in Amarillo federal court and wants it to cover election officials in all of Texas' counties as a class action. It offers no proof of any vulnerability and concedes it does not allege that past results were altered, pointing instead to hypothetical interference from AI or from voting machine parts made in countries like China. Election security consultant Ryan Macias says Texas machines aren't connected to the internet, so the chance of foreign interference "is darn near zero," and that hand counts carry their own errors because "we're humans and we're fallible." Party chairman Daniel Rogers has previously claimed without evidence that 17 counties had more votes than registered voters in 2020, and said in a June 2025 interview that "No elected official in office today can prove they won the election." Texans cast 11.4 million ballots in 2024, and state law already requires a portion of paper ballots to be hand counted to check the machines.