Try and Stop Us Digest — September 15, 2026

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The Supreme Court Just Blocked Trump's Mail-Voting Order For Good

Trump's mail-voting order is dead. Politico: DOJ went to the Supreme Court three separate times trying to force the rule through before the midterms. It lost all three. Kavanaugh joined the Court's liberals, writing that states "do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the election" — only Alito and Thomas dissented. A separate judge had already reached the same conclusion the day before: nothing in federal law lets USPS "impose new election procedures on state election officials."

Election Officials Celebrate The Ruling, But Trump's Assault On Elections Isn't Over

Democratic officials reacted with relief – many states had already printed and mailed ballots and had no real way to comply if the Court had ruled the other way. New York Times: Nevada's Francisco Aguilar called it a loss in Trump's "unconstitutional war to choose his own voters." Colorado's Jena Griswold said the ruling proved his "attempt to sabotage the 2026 elections has failed." Even Weber County, Utah's Republican clerk, Ricky Hatch, said he can now scrap the contingency plan he'd built to abandon mail voting entirely.

Trump’s Assault On Elections Is Not Over. New York Times:New York Times: DOJ is still 0-23 trying to seize state voter rolls. DHS is still hunting for noncitizens nationwide. FEMA is still threatening to pull anti-terrorism funding from states that won't comply with Trump's election demands. "This is far from over," said Benjamin Hovland, who was ousted from the Election Assistance Commission this year.

States are now shifting from legal defense to a coordinated push to rebuild trust in mail voting, after months of confusion from Trump's attacks and the drawn-out legal fight. New York Times: Nevada is rolling out TV, digital, and text ad campaigns. Washington is steering voters toward drop boxes and text notifications instead of relying on the mail. North Carolina says it's "full steam ahead" with roughly 300,000 ballots already sent. Arizona's Adrian Fontes summed up why officials are confident the message will land: "We are a hotbed of election denialism, but even election denialists vote by mail."

DHS Agents May Have Broken State Laws Digging Through Voter Data

A whistleblower report says DHS agents may have broken state laws by using people's personal data to look up their voting records without authorization. New York Times: Investigators were logging into public state voter-lookup sites using personal data like birth dates and partial Social Security numbers — sites several states, including Virginia, explicitly restrict to individual voters checking their own records. Agents were pressured to review at least 40 voters a day, giving them only about 12 minutes each to make that determination. Sen. Alex Padilla warned the effort is "going to produce false positives." Sen. Chuck Schumer said he's "never seen anything quite like this."

A Trump-Aligned Think Tank Has Quietly Embedded People Inside The Census Bureau

At least seven staffers from the America First Policy Institute have been detailed into the Bureau, with access to sensitive data on nearly every person in the country. Wired: One of them, Thomas Lane, was subpoenaed in 2022 over Trump's fake-elector scheme and was caught on video handing out documents to Arizona's fake electors in 2020. A current Census employee called the arrangement "disrespectful to the institution": "There has historically been 'nothing close' to what AFPI is doing at the bureau."

Iowa Charged An Election Worker With A Felony Over A Two-Year-Old Dispute

Iowa charged an election worker with a felony — two years after he flagged ballot mishandling by other officials. Democracy Docket: Joey Norris was a volunteer on Montgomery County's absentee ballot board in 2024 when he noticed officials improperly removing ballots from their security sleeves. Norris comes from a prominent Iowa Democratic family, and his father questions why the case sat untouched for two years before AG Brenna Bird's office recommended prosecution — right around the same time FBI Director Kash Patel visited the state. Bird's office has brought eight election-related cases since 2023; only one has ever produced a conviction, and it wasn't Norris's.

In The States

MISSOURI — Five voters are suing Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for roughly $80 million over his handling of the redistricting referendum fight. Missouri Independent: The lawsuit seeks to represent about 162,000 voters whose referendum signatures were verified, citing a 1945 law that fines officials up to $500 per person for neglecting their legal duties. It also calls the federal lawsuit Hoskins briefly relied on to justify using the GOP map "collusive."

MINNESOTA — The state Supreme Court ruled a Twin Cities suburb can use paper voter rosters instead of electronic poll pads. Minnesota Star Tribune: Anoka County said it's had "no cases of fraud, security breaches, or related issues" since going electronic in 2018. The League of Women Voters warned the switch could mean longer lines and more signature-verification problems — and that Oak Grove's push was "rooted in unsupported claims" from "a fringe group."

What Experts Are Saying

Election law scholar Rick Hasen says the Court's center held — but two justices were ready to accept mass disenfranchisement. "The first is to lament that the government pushed this case to the limits—going not once or twice, but three times to the Supreme Court—and that two Justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, were willing to simply ignore mass disenfranchisement and side with Donald Trump's bogus voter fraud crusade. The second is to note that the court's conservatives and liberals came to the brink, saw that ruling the other way risked serious election subversion, and said 'No.'" — Richard L. Hasen, Slate