Try and Stop Us Digest — September 16, 2026

Must Read

Election Officials Nationwide Are Preparing For A Chaos

More than 50 state and local election officials from both parties said they're actively preparing for federal interference in November — ballot seizures, ICE at the polls, demands for voting equipment. Reuters: Durham County, NC now keeps Narcan in its mailroom for suspicious packages, and its elections director bought his first gun. Detroit's city clerk has round-the-clock police protection after 2020 death threats: "I long for the days when elections were just boring." CISA cut nearly 1,000 staff — about 30% of the agency — gutting the main federal partner officials relied on to fight foreign interference. Not everyone thinks the worst will happen: "The administration's election rhetoric could prove to be mere bluster," said CEIR's David Becker. But with control of Congress potentially hinging on a handful of races, officials say they can't afford to bet on it.

Trump Melted Down Over Losing At The Supreme Court — Officials Say The Real Damage Is Already Done

Trump called his own court appointees "a shell of their original selves" and said the mail ballot ruling would make it "a much easier thing" for Democrats to cheat. Election officials say the bigger problem isn't Trump's tantru, it's the confusion his monthslong campaign already created. New York Times / Democracy Docket / Democracy Docket: Trump praised dissenters Alito and Thomas as "legends both." Nevada's Francisco Aguilar called himself "the most joyous person in America right now" — then added: "This administration will keep testing every avenue to manipulate our elections and sow doubt in results he doesn't like... F*** off! I'm going to show up to vote." Norm Eisen put it more bluntly: Trump is "the president who cried wolf." Former EAC commissioner Ben Hovland predicted the White House will now "redouble" its more direct efforts to interfere, since this legal path just closed.

The "Noncitizen Voter" Panic Keeps Producing More False Positives Than Fraud

Texas charged 7 people this week out of more than 18 million registered voters. In the same announcement, the state confirmed 578 other flagged voters are citizens after all. Votebeat / Washington Sun: Travis County's review found roughly a third of the noncitizens it was told to investigate had already proven their citizenship — "the true error rate could be even higher," the county's Supreme Court brief warns. Texas is fighting to keep using the flawed database anyway, telling the Court it's been "transformational."

A Republican-led hearing on non-citizen voter registrations in New Jersey produced its own inconvenient testimony — from a Republican. Philadelphia Inquirer: Stephen Richer, a former Republican election official in Arizona now at the Cato Institute, called New Jersey's case "the worst I've seen" — and still found noncitizens made up only "a fraction of a percent of voters." Rep. Jamie Raskin didn't let Rep. Van Drew's "cover-up" framing stand: "A clerical error is not structural corruption, much less is it a criminal conspiracy."

Kash Patel Won't Commit To Keeping The FBI Out Of Polling Places

Senators asked him directly, twice. Twice, he dodged. Washington Sun: "Can you commit to this committee that you will not send FBI agents to the polls on Election Day?" asked Sen. Blumenthal. Patel: "The FBI will follow the law. If there's a reason to go there... we will — otherwise we won't." Minutes later, confronted with evidence he'd privately told a Michigan candidate the opposite, Patel snapped: "I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies."

Elon Musk's "Voter Safety" Website Is Actually A Data-Harvesting Operation

Unlike the real federal vote.gov, which collects nothing, Musk's votesafe.org harvests your name, address, phone number, IP location, and browsing behavior — then sells it. Oligarch Watch: The site quietly rewrote its privacy policy in August to allow selling your data and "psychological trends" and "predispositions" to unnamed "business partners." Your information is fed in real time to Facebook, Google, X, and multiple ad-tracking firms. America PAC has already spent over $180,000 promoting the site this month alone.

In The States

CALIFORNIA — A local GOP chairman publicly retracted a fraud accusation after failing to find any evidence for it. SF Gate: Marin County Republican chair John Turnacliff had claimed dozens of dead people voted on a 2025 ballot measure. "I did not find them," he told the county board. "I apologize... for any angst and consternation."

DELAWARE — The state Supreme Court hears arguments today on a GOP senator's bid to end permanent absentee voting status. News From The States: A lower court already rejected Sen. Gerald Hocker's challenge, ruling "permanent" absentee status was "a misnomer" since voters must still report changes in eligibility. Hocker had no opponent when he first filed the suit in 2024; that case was dismissed for lack of standing.

MISSOURI — A second whistleblower lawsuit accuses Secretary of State Denny Hoskins' office of illegally changing the results of a local election. Washington Sun: Fired election integrity director Nicholas La Strada alleges Hoskins' staff discussed using a burner phone and IP scrambler to file a fake complaint, and separately ordered a certified Marshall city council race result changed without any judge's order. "If you've done it once, what's to stop them from doing it on bigger elections in November," one resident asked.

WISCONSIN — The state Supreme Court will hear arguments today on two separate gerrymandering lawsuits targeting the same 6-2 Republican House map. Wisconsin Public Radio: One suit argues traditional partisan gerrymandering; the other, a novel "anti-competitive" gerrymandering theory. "This is a map that Wisconsin voters will vote under in 2026 and 2028 and 2030," said attorney Abha Khanna, "and as long as that map remains in effect, the injury is incurred anew with every election."

What Experts Are Saying

Voting Rights Lab's CEO says the mail ballot ruling doesn't end the fight. "This administration will keep testing every avenue to manipulate our elections and sow doubt in results [Trump] doesn't like. Today is yet another example of President Trump's extreme elections agenda losing in the courts and with the American people. The bottom line is simple: States run our elections — not the president." — Samantha Tarazi, CEO, Voting Rights Lab, Democracy Docket