Free and fair elections
The legitimacy of representative government rests on a simple bargain: those who hold power do so because they won, and only for as long as they continue to win, through processes that are accessible, accurate, peaceful, and respected by losers as well as winners. When elections are administered fairly and their results accepted, defeat is feedback, not catastrophe. When they are not, every other democratic ideal becomes negotiable, because a government that cannot be removed through elections has no reason to honor any other constraint.
The threats this ideal tracks fall into two families. The first is making voting harder for some people than others: voter suppression, intimidation of voters and of the people who administer elections, partisan voter-roll purges, gerrymandering beyond routine line-drawing, and election misinformation about voting itself or the ballot's real choices. The second is manipulating or rejecting legitimate outcomes: election denial, alternate-elector schemes, attempts to overturn results after the vote -- including a certifying official or body refusing, boycotting, or delaying a certification they have no discretion to withhold -- and refusal to concede a legitimate loss. The standard applies symmetrically. A refusal to certify by either party's officials is the same offense, recorded the same way.
Further reading: National Constitution Center Interactive Constitution — Elections Clause, Fifteenth Amendment.
2026 Events (73)
North Carolina elections board voted along party lines to expand mail-ballot rejection grounds hours before ballots were mailed
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines on September 4, 2026, to approve new guidance expanding the grounds on which county officials may reject mail-in ballots, hours before the state began mailing 2026 general-election ballots. The guidance directs county officials to "spoil" ballots with an improperly sealed inner envelope, more than one ballot in an envelope, or a mismatched signature, and restricts who may deliver a ballot in person on a voter's behalf to immediate relatives or legal guardians.
Tarrant County commissioners voted 3-2 to cut 92 polling locations ahead of 2026 midterms
On September 1, 2026, Tarrant County's Republican commissioners -- County Judge Tim O'Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez -- voted 3-2 along party lines to cut 92 Election Day polling locations in Fort Worth, Texas, reducing the county's sites from 316 in 2022 to 224. Democratic Commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. voted against the plan after civil-rights groups said the cuts would fall hardest on Black and Hispanic precincts in Fort Worth and Arlington.
North Carolina elections board voted along party lines to reject most Sunday early-voting hours across 20 counties
The North Carolina State Board of Elections, whose Republican majority was installed under a 2024 law shifting appointment power from the governor to the state auditor, voted largely along party lines on August 20, 2026, to reject most proposed Sunday early-voting hours among roughly 20 counties whose local boards had deadlocked. Board member Matthew Longworth, a Republican member of the Anson County elections board presenting his county's plan, said "we are requiring people to work on the Lord's day" by having Sunday voting. The board granted a handful of exceptions, including a unanimous vote for Sunday hours in Lee County.
Trump falsely claimed a flawed, unauthored Census Bureau report proved over 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in 2020
On August 18, 2026, President Trump cited an unauthored, seven-page Census Bureau report as proof that over 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in the 2020 election and urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act. Data and election experts, along with a Census Bureau employee, said the report departed from the bureau's normal practice -- it carried no named author, was not produced by career civil servants, and used a matching methodology multiple experts called unreliable. The disputed figure represents about 0.02% of the 128 million voter records analyzed.
DOJ election observers exceeded legal scope, demanded records, sought voter interviews at Laramie County, Wyoming polls, clerk and governor say
During Wyoming's August 18, 2026 primary election, two U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division attorneys deployed to Laramie County questioned poll administrators about matters Clerk Debra Lee said were outside the scope of federal voting rights law, requested poll-worker training materials and equipment-acquisition records, sought to examine vote tabulators, and attempted to interview voters — a request Lee denied. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon subsequently asked Attorney General Ryan Schelhaas to examine whether the observers exceeded the authority Congress granted them.
Reporting revealed Edgerton City Council had sued citizens to block certified ballot petition banning data centers
On August 14, 2026, KCTV5 reported that the City of Edgerton, Kansas had sued residents Carrie Schmidt and Kimberly Twente and the nonprofit Public Trust Collective in Johnson County District Court, seeking to void their certified ballot petition banning high-impact data centers and permanently block it from reaching a public vote. The Johnson County Election Office had verified the petition collected more than double the required signatures, and Kansas law required the city to either adopt the ordinance or put it to a vote; instead, the Edgerton City Council voted on July 23 to authorize the lawsuit. The exact court-filing date was not disclosed in public reporting; the city's public defense of the suit came from City Attorney Todd Luckman in an August 13 statement.
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell refused to concede Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary loss, alleged unproven vote 'anomalies'
On August 11, 2026, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell refused to concede after losing Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial primary to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who won 43.6% of the vote to Lindell's 32.3% — a margin of roughly 11 percentage points. Lindell, a prominent promoter of President Trump's false 2020 election-fraud claims, told reporters after the Associated Press called the race that his team needed time to review the results, alleging unspecified voting "anomalies" without providing evidence.
Trump alleged Wayne County vote fraud without evidence, warned of a 'Rigged Election' after El-Sayed's Michigan primary win
On August 5, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social that Wayne County, Michigan, home to Detroit, is "one of the most corrupt voting areas in the United States," claiming without evidence that "more votes" were cast "than there are voters" and warning of "fake mail-in ballots" before urging Michiganders to "get ready for another Rigged Election." The post came one day after progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary over Rep. Haley Stevens. Wayne County's clerk said the primary had no problems other than the length of the count, and Trump's own Justice Department had deployed election monitors to Detroit for the same primary without reporting any complaints.
Yellowstone County, Montana retroactively moved ballot-initiative deadline a month earlier at data-center developer's urging, killing citizen petition
On August 4, 2026, Yellowstone County, Montana's attorney's office announced that the signature deadline for a citizen ballot initiative regulating data centers had actually passed a month earlier, reversing the August 12 deadline the county's own election department had given organizers in June. The county said it adopted the new July 13 deadline after data-center developer Quantica Infrastructure's attorney flagged a different statute to the county attorney on July 30.
Missouri Secretary of State Hoskins rejected sufficient-signature referendum on GOP congressional map as unconstitutional
On August 4, 2026, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a referendum petition from the PAC People Not Politicians seeking a public vote on the state's new GOP-drawn congressional map, ruling that congressional redistricting is not subject to Missouri's referendum process at all -- a novel legal theory -- despite the petition having gathered signatures exceeding the required threshold. Hoskins said the signature count did not matter because "they are unconstitutional," and simultaneously rejected a second, separate ballot petition on different grounds. People Not Politicians sued within hours, and Missouri courts must resolve the dispute by September 8, 2026, the deadline for finalizing the November ballot.
North Carolina House Republicans passed HB958, cutting early voting from 17 to 10 days and denying recourse to wrongly-purged voters
On August 4, 2026, the North Carolina House passed House Bill 958 in a 62-47 party-line vote, cutting early voting in primaries, runoffs, and special elections from 17 days to 10 and allowing challenges to early and mail ballots for up to three days after an election. The bill also denies voters removed from the rolls as deceased under a flawed federal-database match any way to prove the removal was a mistake. Protesters chanting in the House gallery were removed as the vote proceeded.
Alaska removed 3,048 residents from active voter list based on erroneous DMV data flagging citizens as possible noncitizens
On July 23, 2026, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher disclosed to state lawmakers that the state had removed 3,048 people from the active voter roll, downgrading them to inactive status, based on a cross-check with Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles records that contained "old data." The flagging rate — far above the typical 200 names per cycle — reflected an acknowledged data error and affected citizens who had legally registered to vote.
Guilford County Board of Elections voted 4-1 to exclude NC A&T and UNC Greensboro campus early voting sites for 2026 midterms
On July 21, 2026, the Guilford County Board of Elections voted 4-1 to adopt a 2026 early voting plan that does not include polling sites at North Carolina A&T State University or UNC Greensboro, despite both campuses being used as early voting sites in the 2024 general election. The plan retains 13 of the 15 sites used in the 2022 midterms and adds two new sites—one in rural Stokesdale and one at Union Square in downtown Greensboro—for a total of 17, none on university campuses. Because the vote was not unanimous, the NC State Board of Elections will make the final decision.
North Carolina elections board voted along party lines to make it easier to throw out mail-in ballots
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines on July 20, 2026, to adopt a rule expanding the ability of county election officials to discard mail-in absentee ballots with procedural irregularities, such as an improperly sealed envelope or use of the wrong type of envelope. The rule requires county staff to contact voters but allows ballots to be discarded without appropriate response. The change, which must still be approved by the state's Rules Review Commission, is the board's second partisan voter-suppression rule in four days; on July 16, the board lowered the threshold for rejecting provisional ballots over photo ID.
DHS Secretary Mullin threatened election officials with fines and prison time, citing unsubstantiated claim of 250,000 noncitizen voters
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin held a July 17, 2026 news conference in Washington, D.C., one day after President Trump's prime-time address reviving 2020 election-fraud claims, asserting without evidence that DHS had found 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. Mullin said DHS would make "security enhancements" mandatory for states seeking federal election funding, and warned that noncompliant state and local election officials could face fines, penalties, and prison time.
Trump delivered a prime-time White House address reviving his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen
On the evening of July 16, 2026, President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time address from the White House reviving his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Administration officials said in advance that he was expected to allege foreign election interference by adversaries including China, and The Washington Post reported he planned to argue that the nation's election infrastructure is vulnerable and that China had accessed U.S. voter data. The address followed a string of court losses in the administration's campaign to compel states to surrender voter-roll data.
North Carolina elections board lowered bar for rejecting provisional ballots over photo ID
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines on July 16, 2026, to adopt a rule making it easier to reject provisional ballots cast by voters who lack a photo ID. The new rule lets a simple majority of a county board's members disqualify such a ballot, replacing a prior requirement that all five members agree. Board Democrats warned the change helps legitimize unsubstantiated fraud claims, while the state elections director said it merely aligns the rule with existing law.
Trump's DNI nominee Jay Clayton repeatedly refused to affirm Biden won the 2020 election at Senate hearing
Jay Clayton, President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, repeatedly declined to say that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election during his July 15, 2026 Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, despite direct and repeated questioning from Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). Clayton said he was "not an election denier" and acknowledged Biden "was certified as the president of the United States," but would not affirm the outcome when pressed. The exchange became one of the most contentious moments of his confirmation hearing.
Wisconsin Elections Commission adopted guidance barring voters from voiding returned absentee ballots
On July 9, 2026, the Wisconsin Elections Commission adopted guidance for local clerks stating that voters cannot void a returned absentee ballot and request a new one — even if their chosen candidate has since dropped out of the race or weeks remain before Election Day. The guidance reversed the commission's prior legal position and was issued after ballots for the August 11 primary had already been mailed and multiple gubernatorial candidates had withdrawn. Three Dane County voters and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin separately sued to block the guidance within days of its publication.
The Justice Department threatened state election officials in more than a dozen states with criminal prosecution over noncitizens on voter rolls
In letters sent to more than a dozen states — including Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee — and obtained by news organizations, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division warned that state and local election officials who knowingly keep noncitizens on voter rolls or help them cast ballots could face federal criminal prosecution, regardless of intent. Division chief Harmeet Dhillon wrote that any "intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens" could be treated as a federal crime. The threats accompanied a broader Department push to prioritize roughly 90 open investigations into potential noncitizen voting and relied in part on the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE database, which a federal judge ruled unlawful on June 22, 2026 for inaccurately flagging citizens as ineligible.
U.S. Department of Justice moved to deploy federal election monitors to Democratic strongholds in Michigan, California, and New Jersey
On July 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed it would send federal election monitors to polling places in Detroit, Lansing, and East Lansing -- three Democratic strongholds -- for Michigan's August 4 primary, and to counties in California and New Jersey for the November 4 elections. The deployments, requested by Republican officials and premised on unsupported claims about the 2024 election, followed late-June letters from the DOJ Voting Section citing alleged irregularities. Michigan officials condemned the move as election interference based on baseless allegations.
NBC News reveals White House task force gathered thousands of 2020 election intelligence documents for planned declassification
On July 1, 2026, NBC News reported that a White House task force had been secretly collecting thousands of pages of intelligence and law enforcement documents related to the 2020 presidential election, with plans to declassify some material to support President Trump's claims of election fraud. The task force, staffed by loyalists including former Trump national security aide Derek Harvey and right-wing writer John Solomon, drew from the CIA, the NSA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Justice Department. Courts and federal investigators have repeatedly found no evidence of fraud sufficient to alter the 2020 results.
Acting DNI Pulte named RNC election operative Christina Norton, who lacks intelligence experience, ODNI chief of staff
On June 26, 2026, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte named Christina Norton — the former "election integrity" director of the Republican National Committee — as chief of staff of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Norton, who has no known intelligence or national-security background, had overseen the RNC's 2024 poll-watching operation and, on a 2024 organizing call, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Former intelligence officials and Democratic lawmakers warned that the appointment signaled ODNI would be turned toward pursuing election-fraud claims ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Postmaster General Steiner announced USPS will refuse mail ballot delivery in states withholding voter data under Trump elections order
On June 24, 2026, U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner announced that the Postal Service would refuse to deliver mailed ballots in states that declined to submit voter lists and associated ballot barcodes to the federal government, as demanded by a proposed rule implementing President Trump's Executive Order 14399. The announcement came as all 47 Democratic senators wrote to USPS warning that such voter lists would be "ripe for abuse" and likely to contain inaccuracies that would prevent eligible voters from casting ballots. The coercive policy was announced on the same day a federal court blocked separate provisions of EO 14399 requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.
DHS conditioned over $1 billion in homeland-security grants on states adopting hand-marked ballots and SAVE voter-roll checks
On June 22, 2026, CNN reported that the Trump administration had attached new conditions to Department of Homeland Security grant programs — expected to exceed $1 billion this fiscal year — requiring states to phase out certain electronic voting systems in favor of hand-marked paper ballots and to run their full voter rolls through DHS's SAVE citizenship-verification database. States that refuse would forfeit 20% of their homeland-security funding, which ordinarily supports terrorism prevention, infrastructure protection, and disaster preparedness.
Supreme Court declined to review 8th Circuit ruling barring private enforcement of VRA Section 208 in seven states
On June 22, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a 2025 8th Circuit ruling holding that private parties lack standing to sue to enforce Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, which guarantees voters with disabilities or limited literacy the right to choose their own poll assistant. The brief, unsigned cert denial left in place the only federal appeals court ruling to eliminate private enforcement of Section 208, creating a two-tiered VRA enforcement landscape for voters in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Private enforcement — historically the primary driver of VRA litigation — is now unavailable in those seven states, leaving compliance dependent on Justice Department action.
Trump DOJ inspector general nominee Don Berthiaume declines to call January 6 an 'attack' during Senate confirmation hearing
Don Berthiaume, Trump's nominee for Inspector General of the Department of Justice, refused during his June 17, 2026 Senate confirmation hearing to characterize the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack as an "attack," instead describing the events as "protests and such." The hearing was held before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as part of Berthiaume's confirmation process for the role of the DOJ's primary independent oversight official.
FBI expands Ohio Organizing Collaborative probe to affiliated national elections network
Federal agents have expanded the FBI's criminal investigation of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), a pro-democracy voter registration nonprofit raided on June 11, 2026, to include an affiliated national elections advocacy network. The expansion suggests a broader targeting of voter registration efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms, with evidence suggesting pre-election surveillance more than a year prior.
Brian Kemp convened Georgia redistricting session under Trump pressure to reduce minority representation; legislature blocked it
Following the Supreme Court's June 2026 Louisiana v. Callais ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act's Section 2 protections, President Trump pressured Republican-led states to redraw electoral maps mid-decade to reduce minority representation. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp convened a special legislative session on June 17, 2026 to undertake redistricting; voting rights groups estimated ~26 legislative seats with large minority populations were at risk. House Speaker Jon Burns blocked the session before it could proceed, announcing the legislature would not take up redistricting without more public input and further court development of post-Callais doctrine.
Florida Legislature enacted property-tax ballot measure with misleading title and summary drafted mostly by DeSantis's office
On June 16, 2026, Florida officers signed and filed with the Secretary of State CS/HJR 1F, a joint resolution the Legislature had passed June 2, 2026 (75-26 House, 30-9 Senate), placing a homestead-exemption property-tax amendment titled "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" on the November 2026 ballot. The ballot title and summary language was drafted initially by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office and then altered by legislative leaders. On August 4, 2026, a Leon County circuit judge ruled the title and summary unconstitutionally misleading and ordered a rewrite.
ICE's HSI unit obtains individual voter files from Texas and North Carolina counties to investigate alleged noncitizen voting
Election officials in Webb County, Texas, and Forsyth County, North Carolina, turned over individual voter-file records — including registration history, addresses, dates of birth, driver's-license numbers, and voting histories — to agents of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit as part of the Trump administration's campaign against alleged noncitizen voting, according to emails obtained by Democracy Forward and first reported by Axios on June 13, 2026. The requests reached Webb County in May 2026 and Forsyth County in November 2025, and on June 9 DHS General Counsel James Percival directed ICE to pursue stricter penalties, including deportation, for noncitizens found to have voted.
FBI raids Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a voter-registration group
On June 11, 2026, FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a nonprofit that runs statewide voter-registration programs, and fanned out across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati to question current and former staff, serve subpoenas, and seize electronic devices. A board member estimated that more than 100 agents were involved and said investigators alleged voter fraud while presenting no evidence of wrongdoing. The raids came roughly five months before the 2026 midterm elections and drew condemnation from Ohio Democrats and democracy advocates as an attempt to intimidate voter-registration work.
Indiana election officials canceled voter registrations of 981 Hoosiers, including naturalized citizens, under HEA 1264
A June 2026 analysis filed in federal court found that Indiana election officials had canceled the voter registrations of 981 existing registered voters and rejected 644 prospective registrants — approximately 62% of the 2,602 people processed under House Enrolled Acts 1264 and 1680 since those laws took effect July 1, 2025. The laws require officials to cross-reference voter rolls against a Bureau of Motor Vehicles list of people who have ever held a temporary driver's license or ID, and to strip registration from any flagged voter who cannot provide citizenship documents within 30 days. The system contains a structural flaw: people who later naturalize are never removed from the BMV's temporary-credential flag list, meaning naturalized citizens with decades of U.S. citizenship remain permanently susceptible to wrongful cancellation.
DOJ sends a federal prosecutor to observe the Los Angeles ballot count amid Trump's baseless fraud claims
On June 5, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, led by Trump appointee Bill Essayli, said it had opened "multiple election fraud investigations" into California's elections and dispatched an assistant U.S. attorney to Los Angeles County's vote-counting center. The move followed days of evidence-free claims by President Trump that Democrats were "rigging" the slow primary count for governor, Los Angeles mayor, and Congress, and inserted federal pressure into a routine state-run tabulation that local officials said was proceeding normally.
Trump claims without evidence that California Democrats are 'stealing' state primaries
As California carried out its routine post-election ballot count following the June 2 primary, President Trump posted on Truth Social accusing Democrats, without evidence, of trying to "steal" the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral races by misusing mail-in ballots and deliberately delaying the tally. He asserted the count was "under investigation" by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles — which declined to comment — even though California law routinely allows up to 30 days to count ballots and certify results.
Supreme Court lets Alabama use GOP-drawn map eliminating a majority-Black district
On June 2, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Alabama's emergency request to use its Republican-drawn congressional map for the November 2026 midterms, a map with a majority-Black population in only one of the state's seven districts. The unsigned emergency-docket order, decided 6-3 along ideological lines, overrode a three-judge federal panel that had found the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and displaced the court-drawn districts used in 2024. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sotomayor warning that the decision "disregards both democratic values and the rule of law."
Shasta County voters approved Measure B, eliminating most mail voting and requiring photo ID, in conflict with state law
On June 2, 2026, a majority of Shasta County, California voters approved Measure B, a county charter amendment that eliminates most vote-by-mail, requires photo identification to vote, and replaces machine tabulation with full hand-counting of ballots. Unofficial results showed it passing with about 56%, pending the official canvass and certification — the point at which the amendment legally takes effect as county law. Civil-rights groups including the ACLU of Northern California say the measure violates state law, which reserves voter-ID rules to the state under SB 1174, and that ending most mail voting will disenfranchise county voters; litigation is expected.
North Carolina auditor's elections liaison pressured a Jackson County board chair to block a campus early-voting site
On June 2, 2026, the morning the Jackson County, North Carolina, Board of Elections was to vote on an early-voting site at Western Carolina University, Dallas Woodhouse -- the county-board liaison in Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek's office -- texted board chair Bill Thompson at 9:48 a.m., "Don't let them have a vote." The board met later that morning and voted to keep the campus site, with a Republican member joining Democrats. Public records disclosed weeks later showed the text was part of a broader effort by Boliek's office to shape county early-voting plans to favor Republican turnout, using appointment authority a 2024 law had transferred from the Democratic governor to Boliek.
U.S. Postal Service proposes rule requiring states to submit mail-ballot voter lists, implementing Trump's elections executive order
On May 29, 2026, the U.S. Postal Service issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (published in the Federal Register June 2) that would require state election officials to submit the names and ballot barcodes of voters who request mail-in or absentee ballots to a new federal "Federal Ballot Mail Portal," and would direct USPS to deliver ballots only to voters on the resulting lists. The rulemaking implements President Trump's March 31 executive order (EO 14399) asserting federal control over mail voting — authority the Constitution's Elections Clause reserves to the states and to Congress, not the president. The proposal is not final and faces legal challenge; the act recorded here is the executive directing a federal agency to claim that authority, not the (contingent) disenfranchisement that would follow if it takes effect.
North Carolina auditor's elections liaison pressured Columbus County's board to cut early-voting sites
On May 27, 2026, Dallas Woodhouse -- the elections liaison in North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek's office -- texted Columbus County Board of Elections Chair Jillian McPherson-Edge that five early-voting sites was "overkill" and named three sites (Whiteville, Chadbourn, and Tabor City) to keep instead. On June 8, McPherson-Edge revised her own proposal from one site to three, matching Woodhouse's suggested list almost exactly. The county board later split along party lines and failed to reach the unanimous vote North Carolina law requires, sending the final site count to the State Board of Elections to decide.
Federal panel blocks Alabama's GOP congressional map as intentional racial discrimination
On May 26, 2026, a three-judge federal panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama from using its new Republican-drawn congressional map in the November 2026 midterms, finding the lines "intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution." The map, enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision that the state read as loosening race-conscious districting requirements, would have eliminated one of Alabama's two majority-Black districts and positioned the GOP to gain a U.S. House seat. The same panel previously found in 2023 that Alabama's map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters; Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court.
Florida judge lets DeSantis-drawn mid-decade congressional map stand for 2026 elections
On May 26, 2026, Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes -- a DeSantis appointee -- denied a preliminary injunction sought by Equal Ground, Common Cause Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, LULAC and other plaintiffs challenging Florida's new mid-decade congressional map, leaving the Republican-friendly map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis's office in place for the 2026 elections. The map redraws the state's 28 U.S. House districts to produce roughly 24 Republican-leaning seats, flipping about four seats from Democratic to Republican-leaning and helping the GOP defend its national majority. Plaintiffs argued the map violates Florida's 2010 voter-approved Fair Districts Amendment banning partisan gerrymandering; they filed notices of appeal and have signaled the case will likely reach the Florida Supreme Court, where DeSantis appointed six of the seven justices.
South Carolina Senate blocks Trump-pressured mid-decade gerrymander of Clyburn's district
On May 26, 2026, the South Carolina state Senate blocked a Trump-pressured mid-decade redistricting bill that would have redrawn the state's seven congressional districts to dismantle its only majority-Black and only Democratic-held seat, long represented by Rep. James "Jim" Clyburn, and position Republicans to win all seven seats. Twelve Republicans joined twelve Democrats on a procedural vote to deny the 26 votes needed to end debate, killing the map for the cycle. It is the first state in President Trump's national mid-decade redistricting drive where the legislative push has collapsed.
Texas AG Ken Paxton voted in six elections, including 2026 Senate runoff, from address he no longer occupied
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee, voted in six elections over the past two years — including the March 2026 primary and the May 26, 2026 runoff that secured his nomination — from a Collin County home records indicate he had vacated more than a year earlier. A trust bought Paxton a $2.4 million home in Denton County in February 2026, but he continued voting from the Collin County address rather than updating his registration. Three election-law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune the conduct may violate the same Texas election-fraud statute Paxton's own office has publicly warned voters against.
South Carolina Senate advances congressional map dismantling its only majority-minority district
On May 23, 2026, the South Carolina state Senate advanced a new congressional redistricting map on a 27-17 second-reading vote, after invoking cloture earlier in the day to cap each member's floor debate at one hour and abandoning a planned overnight session to move ahead of schedule. The map redraws the state's seven U.S. House districts to break up the 6th Congressional District -- South Carolina's only majority-minority district and its only Democratic-held seat, long represented by Rep. James Clyburn -- positioning Republicans to win all seven seats. The bill also delays the state's congressional primary from June 9 to August 18; a decisive third-reading vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26.
FBI moved to interview Milwaukee police and Wisconsin election officials in DOJ 2020-election reinvestigation
In May 2026, FBI agents working for a Trump-administration Justice Department probe of Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election moved to interview Milwaukee Police Department officers who had been posted at polling places and the city's central ballot-counting site on Election Night 2020, and sought interviews with current and former Milwaukee election officials and Wisconsin Elections Commission deputy administrator Robert Kehoe. The Wisconsin effort extended a multi-state federal campaign — already underway in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan — to reinvestigate Joe Biden's 2020 wins despite audits, recounts, and court rulings that found no widespread fraud. Election-law experts described the interviews as intended to intimidate election officials, noting that the federal statute of limitations for 2020-election conduct had expired.
Louisiana House committee advances congressional map eliminating a majority-Black district
On May 21, 2026, the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 10-7 along party lines to advance Senate Bill 121, a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, to the full House, adopting an amendment by Rep. Dixon McMakin. The map dismantles the majority-Black 6th District held by Rep. Cleo Fields, reducing Louisiana's majority-Black congressional districts from two to one, and is projected to give Republicans a 5-1 advantage in the state's six-seat U.S. House delegation. The redraw follows the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state's two-majority-Black-district map and weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Trump demanded a DOJ investigation into Maryland's mail-ballot error and blamed Gov. Wes Moore for alleged fraud
On May 18, 2026, President Trump publicly demanded that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Maryland's mail-ballot administration and blamed Democratic Governor Wes Moore, claiming without evidence that Moore had allowed the problem "in order to make sure that Democrats win." The underlying incident was a vendor coding error, disclosed publicly by the Maryland State Board of Elections, that sent roughly 400,000 voters primary ballots for the wrong party; state officials said no illegal ballots were distributed or counted. Moore's office called Trump's fraud accusation "false and irresponsible."
Acting AG Blanche claimed a 'ton of evidence' shows the 2020 election was rigged and confirmed DOJ criminal probes into it
On Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" on May 17, 2026, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche asserted there is "a ton of evidence that the election was rigged," referring to the 2020 presidential race, while providing no evidence publicly. He confirmed that the Justice Department has multiple open criminal investigations tied to 2020-election claims, including in Arizona and in Fulton County, Georgia, and said the department is "focused on finding out whether the right people voted." Blanche did not promise a definitive finding, saying the work could yield charges, a report, or investigative results.
Trump administration ran 67M+ voter registrations through the DHS SAVE database for noncitizen and deceased-voter checks ahead of the midterms
Associated Press reporting on May 17, 2026 (carried by PBS NewsHour, the Philadelphia Inquirer, HuffPost, and ABC News) documented that the Trump administration has run at least 67 million voter registrations — predominantly from Republican-controlled states — through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's expanded SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database since August 2025. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed about 60 million registrations checked in a roughly one-year window, with about 24,000 flagged as potential noncitizens; the DOJ Civil Rights Division separately said about 350,000 records were flagged as possibly deceased. The SAVE program was statutorily designed to prevent improper benefit payments to noncitizens — its use for voter- roll administration is an executive-driven expansion without a corresponding statutory mandate.
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democratic-led mid-decade congressional gerrymander
Virginia's Democratic-led General Assembly advanced a mid-decade redraw of the state's 11 U.S. House districts, first stripping congressional map-drawing power from the voter-established bipartisan redistricting commission through a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly ratified 52% to 48% on April 21, 2026. On May 8, 2026, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck the amendment down, ruling that the legislature had violated the state constitution's multi-step process for placing amendments on the ballot and rendering the referendum null and void. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive the plan on May 15, leaving Virginia's existing court-drawn map in place; the Democratic-drawn map, engineered to flip as many as four Republican-held seats, never took effect.
Tennessee enacts mid-decade congressional map eliminating Memphis majority-Black 9th district
On May 7, 2026, the Tennessee General Assembly passed and Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional district map that splits Memphis — the population core of Tennessee's only majority-Black, Democratic-held U.S. House district — among three Republican-leaning districts. The action followed by eight days the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and removed a key legal constraint on mid-decade racial-vote-dilution maps.
Court filing revealed DOJ officials sought Illinois voter data to purge noncitizens; emails showed staff directed to conceal purpose
On April 30, 2026, attorneys for the Illinois AFL-CIO and other intervening parties filed court documents in the federal NVRA lawsuit in Springfield, Illinois, including internal DOJ emails obtained through a public records lawsuit, showing that the Justice Department's demand for unredacted state voter rolls was aimed at identifying and purging suspected noncitizens. A June 2025 email from Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates explicitly described cross-referencing state voter rolls against the DHS SAVE immigration database for that purpose, while a November 2025 email from Acting Voting Section Chief Eric Neff directed staff to respond to states' questions about data use only with "We will use the data in a manner consistent with Federal law" and say nothing more. DOJ has filed similar NVRA suits in approximately 30 states and Washington, D.C.; six have already been dismissed.
Louisiana governor suspends U.S. House primaries by executive order, voiding ~42,000 cast ballots
On April 30, 2026, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued Executive Order 26-038 suspending only the state's U.S. House primary elections in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down the state's congressional map. The Secretary of State certified the order; the U.S. House races remained printed on the May 16 primary ballot, but votes cast in those races were not counted, after roughly 42,000 absentee ballots had already been returned by early May. Other contests on the May 16 ballot, including the U.S. Senate primary, proceeded as scheduled.
Supreme Court 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted Voting Rights Act minority-district protections, enabling states to eliminate minority seats
On April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana's court-ordered second majority-Black congressional district was itself an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Equal Protection Clause. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the conservative majority, substantially reworked the 40-year-old Thornburg v. Gingles framework, holding that Section 2 claims succeed only when evidence supports a "strong inference" that a state intentionally drew districts to deny minority voters equal opportunity — replacing the prior effects-based standard with a heightened intent requirement. Justice Elena Kagan, in dissent, said the ruling would "eviscerate" the Voting Rights Act and warned the consequences would be "far-reaching and grave."
North Carolina auditor's elections liaison pressured Cabarrus County's board to delay its early-voting vote for a GOP-leaning site
On April 27, 2026, the Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Board of Elections voted 4-1 to table its fall early-voting plan for 30 days, after Dallas Woodhouse -- the elections liaison in Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek's office -- pressed board chair Jay White to delay the vote and, in an April 23 text, urged the state Republican Party's general counsel "in the strongest possible terms" to do the same, so the office could pursue an additional early-voting site in Midland, a more Republican-leaning part of the county. The Cabarrus board ultimately kept its original four sites; none is in Midland.
DOJ concealed from courts and states its plan to vet voter rolls against DHS citizenship data, internal emails revealed
On April 21, 2026, a coalition of voting-rights groups led by Common Cause sued the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; the filing, alongside roughly 1,200 pages of internal DOJ communications obtained through FOIA litigation, revealed the department had spent nearly a year collecting states' unredacted voter rolls to cross-check against the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE citizenship system while withholding that intent from courts and Democratic election officials. In a November 2025 email, DOJ Voting Section leader Eric Neff advised telling states only that the department would "use the data in a manner consistent with Federal law" and to "say nothing more," asserting that "no judge will have authority to limit us beyond a promise of Federal law compliance." The department had also sued 31 election chiefs to compel production of unredacted voter registration data.
DOJ subpoenaed personal data of ~3,000 Fulton County 2020 election workers to reinvestigate Trump's stolen-election claims
On April 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand-jury subpoena on Fulton County, Georgia's director of elections demanding the names, positions, residential and email addresses, and personal phone numbers of nearly 3,000 people who worked the 2020 election, from county staff to volunteer and temporary poll workers. The demand was part of a DOJ effort to reinvestigate former President Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. A federal judge later quashed the subpoena, calling its scope "staggering."
Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop illegally purged voter registrations outside her statutory authority
On April 14, 2026, the Michigan Bureau of Elections notified Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop that she had sent voter-registration cancellation notices and altered voters' statuses in the state's Qualified Voter File without the legal authority to do so. Michigan law reserves that authority to municipal clerks and explicitly bars canceling a registration solely because a voter missed one or two elections — the basis state officials found behind Bishop's changes. Bishop, a Republican first elected in 2024 with ties to the "Stop the Steal" movement, took office in 2025.
New Hampshire Gov. Ayotte signed HB323, barring student IDs from voter registration and the polls
On April 3, 2026, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 323, eliminating high school and college identification cards — including out-of-state student IDs — as acceptable proof of identity to register to vote or cast a ballot, effective June 2, 2026. The law limits qualifying identification to a driver's license from any state, a non-driver state ID card, a U.S. armed-services ID, or a U.S. passport or passport card. Republican sponsors said the change closed a security gap; Democrats and voting-rights advocates said it burdens young voters who lack ready access to the remaining forms of ID.
Florida Gov. DeSantis signed law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote
On April 1, 2026, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation — Florida's version of the federal SAVE Act — requiring voters whose eligibility is challenged via motor-vehicle record cross-checks to provide a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization certificate as proof of citizenship. The law also bars credit cards, student IDs, and retirement-community IDs as voting identification and requires driver's licenses to reflect citizenship status starting July 2027. Civil rights organizations immediately filed a federal lawsuit arguing the law will disenfranchise eligible voters who lack access to required documents, including people born without birth certificates in the segregated South or whose documents were destroyed by hurricanes.
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed the SHIELD Act requiring citizenship checks for new voters and annual ICE voter-roll audits
On April 1, 2026, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed the SHIELD Act, requiring local election officials to run additional citizenship checks on voter-registration applicants who lack or cannot provide a driver's-license number, effective July 1, 2026. The law also requires Mississippi's secretary of state to annually cross-check the voter rolls against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement database to flag potential noncitizens for eligibility review. The Southern Poverty Law Center said the law could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who lack a passport or birth certificate, or whose surnames no longer match their birth certificates due to marriage.
Trump signs second federal-elections executive order asserting presidential control over voter eligibility and mail voting
On March 31, 2026, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14399, "Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections," directing the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to compile federal "citizenship verification" lists and instructing the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to voters on those lists. Constitutional law experts, federal courts, and 24 state attorneys general have stated that the president has no authority under the Elections Clause (Art. I, Sec. 4) to set federal voting procedures — a position that already produced a 2025 injunction against substantial portions of Trump's first elections executive order.
South Dakota state Sen. Tom Pischke charged with forging 16 GOP nomination forms to shift county party control
On or about March 30, 2026, 16 forged nomination forms for Minnehaha County Republican precinct-committee positions were filed with the county auditor, listing residents as candidates without their knowledge or signatures. A sheriff's investigation citing DNA on the envelopes, video of the drop-off, and handwriting analysis identified state Sen. Tom Pischke, who was charged on June 23, 2026 with two felony counts of offering a false or forged instrument for filing. Precinct-committee members help choose county party leadership and serve as delegates who nominate the party's statewide candidates.
DOJ admits in Rhode Island filing that voter-data analysis it denied in court has begun
One day after telling a federal judge at argument in United States v. Amore that no analysis had been conducted on the nonpublic state voter registration data in its possession, DOJ's Civil Rights Division filed a "Clarification of Record" admitting that preliminary internal analysis had in fact begun — specifically, identifying and quantifying "duplicate and deceased" registered voters in each state. The correction came a day after CBS News revealed DOJ was finalizing a deal to share voter-roll data with DHS, and after DOJ attorneys had assured judges in Connecticut and Minnesota that the data was not being analyzed or shared.
South Dakota Gov. Rhoden signed SB 175 requiring proof of citizenship for new voter registrations
On March 26, 2026, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed Senate Bill 175, requiring documentary proof of citizenship — a birth certificate, passport, driver's license, or similar document — from anyone registering to vote in the state for the first time, effective immediately under an emergency clause ahead of the June 2 primary. Voters who don't provide such documentation are still registered but receive a "federal-only" ballot excluding them from state and local races, and the law separately requires a physical South Dakota address, barring mail-forwarding services or P.O. boxes, for state and local registration. By May 2026, roughly 1,500 South Dakota voters had been registered as federal-only under the law.
ProPublica investigation revealed DHS election-security official pushed to ban voting machines, questioned Democratic wins
ProPublica reported on March 14, 2026, that David Harvilicz, the DHS assistant secretary overseeing the security of federal election infrastructure, has publicly called for banning voting machines and repeatedly questioned the validity of Democratic electoral victories. His deputy, Heather Honey, previously led the Election Integrity Network, a group that has challenged U.S. election legitimacy, and Harvilicz's team has been engaged in data-gathering efforts scouring voter rolls for noncitizens that have incorrectly flagged hundreds of citizens.
Mississippi Secretary of State Watson rolled out unverified Experian data, marking 50,000 voters inactive and blocking some from March primaries
In July 2025, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson's office distributed unverified consumer credit address data from Experian to all county election officials statewide, to be used as a new tool to identify voters who may have moved. Experian's TrueTrace product, which infers likely addresses from spending patterns, does not verify residency — a limitation Experian disclosed to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Mississippi Today's investigation found the unverified data was used to mark approximately 50,000 registered voters inactive, some of whom still resided at their registered addresses and were blocked from casting a counted ballot during the March 10, 2026 congressional primaries.
FBI obtains Arizona Senate's 2020 Maricopa election audit records via grand-jury subpoena
In early March 2026 the FBI served the Arizona Senate a federal grand-jury subpoena for digital records from the chamber's discredited 2021 "audit" of Maricopa County's 2020 presidential election; Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, disclosed on March 9 that he had received and complied with it. The 2021 review — run by the Trump-allied firm Cyber Ninjas — had itself confirmed that Joe Biden won the county. State election officials condemned the subpoena as part of a federal campaign to relitigate an election that President Trump lost.
DOJ sues five more states for full voter rolls, bringing nationwide campaign to 29 states
On February 26, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced federal lawsuits against Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey for failing to produce their full statewide voter registration lists, bringing the Department's nationwide total to 29 states and the District of Columbia. DOJ asserted authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to compel production, inspection, and analysis of complete voter rolls — data that can include names, addresses, dates of birth, and partial Social Security or driver's license numbers — to cross-check for "improper registrations." The filings came after federal courts had dismissed several earlier DOJ voter-roll suits.
U.S. House passes SAVE America Act (H.R. 22) requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration
On February 11, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, H.R. 22 of the 119th Congress, on a near-party-line vote. The bill would require every American to produce documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — typically a birth certificate or passport — in order to register to vote or update voter registration information for federal elections. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU, more than 21 million eligible American voters do not currently have ready access to the required documents. The bill is now in the Senate.
Arizona Republican Duwayne Collier filed as a Green Party secretary of state candidate, misrepresenting his affiliation to split the Democratic vote
Duwayne Collier, a registered Republican and paid petition circulator for Uncle Sam Petitions — a firm that works almost exclusively for Republican candidates — filed a statement of interest to run for Arizona secretary of state as a Green Party candidate on February 3, 2026. The Arizona Green Party disavowed him as a GOP-planted "sham" candidate alongside a similar gubernatorial candidacy. Collier went on to pay more than $250,000 of his $296,000 in public Clean Elections funding to Bootstrap Campaigns, the same undisclosed Nevada shell company used by the gubernatorial candidate.
FBI raids Fulton County, Georgia election office to seize 2020 ballots; DNI Gabbard joins
On January 28, 2026, FBI agents executed a federal search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia election office in Union City, seizing the physical 2020 presidential-election ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes, and voter rolls of the county Donald Trump falsely blames for his narrow Georgia loss. The warrant followed a December 2025 Justice Department lawsuit demanding the records; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who has no domestic law-enforcement authority — joined the raid, ran a parallel election-fraud inquiry, and arranged a call for Trump to thank the agents. County officials said the seizure left them unable to vouch for the chain of custody of the 2020 records.
2025 Events (14)
Alaska signed confidential DOJ agreement enabling federal flagging of individual voters for removal
Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon signed a "confidential memorandum of understanding" on December 19, 2025, alongside Alaska turning over a copy of its voter rolls to the Justice Department. The agreement lets DOJ's Civil Rights Division notify Alaska of individual "voter list maintenance issues," requiring the state to act on that notice within 45 days by moving flagged voters toward removal and reporting back to DOJ. State officials dispute that the agreement permits DOJ to directly purge voters or that Alaska requested the arrangement; at least 11 other states have signed materially identical agreements.
Ohio Gov. DeWine signed S.B. 293, eliminating four-day grace period for mailed absentee ballots
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed S.B. 293 on December 19, 2025, eliminating the state's four-day grace period that had allowed absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive and be counted up to four days after the election. DeWine acknowledged signing reluctantly, citing a pending U.S. Supreme Court case from Mississippi he feared might require elimination of all grace periods if left in place. An estimated 7,800 absentee ballots in Ohio's 2024 election had arrived within that window and would have been discarded under the new law.
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins certified prejudicial ballot summary for congressional redistricting referendum
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins certified a ballot summary on or about November 13, 2025 for a referendum on the state's 2025 Trump-backed congressional redistricting map, describing the map it would repeal as "gerrymandered" and protective of "incumbent politicians" while praising the new map's compactness and fit with statewide voting patterns without any comparable description of its own effects. The PAC People Not Politicians sued on November 20, 2025, alleging the summary was written to bias voters toward keeping the new map, and at a January 9, 2026 hearing Hoskins's own attorney conceded the language came close to being "inherently argumentative and likely to create prejudice."
Attorney General Bondi deployed federal election monitors to polling sites in New Jersey and California following GOP requests
On October 24, 2025, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that the Department of Justice would deploy federal election monitors to polling sites in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five California counties (Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside, and Fresno), following requests from Republican state officials. The monitors, described as election observers, were positioned at polling locations to oversee election administration.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed GOP-drawn congressional map targeting Rep. Cleaver's Kansas City seat
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a new congressional map into law on September 28, 2025, following a special legislative session called at President Trump's request. The map divides the Kansas City-area 5th District held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, aiming to shift the state's eight-seat U.S. House delegation from six Republicans and two Democrats to seven Republicans and one Democrat, and prompted at least four lawsuits challenging the new lines.
DOJ sued six states including Pennsylvania to force disclosure of sensitive voter data
On September 25, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued six states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania — demanding they turn over sensitive personal voter data including full names, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The DOJ invoked the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, claiming the states were violating federal law by refusing to produce unredacted voter registration rolls. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, characterized the demand as a "concerning attempt" to consolidate federal control over state election administration, emphasizing that "in the United States of America, it's the states who run elections, not the federal government."
North Carolina auditor's elections liaison guided GOP county boards on removing their nonpartisan elections directors
On September 23, 2025, Dallas Woodhouse -- the elections liaison in Republican North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek's office -- emailed Republican-majority election board members in New Hanover and Anson counties a step-by-step guide, including a template removal petition, for firing their nonpartisan elections directors, bypassing the normal channel through the state elections director's office. New Hanover County director Rae Hunter-Havens abruptly retired on October 7, 2025, two weeks later, citing health reasons; records obtained by WECT nearly a year later showed board members privately describing her departure as a firing. Woodhouse acknowledged in an interview that his advice "could be deemed as putting a thumb on the scale."
Missouri legislature referred amendment imposing district veto only on citizen ballot initiatives; Kehoe scheduled low-turnout August vote
On September 12, 2025, Missouri's Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final passage to Amendment 4, a legislature-referred constitutional amendment requiring citizen-initiated amendments to win majorities in all eight of the state's congressional districts while exempting amendments the legislature itself refers to the ballot. Eight months later, on May 22, 2026, Gov. Mike Kehoe scheduled the resulting referendum for the historically low-turnout August primary rather than the November general election. The measure followed a string of citizen-led ballot initiatives Republicans had opposed, including Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, and abortion rights.
Ohio Gov. DeWine signed transportation-budget rider requiring BMV proof of citizenship to register to vote
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 54, the state's two-year transportation budget, on March 31, 2025, without vetoing a Senate-added provision requiring Bureau of Motor Vehicles applicants to provide documented proof of U.S. citizenship before BMV staff may offer them the opportunity to register to vote. The requirement, which took effect that June, applies only to BMV registrations and adds a paperwork burden on top of the sworn citizenship attestation Ohio already requires of every registrant regardless of channel.
Elon Musk gave two Wisconsin voters $1 million checks two days before the 2025 state Supreme Court election
Two days before Wisconsin's April 1, 2025 state Supreme Court election, Elon Musk personally handed $1 million checks to two voters, Nicholas Jacobs and Ekaterina Diestler, at a Green Bay rally, after his political action committee America PAC designated them "spokesmen" for a petition opposing "activist judges." Musk and groups he funded spent more than $20 million backing conservative candidate Brad Schimel, who lost to Susan Crawford in the country's most expensive judicial election; Wisconsin's Attorney General had sued unsuccessfully to block the payments beforehand.
Trump signed EO 14248 requiring documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form
On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14248, directing the Election Assistance Commission to add documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — including a passport or REAL ID — as a mandatory requirement on the national mail voter registration form. The order also directed DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security to cross-check all state voter rolls against federal immigration databases and instructed the Attorney General to enforce post-Election Day ballot prohibitions. Federal courts subsequently permanently enjoined the citizenship-proof mandate, finding that Trump lacked statutory authority to unilaterally alter the EAC's congressionally established voter registration form.
Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB4, ending the three-day mail-ballot grace period
On March 25, 2025, the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly's veto to enact Senate Bill 4, eliminating the state's three-day grace period for advance mail ballots. The law requires rejection of any mail ballot not received by county election officers by 7 p.m. on Election Day, replacing a rule that had counted ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within three days.
South Dakota Legislature referred Amendment L, raising constitutional-amendment threshold to 60%, a bar past citizen wins wouldn't have cleared
On March 10, 2025, the South Dakota State Senate voted 29-4 to give final passage to House Joint Resolution 5003, referring Constitutional Amendment L to the November 2026 ballot; the measure would raise the threshold to approve any constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60%. All four constitutional amendments South Dakota voters have approved since 2020 -- including a 2022 Medicaid-expansion measure that passed with 56% support over opposition from the Republican-controlled Legislature, which holds 97 of 105 seats -- would have failed under the proposed threshold.
Arizona Republican Risa Lombardo filed as a Green Party candidate for governor, misrepresenting her affiliation to split the Democratic vote
Risa Lombardo, an elected Republican precinct committeewoman in Arizona's Legislative District 2, filed a statement of interest to run for governor as a Green Party candidate on March 5, 2025, days after leaving her GOP post. The Arizona Green Party disavowed her within months as a GOP-planted "sham" candidate meant to siphon left-leaning votes from Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lombardo went on to receive $1.1 million in public Clean Elections funds and paid 78% of it to a Nevada shell company incorporated 13 days before her first payment, with no disclosed subcontractors and no other clients.
2024 Events (2)
Elon Musk's America PAC paid Pennsylvania swing-state voters $47 apiece to sign and refer a political petition ahead of the 2024 election
Ahead of the November 2024 election, Elon Musk's America PAC began offering registered swing-state voters $47 — later raised to $100 — to sign, and to refer others to sign, a petition backing "free speech and the right to bear arms," with Musk promoting the payments as "easy money" on X. The petition targeted voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Two federal class-action lawsuits later filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania allege canvassers and voters were never paid as promised.
St. Johns County officials and operatives mailed counterfeit GOP voter guide to deceive Republican primary voters
On or about August 9, 2024, five people -- St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold, County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, St. Augustine Beach Commissioner and then-Mayor Dylan Rumrell, political consultant Briana Jordan, and Jamie Lynn Johnson -- allegedly produced and mailed tens of thousands of counterfeit voter guides to St. Johns County Republican primary voters ahead of the August 20, 2024 primary. The guide copied the St. Johns County GOP's logo and branding and falsely presented itself as the party's official endorsement slate, but promoted a different set of candidates, including Whitehurst and Rumrell themselves, and omitted the funding-source disclaimer required under Florida law. In July 2026, Florida prosecutors filed conspiracy and unauthorized-voter-guide charges against all five, with an added evidence-tampering felony charge against Jordan.