DOJ Election Moves Put Voters Under Federal Scrutiny

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to stop California from counting ballots from about 20,000 people until their citizenship is confirmed, putting voters and election officials under federal pressure before the midterms. California officials warned that complying could disenfranchise legitimate voters, delay certification and create uncertainty.

In Lubbock, Texas, Tim Jones, a 66-year-old emergency room physician, said voters were “finally upset at gas prices, diesel prices, inflation, lies, the war, all of it.” His words came as Democrat James Talarico and President Donald Trump held competing rallies Tuesday, with Talarico facing Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton in a race drawing hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.

Who Controls the Count

The administration sued California election officials in mid-October, alleging they failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a list of 20,000 people it said were likely noncitizens. Hundreds of thousands of California’s 23 million voters had already cast mail ballots. Available data indicated illegal noncitizen voting was exceedingly rare.

Lawyers for California and Los Angeles County said the federal government hadn’t specified how or when it obtained the voter file, leaving open the possibility that the information was inaccurate or outdated. First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said the government sought to “safeguard” the election and hadn’t asked to void ballots. “We have not asked to void any ballots,” he said, adding that the government wanted to “work with” California officials.

The administration also asked Washington state to set aside ballots from more than 400 people it alleged registered without U.S. citizenship. The Supreme Court blocked an administration effort last month to have the U.S. Postal Service screen mail ballots. In Alaska, the Justice Department was ordered to sue to block certification of the U.S. Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan lost; the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, could legally run.

Trump said he’d accept the midterm results “if they are honest elections.” The CNN report described a pattern of Trump casting doubt on voting systems and election officials before votes are counted. He falsely claimed fraud after losing the 2020 presidential election, despite multiple Republican officials, courts and his own Justice Department finding no such irregularities. He didn’t dispute the 2024 results after winning.

Campaigns, Cash and Costs

More than 4,000 people signed up for Talarico’s rally, according to his campaign. The city has fewer than 300,000 people, and Talarico had a narrow polling lead. Democrats called the race their best chance in a generation to win a statewide seat after three decades of Republican control; Republican strategists called it a real fight amid dissatisfaction with Washington and concerns about Paxton’s personal scandals.

Talarico criticized high gas prices, the economy and rural hospital closures. He accused Elon Musk of trying to buy a personal senator after Musk put more than $150 million into Paxton’s candidacy. “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis. But we can change that in this election, in this state, in this race,” Talarico said.

Trump called Talarico an “anti-gun extremist” and said he and Paxton were the only things standing between Talarico and a Senate seat. Paxton praised Trump from the stage: “Is it not awesome and amazing to be onstage with the greatest president in my lifetime?” Trump had visited Texas three times that month and held two rallies Tuesday.

The economic burden also shaped the political fight over the Iran war. Republican strategists privately acknowledged gasoline price hikes were raising costs across the economy and damaging Republican efforts to retain control of Congress. Trump downplayed the economic effects, saying at a Michigan rally that higher gas prices were “a small price to pay for taking a nuclear weapon away from maniacs.” He’d promised to keep the United States out of foreign wars, while also threatening a possible new round of bombing after the election.

Trump was expected to announce plans to loosen a Biden-era rule aimed at reducing planet-warming methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. An administration official said the move sought to encourage more domestic drilling amid criticism of high fuel prices. Scientists estimate methane accounts for about a third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Protest at the Edges of Power

In Farmington, Maine, demonstrators opposing Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election protested her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Elon Musk’s funding of Republican causes, and high fuel and goods costs. One demonstrator dressed as Marie Antoinette. Collins attended a ribbon-cutting at an emergency-operations center she helped fund through her Senate role; her bid for a sixth term was among the nation’s most competitive races.

Trump pushed a midterm gerrymandering effort in Texas and other states and unsuccessfully demanded that Congress pass a voter registration and identification law critics said could disenfranchise millions. The Justice Department’s California action, meanwhile, could put ballots and certification in dispute. Democrats and state election officials of both parties had months to prepare for possible threats from federal officials and local MAGA operatives, and the CNN report said a close result could leave control of the Senate unresolved for weeks.

Hakeem Jeffries said he assumed Republicans would “try to come up with any diabolical scheme to prevent November 3rd from being a free and fair election.” Lawyer and elections expert Ben Ginsberg said a challenge to a new senator’s seating was rare and “rips apart the fabric of the institution of the Senate when it happens.” The campaigns ask voters to choose who will hold office; the disputes over ballots, money and the rules show how much power remains concentrated in the institutions deciding what counts.