Issue 73
A topic. All topics.
Voting and Elections
A fraud claim its own prosecutions failed to support, and rules about whose ballot counts being rewritten by directive.
What the record shows
The claim that noncitizen voting is a live threat has been tested by the enforcement built to prove it, and failed. ProPublica counted 41 people charged with election related crimes between January 2025 and May 2026, and 14 convicted or pleaded guilty. In September a Homeland Security Investigations official put the whole-of-government hunt at about 160 arrests, against roughly 211 million active registered voters. When DHS gave Nevada a list of nearly 16,000 suspected noncitizens and said it had confirmed 185, Nevada's deputy attorney general replied that all 185 were citizens.
A March executive order would have had the Postal Service deliver mail ballots only to voters on lists assembled with Homeland Security. On 14 September the Supreme Court refused to let the rule take effect for November, in an unsigned order finding the government unlikely to succeed on the merits, over the dissents of Justices Alito and Thomas. Justice Kavanaugh wrote separately that the administration probably did have the authority, leaving the rule open for future elections.
The data operation did not stop. In late September the Court voted 6 to 3 to let the administration use the expanded SAVE database to screen state voter rolls while the case proceeds, without ruling on whether that is lawful. More than 67 million registrations had already been run through it, the Associated Press reports; the order permits individual lookups rather than mass removals, and the federal bar on systematic purges within 90 days of an election applies before 3 November.
In Missouri, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a referendum petition against the Republican-drawn congressional map that carried more than 330,000 verified signatures. The state Supreme Court held the petition valid, ordered the 2022 map used in November, and found Hoskins in contempt, though it said his eventual compliance absolved him. The US Supreme Court turned the new map away 3 times.
Several officials who would certify the 2028 result are on the ballot on 3 November. Election experts have warned that the hours after polls close on 3 November are the vulnerable period, and a former deputy homeland security adviser told the Guardian the administration may claim foreign interference at the close of voting, a forecast rather than a documented plan.
Standing summary, carried forward and rewritten as the coverage moves. Every claim is sourced either to a dated edition below or to the named body that made the finding.
41 editions
Issue 70
The Firing Squad Is Meant to Be Watched. The Voter Database Is Not.
Issue 69
The War Is Now the Economy. The Economy Is Now the Election.
Issue 67
Some Guardrails Held This Week. One of Them Left a Map.
Issue 62
The Bond Market Prices the Deficit. Washington Dismantles the Referee.
Issue 60
The Machinery Keeps Running. The Record of What It Does Is Getting Thinner.
Issue 59
The War Is Now a Domestic Story. The Midterms Will Be Fought on Its Price.
Issue 56
Power Was Visible. Accountability Was Not.
Issue 55
The Records Landed and the Claims Did Not Hold
Issue 51
Power Moves in Days. Accountability Moves in Years.
Issue 50
Four Institutions the Executive Does Not Own. Four Judges Who Said No.
Issue 49
The Loud Fight Ends. The Quiet One Keeps Running.
Issue 47
Six Institutions Said No. Most of Those Noes Will Not Hold.
Issue 46
Saying Stop Is Not the Same as Stopping
Issue 45
The AI Industry Asked the World to Slow Down. Accountability Is What Fell Behind.
Issue 44
The Cost of the Iran War Is Arriving. The Channel for Complaining About It Is Narrowing.
Issue 41
A $5,000 Promise Rests on Election Machinery That Is Visibly Failing
Issue 40
The War Is Being Automated Faster Than It Is Being Accounted For
Special release
Nineteen Months
Issue 39
The War Is Now a Price, and the Election Is Now a Docket
Issue 38
The Rule Is Not the Safeguard. Enforcement Is.
Issue 37
The War Became a Price, and the Price Walked Into an Election
Issue 36
The Administration Is Outrunning Review, and Losing the Argument Anyway
Issue 35
The Machinery of Who Counts Is Being Rebuilt in Public
Issue 34
The War's Real Bill Is Being Paid in Immigration Courts, Mail Ballots, and the Bond Market
Issue 33
The Legal Justification Comes Last
Issue 31
The Price of a War Nobody Is Calling a War
Issue 30
The War's Second Front Is Economic, and the Bill Is Arriving at Home
Issue 28
The Fight Is Over the Machinery, and the Courts Are Only Buying Time
Issue 27
The Documents Caught Up With the Statements
Issue 25
The Machinery Is Not Failing. It Is Being Aimed.
Issue 24
Coercion Is the Policy, and the Bond Market Is the Only Thing Refusing It
Issue 23
You Cannot Sue a Bond Market
Issue 22
A War Washington Cannot End, and the Rules Being Rewritten Before the Vote
Issue 21
The Blockade and the Bond Market Are the Same Story
Issue 19
Money Lost the Biggest Race on the Board, and the Surveillance State Had a Very Good Day
Issue 18
A Government That Has Stopped Showing Its Work
Issue 17
Nobody Repealed the Rules. They Routed Around Them.
Issue 14
Three Enforcement Pushes Collapsed in Court, and the Bill Had Already Been Paid
Issue 13
The Data Center Buildout Got a Ballot in Wisconsin and None in Andhra Pradesh
Issue 11