“A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the AP reports.
“Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, an organizational chart on its website shows.”
“Officials in a large North Texas county decided this week to cut more than 100 Election Day polling sites and reduce the number of early voting locations, amid growing concern about GOP efforts to limit voting access ahead of next year’s midterm elections,” ProPublica reports.
“The 3-2 vote on Tuesday by commissioners in Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, came one day after President Donald Trump vowed to end the use of mail-in ballots.”
More than half of Americans supported allowing no-excuse mail-in voting in a Pew Research Center poll despite President Trump’s promise to end the practice he denounced as “fraudulent.”
A 58% majority, including 83% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans, supported mail-in voting.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) claimed on Fox Business that he’s spoken to “large numbers” of dead people who had mail ballots sent to them.
President Trump — in a series of misleading statements on social media and public comments — said he would work to get rid of mail-in ballots and sign an executive order “to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“The comments are another sign that Trump is trying to alter the rules around voting ahead of the midterms.”
Said Trump: “You’re not going to have many Democrats get elected… It’s bigger than anything having to do with redistricting. Believe me.”
Associated Press: Trump vows to change how elections are run. The US Constitution doesn’t give him that power.
“Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots,” The Guardian reports.
Said Trump: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.”
Wall Street Journal: “Legal experts say that Trump doesn’t have the power to ban mail-in voting. States have traditionally been the administrators of elections held within their boundaries and the highly decentralized system has meant no two states administer them exactly the same way.”
President Trump said that he would lead a movement to eliminate mail-in ballots and would sign an executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
“Mr. Trump has long opposed mail-in voting and said it was a source of fraud during the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, William Barr, the attorney general at that time, said in 2020 that Mr. Trump’s assertions of widespread fraud couldn’t be proven.”
“Mr. Trump has maintained his opposition even after Republicans in the 2024 election made significant gains in mail voting when the party encouraged its supporters to make use of the practice.”
Associated Press: “Over the past three months, the department’s voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state election administrators in at least 15 states… Of those, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission.”
“President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is asking the top election official in the key battleground state of Michigan for access to voter registration records and demanding information about its efforts to kick ineligible voters off the rolls,” CNN reports.
“Officials in multiple states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Wisconsin have reported receiving information requests from the DOJ in recent weeks. The moves have unsettled some election officials who have faced threats and harassment recent years as conspiracy theories about election fraud have ballooned.”
“For the last 30-plus years, New Mexico residents have had the option to register to vote while getting a new driver’s license or updating their vehicle registration,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.
“But the state is now automatically registering eligible residents to vote while they’re interacting with Motor Vehicle Division field offices statewide, under the latest Democratic-backed plan to expand voting access.”
“The Trump administration and its allies have launched a multipronged effort to gather data on voters and inspect voting equipment, sparking concern among local and state election officials about federal interference ahead of the 2026 midterms,” the Washington Post reports.
“The most unusual activity is happening in Colorado — a state that then-candidate Donald Trump lost by 11 points — where a well-connected consultant who says he is working with the White House is asking county clerks whether they will allow the federal government or a third party to physically examine their election equipment. Federal agencies have long offered technical assistance and cybersecurity advice to election officials but have not examined their equipment because election laws tightly limit who has access.”
“Separately, the Justice Department has taken the unusual step of asking at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, and at least two have turned them over.”
New York Times: “Senior Justice Department officials are exploring whether they can bring criminal charges against state or local election officials if the Trump administration determines they have not sufficiently safeguarded their computer systems.”
“The department’s effort, which is still in its early stages, is not based on new evidence, data or legal authority … Instead, it is driven by the unsubstantiated argument made by many in the Trump administration that American elections are easy prey to voter fraud and foreign manipulation.”
Russell Berman: “In a study set to be released later today, the group behind the letter-writing effort, the nonpartisan Vote Forward, found that personal messages sent to more than 5 million occasional voters deemed at risk of staying home last fall had no effect on turnout.”
“What’s unusual is not Vote Forward’s lackluster findings, but that the group is ready to tell the world about them. Every election, a constellation of progressive organizations sells donors and volunteers on the promise that their data-driven turnout programs will deliver victory at the polls. These mobilization efforts have taken on ever-greater importance in an era of tight elections, where the presidency and majorities in Congress can hinge on just a few thousand votes.”
“Progressive groups are only too happy to brag about their wins; they’re much less likely to divulge details about their campaigns that flopped.”
Associated Press: “The Justice Department unit that ensures compliance with voting rights laws will switch its focus to investigating voter fraud and ensuring elections are not marred by ‘suspicion.'”
“In a ruling that could put an end to nearly six months of legal battles over North Carolina’s contested Supreme Court election, a federal judge on Monday ruled against the Republican candidate’s effort to overturn his narrow loss,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
“Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals, cannot ‘change the rules of the game after it had been played.’”
Rick Hasen: “I expect any appeal would be rejected…”
“The idea of retroactively changing the rules for which ballots should count—and applying those retroactive rules just selectively in places where the challenging candidate expects to gain relative votes—sure is unconstitutional in any election system that values the rule of law.“
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
