Missouri Republicans Try To Trick Voters Out of Abortion Rights 

Hello, and Welcome Back To The Franchise

Dobbs fallout may have dropped out of the headlines, but existential state-level battles that will decide the fate of women nationwide continue to rage. 

This cycle, there’s one anti-abortion amendment and three pro. Two of them could upend the abortion landscape in their states. 

In Missouri, where Republicans just can’t get enough of siphoning off their constituents’ power, the GOP is trying to swindle voters into repealing the abortion rights they passed — and enshrined in the state Constitution — just two years ago. They’re calling the legislature-passed initiative on the ballot this cycle Amendment 3 again — the same as the last vote — but this time a “no” vote means keeping abortion rights, the opposite of the last time.  

The language is crafted to sound pro-abortion rights: The official summary says, in part, that a yes vote would “continue to ensure women’s ability to access medical care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages; allow legislation to regulate abortion providers and facilities to ensure health and safety…” In reality, the narrow exemptions to the ban, including medical emergencies, only apply up to 12 weeks gestation, and the amendment would let the legislature restrict it even more. 

Missouri Republicans have also rolled in a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which the state already has, the better to hide the anti-abortion agenda behind a campaign of anti-trans bigotry that is more palatable to voters. (If you really want to raise your blood pressure, check out how Nebraska tricked its voters into an anti-abortion amendment in 2024, the trailblazer for Missouri and one of the rare instances of voters approving abortion bans after Dobbs). 

In Idaho, a new ballot measure threatens the state’s draconian abortion ban. A “yes” vote on Proposition 1 would protect abortion until around 22-24 weeks (and beyond for medical emergencies) and shield health care providers, who currently can be charged with felonies and have their licences suspended for performing nearly any kind of abortion. The proposition would only change state law, so it’s not as ironclad as other states’ constitutional amendments — legislators could and probably would pass a law to repeal it (boo), though there is a way for voters to veto that legislation — but Republicans are clearly still worried; they got taken to court over their attempt to use misleading language on the ballot. 

In Nevada and Virginia — one a purple state and one the only southern state with the right to abortion — abortion rights advocates are trying to lock in access permanently. Both ballots will feature constitutional amendments; Nevada’s will protect all abortions until 22-24 weeks with medical exceptions beyond that, and Virginia’s would protect an all-encompassing right to reproductive freedom. In Nevada, citizen-initiated constitutional amendments need to pass two elections in a row (boo again), and this one easily did with over 64 percent of the vote in 2024. Virginia does not currently have any explicit protections for abortion, critical for a state that has become a hub of care for women fleeing red state bans.

— Kate Riga

Dems Sue to Block Trump From Interfering in the Midterms

Democratic lawmakers are taking a series of actions to try to ensure that President Trump and his administration officials are not able to interfere in the midterms by seizing election materials or trying to exert control over how California elections officials administer the election and tabulate results. 

Democratic leadership, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), joined other national Democratic organizations and a California voter who is a naturalized citizen, in suing Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. They’re suing in an attempt to block the Trump administration from trying to force states to turn over their voter rolls in the wake of recent DOJ actions in California. They’re also trying to block Trump and administration officials from threatening to prosecute state level election officials and local workers. 

“Such threats intimidate and coerce election officials who aid and urge registered voters to cast ballots, as well as lawful voters—particularly naturalized citizens—who seek to exercise their most fundamental right,” they said in the lawsuit. 

A group of Democratic senators are also demanding that Blanche explicitly promise that the DOJ will not seize ballots or any election material during the midterms. 

In a letter to Blanche last Thursday, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) urged Blanche to “reaffirm” the DOJ’s “longstanding election non-interference policy and rule out any attempt to seize ballots or any other election materials or equipment before voting, counting, and/or certification are complete.”

“This confirmation is necessary because Department leaders have been sending conflicting public signals,” the Dem senators wrote. “Mail and absentee ballots have already been sent out to millions of voters, and early voting has begun in several states. However, the Department has failed to affirm its election non-interference policy against a backdrop of the recent weakening of DOJ policies.”

Democrats’ alarm about the Trump administration potentially seizing election materials are, of course, not unfounded. 

For months now, the Trump administration has been perpetuating the false narrative that noncitizens will be voting in the midterms — setting the stage for the DOJ to potentially seize ballots in key states or counties or interfere in election administration in other ways if results aren’t to Trump’s liking. 

The letter is a direct response to recent attempted federal interference into California’s elections.

On October 15, the same day this letter was sent to Blanche, the DOJ filed a complaint against California, alleging that the DOJ, in conjunction with DHS, found more than 20,000 noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. The lawsuit seeks to stop California from counting the mail in ballots of these supposed 20,000 noncitizens (election officials in Los Angeles have already found errors in the DOJ’s list of noncitizens and DOJ itself has said that it only believe it’s “likely” that everyone on its list is noncitizens). There’s a lot more going on, too. My colleague David Kurtz breaks down all the tentacles of the Trump administration’s attack on midterms election administration in California here in today’s edition of Morning Memo. 

“This lawsuit has no legal basis or evidence behind it and is nothing more than a blatant abuse of power designed to sow distrust in our elections and threaten Americans’ right to vote. The truth is simple: our elections are safe and secure; the widespread voter fraud that Trump has claimed for 10 years does not exist,” Padilla said in a statement, referencing the DOJ’s lawsuit against California. 

California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta called the DOJ’s accusations against California, in an interview with MS NOW, a way for the administration to go after “usually blue states or swing states, that they want to pick a fight with.”

“They’re in the death throes of this election cycle, staring down a blue wave where they’re going to get thrashed, and they are planning for what they do after they get thrashed,” Bonta added. 

— Khaya Himmelman

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Tells Voters, Election Administrators: ‘I Will Hunt You Down’

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz is marking the start of early voting in several high stakes Texas races with a threat to both election officials and voters. 

“If you violate federal election law, I will hunt you down and prosecute you. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3,” he said in a post on X.

In an accompanying video, Reitz outlined his plan to “ensure American citizens’ right to vote is secure,” which, he said, includes appointing election monitors to key polling places to “oversee compliance with federal law” as well as coordination with DHS, the FBI, and the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ to “surge legal resources” where they are most needed, doing the Trump administration’s election-related intimidation for them.

Although he acknowledged that states are indeed responsible for the administration of elections, he went on to say that “no crooked election administrators” will be tolerated and that election administrators have a responsibility to prevent illegal voting. 

Reitz’s social media video reflects the work the Trump administration is doing ahead of the midterms to interfere with election administration. And it references several of the admin’s favorite talking points: that vanishingly rare noncitizen voting is actually rampant and must be stopped and that the administration is prepared to send law enforcement to the polls, under the guise of “election integrity.” Of course, both the myth of noncitizen voting and the threat of law enforcement being present at polling places are ways to drum up fear about the safety of our election system and to intimidate voters.   

— Khaya Himmelman

In Other Election News:

The Washington Post: U.S. officials privately advise states fearing Trump election meddling

Votebeat: Suspicious letters sent to election officials nationwide weeks before the midterms

ProPublica: Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine — and Hack It