Trump Admin Lobs Half-Hearted Hail Mary in Effort to Coerce States to Overhaul Elections

Hello, and Welcome Back to The Franchise

The Trump Justice Department has, after a month’s delay, revived its attempt to bully states into changing how they administer elections under threat of withheld FEMA funds. It’s just one of many efforts by Trump’s DOJ to try to exert federal control over election administration. 

Earlier this week, the DOJ appealed a September ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking for a stay of the ruling in the meantime. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali — a Biden appointee who wrote last month that the DOJ was unlawfully contorting a FEMA statute about grants for counterterrorism measures into a punishment for states that don’t acquiesce to its election demands — incredulously denied the administration’s late-breaking attempt to block that decision.

“To the extent the defendants claim harm based in any part on the November 2026 federal midterm elections, their delay in seeking a stay would seem to manufacture urgency and an opportunity to raise these issues to an appellate court in a more abbreviated, emergency posture,” he wrote. 

While a fairly limp effort, the FEMA scheme is in line with the administration’s broader tactics to undermine elections in the pre-midterm period. For years now, Trump’s efforts to rig elections in his favor have run headlong into the stubborn constitutional reality that states, not the federal government, administer federal elections. This term, the administration has tried to circumvent that divide by using federally administered sticks to smack states into doing what they want, often including criminal prosecution, or threats to prosecute election workers. That strategy has been wildly unsuccessful in court — including, so far, in this case, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson v. DHS. 

“Although the defendants’ motion simply takes for granted that the public interest is best advanced by maximizing federal government authority pending appeal, under this country’s federalist system, states and localities represent the public interest too,” Ali wrote. “There is no doubt that election administration is a matter of great public importance. But it is also well established that, in our federalist system, states and localities play a critical role in regulating and administering elections.”

— Kate Riga

The Trump Admin’s Noncitizen Election Interference Swells 

The list of election interference stunts ahead of the midterms is vast, but it’s taken its most serious form in the Justice Department’s recent effort to try to tell states who can vote, and what ballots can be counted, less than a week out from the election. 

On Monday, the DOJ, mirroring similar efforts in California, asked Washington state to set aside 400 ballots of people who the Justice Department claims, without proof, appear to be noncitizens. It’s only the latest example of the administration sowing chaos, and therefore doubt about the security of certain states’ election systems and perpetuating the false narrative that noncitizens are voting en masse in federal elections. For the one millionth time, they are not and, as the recent effort by the DOJ has illustrated, cases of noncitizens knowingly registering to vote or trying to vote in federal elections are vanishingly rare. 

In a press release earlier this week, Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd, said that an investigation “identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections.” Floyd is a former immigration judge who was hand-picked by President Trump for the post and whose position has not been confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department has created a problematic “workaround” for keeping him in the position. He’s one of several U.S. attorneys appointed by the Trump administration who may be unlawfully serving. More on that here.  

“This is only the tip of the iceberg. We will continue to investigate and identify those who are committing crimes by voting illegally,” he added. 

As with every other time the DOJ has approached states with lists, supposedly containing dramatic numbers of noncitizens registered to vote, state election officials are already poking holes in the Justice Department’s claims that it’s identified hundreds of noncitizens on Washington’s voter rolls. 

“This list includes United States citizens and is not reliable,” Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a letter to the DOJ Wednesday evening. “Without individualized proof of ineligibility, it would be both irresponsible and illegal for election officials to decline to process a registered voter’s ballot. If you have individualized proof, I invite you to provide it so election officials can take appropriate steps that are consistent with federal and state law.” 

Hobbs described the DOJ’s demand as “intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results. At the same time, thousands of voters were recently disenfranchised in our August Primary due to delayed postmarks.” 

“Washington elections are secure. Cases of voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, are incredibly rare, and every voter attests to their eligibility by signing the declaration on their ballot return envelope in every election,” Hobbs added. “Election officials take cases of suspected voter fraud seriously. These cases are investigated and referred to the county sheriff and prosecutor when appropriate.”

The DOJ’s actions in Washington are similar to its recent campaign in California, where earlier this month the DOJ filed a lawsuit to compel California election officials to disqualify more than 20,0000 voters who they allege are “likely non-citizens.” 

On Wednesday a district court ruled against the DOJ. 

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter wrote in his ruling.

You can read more on this case from my colleague David Kurtz, here. 

Trump Offers a $1 Million Reward for ‘Fraud’ Tips

In a Truth Social post this week, Trump announced that he is now offering bribes for any tips that might justify his election fraud delusions and conspiracy theories. In the post, he said he would be offering a $1 million reward to anyone who reports a voter fraud tip, about this upcoming election or past elections, that lead to convictions.

“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump’s Truth Social post said. 

Of course, this post is yet another way Trump is planting seeds about possible fraud in this election, creating distrust in the safety and integrity of states’ election systems — all to justify his interest in exerting even more federal control over elections. 

It’s not clear where the money for this supposed reward is coming from — the White House didn’t exactly release a thorough rundown of the details of this endeavor alongside Trump’s Truth Social post. 

But it comes against the  backdrop of the administration’s countless election interference schemes leading up to the midterms including: its campaign to collect sensitive voter roll data from states across the country, a recent request to a federal judge to intervene to block election certification in Alaska if a Republican loses, and, as mentioned earlier, its attempts to — without evidence! — further perpetuate the myth of noncitizen voting in places like Washington and California. My colleagues have been reporting on all these developments and more here. 

In Other Election News:

TPM: TPM’s Comprehensive Guide To How Senate Swing States Certify Their Elections—And How Bad Actors Might Screw With It

Cal Matters: What local election officials found in Trump’s new claims about California voters

The Washington Post: How Trump and his allies are sowing doubt ahead of the midterms