Ballot Measures, Legislation & Rulemaking
Federal Legislation: A Republican-led effort to approve a House-passed stock trading bill fell short in the Senate on September 30, with Democrats arguing the restrictions don’t go far enough while pushing back against a voter ID provision that they argue would gut mail voting. In a 53 to 47 vote that fell along party lines, the measure failed to reach a 60-vote threshold needed to advance. Democrats saw the bill’s provision requiring voters to show photo identification when voting in federal elections as a poison pill designed to prompt them to vote against the more popular stock-trading restrictions. The unrelated provision was included in the bill as President Trump has put pressure on Congress to approve elections-related legislation ahead of the midterms.
Georgia State Board of Elections: The Georgia State Election Board passed a resolution aiming to address voter privacy concerns. The resolution urges Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to quickly implement a software update to voting machines to patch a security concern that critics say could make it possible to see how people voted. The resolution also asks Raffensperger’s office to provide forensic images of the server pre-update to the election board, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice for investigation. Board member Carolyn Roddy presented the resolution. “It is irresponsible to have all of us voting on machines that we know have known vulnerabilities,” she said. The company that makes the voting machines has offered the software update for free, she said. Board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, the only Democrat on the board, raised concerns about the timeline of the request, and said that the cost lies with personnel required to implement the update, not the update itself.
Hamilton County, Indiana: The Hamilton County board of elections unanimously voted to transition from precinct-based voting to a countywide Vote Center model. Starting next year, voters will be able to vote at any designated vote center in Hamilton County. Under the new plan, the release said that the county will have 57 vote centers. “This gives voters more flexibility while allowing us to build an election system that can better accommodate Hamilton County’s continued growth,” Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Kreag Williams said in the release. “Beginning next year, voters can choose the Vote Center that works best for them rather than being tied to one specific location.” The release said that the change will be implemented in 2027 to give officials “an opportunity to refine the process before the higher-turnout 2028 presidential election.”
New Jersey: Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R-12th District), has proposed a package of election security bills he says will ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots in future elections. Sauickie said that one bill would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls, while another would require the commissioner of registration in each county to perform twice-yearly audits of the voter rolls. A third bill would require recorded or livestreamed video surveillance of mail-in ballot drop boxes and mail-in ballot counters, a fourth bill would make voters fill out a cure form that would serve as an affidavit if their ballot has a signature discrepancy, and a fifth bill would require mail-in ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to count. Sauickie framed the package as a series of common-sense measures that would help combat the kind of improper voting that followed the mistaken registrations. “There’s been discussion about the potential for voter fraud for a decade, and it was always, ‘Oh, it doesn’t exist, there’s no proof.’ Well now there is,” Sauickie told The Jersey Vindicator on Monday. “It became very apparent, very quickly, that we need to tighten things up and ensure that we don’t see a repeat of that going forward.”
Senate Republican Leader Anthony M. Bucco (R-Morris and Passaic) and Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-Bergen, Essex and Passaic) have introduced legislation that would end automatic voter registration at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, establish voter identification requirements and require regular audits of the state’s voter rolls. Bucco and Corrado introduced S-4616 following the revelation that at least 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote and hundreds voted illegally. The legislation would eliminate automatic voter registration at the MVC, implement voter identification requirements in all future elections and require biannual, independent and transparent audits of voter rolls.
Pennsylvania: A bill to open up Pennsylvania’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters has passed the state House. According to Votebeat, the bill still faces tough odds of becoming law, particularly since there are only two months left in the 2025-2026 legislative session. But the bill’s passage in the lower chamber represents a milestone for advocates. House Bill 280 passed 115-88, with most Democrats voting in favor as well as some Republicans. The bill would allow registered voters with no political party affiliation to select which party’s primary election they would like to vote in. However, it would not allow them to vote in a party’s internal elections, such as for committee seats, which had been one of opponents’ chief concerns. The bill would transition the state to a “semi-open” system in which unaffiliated voters could participate in the primary of their choice, but a Democrat could not choose to vote in a Republican primary or vice versa. Unaffiliated voters are the fastest-growing segment of Pennsylvania’s electorate. Since the 2024 election, both the Democratic and Republican parties have lost voters, but the share of voters registered with no party has increased by 7 percentage points; they now make up more than 13% of the state’s electorate.
The House Judiciary Committee reported out House Bill 2758, a measure that would amend the state Election Code to make explicit that law enforcement officers are prohibited from being within 100 feet of a polling place on Election Day. The bill was introduced on Sept. 24 by state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, and co-sponsored by state Reps. Chris Pielli, Liz Hanbidge, Paul Friel and Perry Warren, according to a release from Kenyatta’s office. If the General Assembly passes the bill, Pennsylvania would become the 29th state with similar voter protection laws, the release said.
Legal Updates
U.S. Supreme Court: The Supreme Court on September 25 cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to use a modified centralized database to verify voters’ citizenship. In a seven-page opinion issued just 39 days before the November election, the justices paused a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had blocked the government from doing so on the ground that it violated (among other things) federal privacy laws. The unsigned opinion for the majority indicated that the lower court’s order “inhibits the Federal Government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections.” In a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the decision a “questionable interim ruling[] about two statutory provisions” that the Supreme Court “has never before interpreted.” She also contended that the majority “focuses only on the harms the Government will purportedly suffer absent a stay, disregarding the harms that the” use of the modified database “has caused, and will likely continue to cause, to lawful voters.” In its opinion, the majority agreed that the groups have standing to pursue their claim. One of the groups’ members is registered to vote in Louisiana, which uses the modified SAVE system, the opinion indicated; because Social Security records do not show that she is a naturalized citizen, she would have had to provide additional proof that she is a U.S. citizen, which is the kind of injury that gives her (and, as a result, the groups) a right to sue. However, the majority continued, the challengers are not likely to prevail on the merits of their claims – an important factor that courts consider in deciding whether to award temporary relief. The majority rejected the challengers’ contention that the use of the modified SAVE system violates the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the federal law governing administrative agencies. It explained that in a federal immigration law enacted in 1996, “Congress … separately and expressly authorized DHS to request and receive information relating to citizenship and immigration status from other agencies, including SSA.”
Federal Litigation: Democratic Party leadership and campaign organizations sued the Trump administration September 23 over alleged threats to unlawfully deploy armed federal agents to polling sites during the midterm elections. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Trump administration law enforcement and immigration officials of demonstrating “by word and deed that they have established a policy of permitting their armed officers to appear at active polling sites.” The plaintiffs in the case include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y) as well as the Democratic campaign committees for both chambers of Congress and the Democratic Governors Association. The Trump administration has stated that it does not have formal plans to send federal agents to the polls this November but has not ruled the possibility out. Attorneys for the plaintiffs cited Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s comments during a Sept. 1 press conference, in which the secretary said “the only reason” federal agents would be at a polling place is to respond to a threat or serve a warrant.
Judge Amir H. Ali of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled this week that the government cannot withhold emergency preparedness grants from states that do not change how they conduct elections. The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned state and local governments in June it would withhold up to 20 percent of some terrorism-preparedness grants unless officials demonstrated that they were exploring a transition to paper ballots or verifying voters’ citizenship. The grants, totaling $1 billion each year, help harden urban areas against terrorist attacks, develop antiterrorism plans and conduct terrorism drills. The changes to elections that FEMA sought were in line with President Trump’s false and largely debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. A group of local governments in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio sued FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, its parent agency, over the move last month, arguing the federal government did not have the power to force changes to how they conduct elections. They also said the rules would disenfranchise eligible voters. Ali wrote in a 24-page opinion that federal agencies didn’t have the authority from Congress to add such conditions to the grants, and that the conditions didn’t meet legal thresholds requiring them to relate to the underlying grant purpose.
California: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who seized 650,000 ballots during an investigation was rebuked by the state’s highest court in two September 24 rulings. The California Supreme Court, ruling in favor of Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, found Bianco unlawfully seized ballots from the November special election. Siding with state Attorney General Rob Bonta in a related suit, the high court determined his office has the power to give binding directions to sheriffs. The high court issued a writ in Cervantes’ case, ordering Bianco to return the seized ballots to the Riverside County registrar of voters. For Bonta, the court ruled his instructions to Bianco — ordering him to pause all work and give his office a copy of the case file — fell within the attorney general’s authority. “In short, [the law] unambiguously confers upon the attorney general the authority to issue binding directions to sheriffs regarding a criminal investigation, at least when these directions are consistent with the attorney general’s responsibility ‘to see that the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in the Bonta ruling. The suits stemmed from ballots cast in the November election that redrew the state’s congressional lines to favor Democrats. Bianco’s office seized ballots after a citizen’s group raised concerns.
Florida: During a September 24 press conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier that state agents have arrested 20 people for voter fraud in Florida. Sixteen of them, they said, were non-citizens who claimed U.S. citizenship and four others had felony convictions but registered and voted while still on probation. Each charged offense is a third-degree felony. If convicted as charged, 18 of those arrested could face up to 10 years in a state prison. Two other defendants face slightly longer sentences. “I view these election crimes as some of the most dangerous in our country. Because when you vote illegally, it cancels out the votes of others. It challenges our very American sovereignty,” said Uthmeier. He added that more than 100 people have been arrested for voter fraud in Florida since the Office of Election Crimes was created to review alleged violations in 2022. Brad McVay, the Florida statewide prosecutor, said the investigation took place over the past two months. He said that 12 of the 20 people named were already in custody. According to the Office of Election Crimes and Security’s 2025 annual report, the agency received more than 3,400 complaints last year but just 44 individuals were arrested “and/or” convicted of election-related crimes.
Georgia: U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert has tossed out a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the federal government’s attempt to obtain Georgia’s complete voter rolls. The lawsuit was part of an effort in nearly every state to obtain the sensitive voter information, which included unredacted personal information such as voters’ birthdates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers. In a ruling filed on September 30, Calvert agreed with Raffensperger’s argument that the DOJ’s request violated Georgia law, which states that data collected about voters needs to remain confidential. Calvert pointed to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, stating that, while the DOJ was using Title III of the Civil Rights Act to demand the information, it did not apply to all records, only those that are public, and did not supersede the state regulations. “Based on the text of the CRA, including what was cited above, there is no explicit manifestation of Congress’s intent to preempt states’ voter privacy laws,” the judge wrote.
Minnesota: Ten foreign nationals alleged to have unlawfully voted or registered to vote in Minnesota have been indicted by a federal grand jury, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced September 30. He said the indictments include nine counts of illegal voting by a noncitizen and nine counts of making a false claim of citizenship in order to register to vote. The defendants whose indictments were announced Wednesday include foreign nationals from Brazil, Ghana and Liberia who illegally voted in the 2022 and 2024 general elections and in Minnesota’s primary election in August, Blanche said.The office of Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, Steve Simon, told Spectrum News in a statement: “Only United States citizens are eligible to vote in Minnesota elections. Throughout the process of registering to vote and voting, every voter affirms their eligibility multiple times under penalty of law. Violation of that law is a felony. When that law is violated, offenders must face justice, and our office will cooperate in any investigation. In these particular cases, our office complied with subpoenas for certain records as required by law.
Missouri: For the third time in less than a month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to allow Missouri to use a new congressional map, intended to benefit Republicans, in the November 2026 elections. In a five-page, unsigned order, the justices paused a ruling by a federal appeals court in St. Louis that had directed the state to implement the new map. In the September 25 opinion the court emphasized that the federal district and appeals courts “should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the” map enacted in 2022, which is currently in use in voting already underway, “in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.” Moreover, the court added, those courts “should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the” new map “in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.” There were no public dissents from the Supreme Court’s opinion. In its opinion the court began by observing that, “as a matter of state law, the 2022 map—not the 2025 map—must be used in the 2026 congressional election.” Moreover, the court added, putting the lower courts’ most recent rulings on hold is “[c]onsistent with” the Supreme Court’s Sept. 10 order pausing Clark’s earlier decision. But “[e]ven putting this Court’s prior orders aside,” the court continued, the lower-court rulings should also be paused because “[t]he election is not merely upcoming; it has already started.” “At this late date,” the court wrote, reverting to the 2025 map “would usher in electoral chaos.” The court also stressed that the 8th Circuit was wrong in suggesting that using the 2025 map would be most consistent with the Purcell principle – the idea that courts should not change election rules too close to an election – because the Missouri Supreme Court was responsible for upsetting the status quo. Federal courts, the justices said, should not interfere with elections at the last minute, but states can generally make their own decisions. And here, the court emphasized, the Missouri Supreme Court was not responsible for disturbing the status quo, because it had indicated in May 2026 that “if the referendum petition was legally sufficient,” then the 2025 map would only go into effect after it had been approved by the voters.
Ohio: The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court order that had prevented officials from using a new proof of citizenship requirement for people who register to vote at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Under 2025’s Ohio House Bill 54, BMV clerks offer clients the opportunity to register to vote, but only after completing a driver’s license application which requires documentary proof of citizenship. Two civic organizations, The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans and Red Wine & Blue, challenged those provisions. Red Wine & Blue and the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans argued the BMV conditioning access to voter registration services on proof of citizenship violates the minimum information standard. The groups presented two members who were initially barred from registering, both women, whose documents didn’t reflect their name change after marriage. The district judge attempted to cut a middle path. He ordered state officials to stop requiring BMV visitors to produce proof of citizenship to register. He added that his order applied to those whose license applications are “ultimately unsuccessful” over lack of documents, but not those who affirmatively indicate they are not a citizen. Circuit Judges John Nalbandian and Whitney Hermandorfer, both Trump appointees, downplayed Ohio’s policy and the alleged injury the plaintiffs suffered. The majority didn’t buy the idea that the individuals identified in the case had suffered an injury, and without injury, there’s no standing to sue. “Neither Dutcher nor Fazio ever encountered anything having to do with the Associations’ H.B. 54 voter-registration challenge,” the majority wrote, “Instead, BMV officials rejected their driver’s-license applications based on independent paperwork defects.” The majority contends the challengers aren’t so much finding fault with Ohio’s new law as its administration of drivers licenses, and so enjoining the law wouldn’t address their concerns. The majority also determined the case is moot because the women in the case have since gotten their licenses and registered to vote.
Tennessee: Chancellor John Rambo has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Washington County, Tennessee mayoral candidate. James Reeves, who ran for the county mayor seat as an independent in the August 6 election, filed the lawsuit in August. Reeves claimed in the lawsuit that voting machines in multiple precincts had malfunctioned. Certified election results stated Reeves lost to incumbent Joe Grandy by 357 votes. In the original filing, Reeves did not specify which precincts’ machines malfunctioned. However, in an amended complaint filed later, he did specify that the Grandview, West View, Lamar, Gray West and Gray East precincts were the suspected ones. The lawsuit sought permission for Reeves and his team to access and examine the voting machines and to declare the election void. The defendants in the lawsuit included Grandy, members of the Washington County Election Commission, county administrator of elections Chuck Vest, the county government, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins. The election commission defendants opposed the inspection and argued that Reeves’ request was “an impermissible fishing expedition,” an order of dismissal signed by Rambo.
Texas: Nearly a decade after authorities said Crystal Mason voted illegally in Tarrant County the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to acquit her of criminal wrongdoing. Crystal Mason was charged with illegal voting after she cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. Mason, who was on supervised release for federal tax evasion at the time and thus ineligible to vote, has maintained that she did not know she was ineligible. Her ballot was never counted. Mason was convicted of voter fraud in 2018 and sentenced to five years. She appealed twice to the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, the latter attempt being approved by the court and her conviction overturned in 2023. While it looked for several months like that would be the end of the case, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells announced in 2024 that his office was filing its own appeal, challenging the decision to overturn the conviction to the highest possible court. Now Mason’s attorneys say her decade-long battle to defend her innocence is over. “In all these years, I never lost my faith that justice would be done,” Mason said in the news release. “I am so happy my nightmare is over and I can move on.”
Virginia: Alex Chieu Nguyen, 44, of Annandale pleaded guilty September 25 to charges he impersonated an FBI agent at a voting site in Falls Church during the 2024 election. Federal prosecutors Nguyen arrived at a polling place in a black SUV and was wearing dark sunglasses, a blue zippered sweatshirt with the FBI logo, a fraudulent badge and a holster with an air pistol resembling a Glock handgun. He told election officials and greeters he was assigned to the FBI’s “Election Security,” but he had never been employed by the FBI and was not authorized to have or use a badge identifying him as a federal law enforcement officer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release. Nguyen later entered the building where voting was taking place, and when the site’s chief election official asked to see his credentials, he displayed the fake badge. He then left the school and was arrested later that day. In addition to the impersonation charge, Nguyen pleaded guilty to possessing imitation federal law enforcement credentials. He faces up to three years in prison.
Wisconsin: Anthony Van Egtern, 45, of Fond du Lac, will spend 30 days in jail for committing election fraud during the 2020 general election. Van Egerton pled no contest and was found guilty of one count of illegal voting on September 24. According to the criminal complaint obtained by 620 WTMJ, Van Egtern had been on probation after being convicted of felony possession of THC as a second offense in 2018 and was sentenced to “2 years of probation with a withheld sentence and 75 days of conditional jail time”. Court documents show that during the November 3, 2020 general election, he voted at the Taycheedah Town Hall in Fond du Lac. Poll records show Van Egtern documented as “voter #1252”, and he initially denied voting to investigators in November 2021. Detectives were able to confirm that Van Egtern signed his plea/waiver form at the time of his sentencing which includes acknowledgement of the statement: “I understand that if I am convicted of any felony, I may not vote in any election until my civil rights are restored.” The terms of his probation were set to end on December 11, 2020.
Rolex Augustin, 32, a Haitian national, admitted he cut the seal on a ballot box at Green Bay City Hall because he believed it would get him deported, a criminal complaint states. No ballots were compromised, according to the city. Augustin was charged with one count of attempted election fraud – open a ballot box, for the Sept. 21 incident. According to the criminal complaint, staff noticed the security seal had been broken. “Review of City Hall surveillance video showed a male later identified as Rolex Augustin approach the ballot box, remove the security seal, walk away, return moments later, and tug on the ballot box door before leaving the area. The ballot box remained secured and officers observed no damage to the box, door, or lock,” it states. There was no damage to the ballot box and he did not gain entry to it, according to the complaint.
Michael H. Drucker
