Ballot Measure, Legislation & Rulemaking
Derry, New Hampshire: Following complaints about electioneering during September’s statewide primaries, Derry town councilors recently approved updated rules aimed at ensuring voter safety at polling places. Councilors voted, 5-2, October 20 to set new restrictions and penalties two weeks before the midterm election. Several voters reported a man in the parking lot at Pinkerton Academy passing out information about the primary election and asking people whom they were voting for, officials said. Electioneering is prohibited inside polling places, but there are designated places for candidates and supporters to stand with signs and provide information outside. Anyone who attempts to influence voters outside of those designated areas could face a fine of up to $1,000.
New Jersey: The Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee approved legislation October 22 that would bar federal law enforcement and uniformed military service members from standing within 100 feet of polling places and ballot drop boxes, but a scrubbed vote on the Senate floor could prevent the law from being signed in time for this year’s elections. The committee approved the bill in a 4-2 vote along party lines, with supporters citing fears of voter intimidation. It would expand an existing prohibition on state and local police at polling places to encompass federal law enforcement and adopt provisions mirroring federal law that bars military personnel at polls that supporters worried would go unenforced under the Trump administration. The legislation, introduced just this week, would expand a law signed by former Gov. Phil Murphy in 2022 that barred election officials from requesting police presence at polling places to help maintain peace and good order and limited state and local law enforcement presence at polls to emergencies. Supporters said the bill is needed because federal officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and President Donald Trump, have declined to rule out deploying federal agents to the polls on Election Day. Democrats pulled the legislation after worries from Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office that it might not withstand a constitutional challenge.
State Sen. Latham Tiver (R-Southampton) wants New Jersey to conduct twice-yearly citizenship audits of its voter rolls and strengthen verification requirements for new registrations after learning that a Motor Vehicle Commission software error mistakenly registered thousands of noncitizens to vote. Tiver’s Verify NJ Voters Act (S4838) would require election officials to verify citizenship using MVC records, state and federal agency information, and other government databases. The legislation would give individuals whose citizenship cannot be verified 30 days to provide documentation, preserve existing appeal rights, and establish privacy protections and public reporting requirements.
Hudson County, New Jersey: The Hudson County Board of Commissioners voted 8-1 last week to introduce an ordinance that would raise the salaries of two county employees, including the county election clerk, despite objections from one commissioner at the prior caucus meeting. In the same vein, the Board of Elections Clerk Michael Harper would see his salary increase from $117,964 to $141,118. Hudson County Administrator Abe Antun explained the gist of the ordinance. “For the clerk to the Board of Elections, that was a resolution that was adopted by the Board of Elections. They wanted the clerk to the board to vibe compensated at the same salary as the superintendent,” Antun stated.
New York City: The New York City Council passed two pieces of legislation that aim to make it easier for detainees on Rikers Island to cast their ballots. The bills passed overwhelmingly on October 22 after a long fight from advocates who said the approximately 7,000 New Yorkers being held on Rikers are disenfranchised by an ineffective voting system on the notorious prison island. Ultimately, allowing detainees to vote in person on Rikers would be difficult and would require legislation at the state level, the Board of Elections and Board of Correction testified at a hearing earlier this year. The legislation passed on last week aims to improve the current mail-in ballot process. Sponsored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, the two bills will require the Board of Elections and the Department of Correction to report on voting activities on Rikers and make it easier to cure ballot defects. The public advocate’s bill, Intro 797-A, would require DOC to report annually on voting activities in city jails, including the numbers of completed voter registration forms, absentee ballots distributed to incarcerated individuals, and events held to promote voting. Brooks-Powers’ bill would require the creation of procedures for curing ballots submitted by Rikers detainees. In 2025, around 47 percent of the absentee ballots handed out to detainees in the city’s jails were returned to the city’s BOE for tallying, according to the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition. Statewide, the return rate is a little more than 73 percent for incarcerated voters. Advocates say that expanding voting access for Rikers detainees supports public safety efforts to address mass incarceration and helps reduce recidivism.
Burlington, Vermont: Burlington voters could be asked in March 2027 to approve new privacy protections for the city’s voter list. The charter change was proposed at the October 26 City Council meeting. It was unanimously referred to the charter change committee. If passed, it would keep voters’ citizenship status and other personal information out of public records, including birth dates, ID numbers, phone numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Anyone requesting a copy of the voter list would have to sign a statement saying they won’t use it for commercial purposes or knowingly share it with a foreign government or federal agency to get around state restrictions. The proposal says the change is meant to protect people from retaliation for legally voting in local elections. The proposal would build on Burlington’s 2023 charter change allowing legal residents who aren’t U.S. citizens to vote in city elections. Federal law still bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Vermont law requires at least two public hearings before a charter change goes to voters. The city plans to hold those hearings Jan. 13 and 19. Voters would decide on Town Meeting Day, March 2, and the Legislature would need to approve the change before it could take effect. In order for this to be on the Town meeting Day ballot, the final language of the charter change needs to be voted on in early December by city councilors.
Legal Updates
Alaska: Attorneys representing the state of Alaska have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice that is seeking to halt the certification of the state’s ongoing U.S. Senate election. The lawsuit, ordered by President Donald Trump and filed last week, asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska to prevent the Alaska Division of Elections from declaring a winner in the election unless the winner is the incumbent, Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, an ally of the President. Shortly before noon October 27, Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee who is presiding over the case, issued an order stating that the federal government has until 3 p.m. October 29 to submit written arguments against the dismissal request. The state has until noon October 30 to offer a rebuttal. The state has asked Gleason to rule on the dismissal request no later than Monday, the day before Election Day. “This will ensure that Alaskans heading to the ballot box (as well as those who have already voted) have confidence that their votes will count and the U.S. Senate election result will be timely certified free from unlawful interference by the United States,” state attorneys wrote. Democratic groups and voting-rights advocates are seeking to join the lawsuit to stop the Justice Department’s effort to prevent Alaska from certifying its U.S. Senate election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. The requests come from Alaskans for Mary, the campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola, the Democratic Party’s Senate campaign committee, and a separate group including the League of Women Voters of Alaska, Common Cause and two individual voters.
Arizona: The U.S. Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments for early December in a case that could decide whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship to register to vote and if it can purge voter rolls prior to an election. Earlier this year, the high court agreed to hear the 2022 case in which Mi Familia Vota and Living United for Change in Arizona challenged two laws signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey that would ban new voters who don’t provide proof of citizenship and stop those currently registered from voting by mail and in presidential elections. The laws also require extensive checks of voter rolls for noncitizens and purges of voters. The case could impact similar law in other states. The bills were enacted and passed by the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature, which was acting in response to false claims of widespread noncitizen voting in the 2020 election. President Donald Trump and his allies have long made baseless claims of widespread fraud and noncitizen voting after his loss in 2020. National Republicans and the U.S. Department of Justice petitioned SCOTUS to hear the case after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2025, agreeing with a lower court that the laws violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Civil Rights Act and run contrary to Supreme Court precedent. The lower court blocked portions of the law from going into effect and the Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
California: U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the Trump administration’s bid to sequester as many as 20,000 possible votes by residents the government says are likely noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. denied the Justice Department’s request to issue a temporary restraining order that would have required state election officials not to process mail-in ballots by individuals on the government’s list until they have verified that these voters are actually U.S. citizens. “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,” Carter said. “In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this Court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign. But California and its people are sovereign, too.” The government’s request, the judge added, violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating states have control over their elections. If this last-minute request were granted, either party could create chaos for their own political purposes to disrupt the election process, he said. In addition, Carter questioned the credibility of the list of purported noncitizens on California’s voter rolls that Homeland Security compiled, noting a similar list of ineligible voters in Nevada that started with about 16,000 names was dwindled down to just 185 registered voters who all turned out to be citizens. The judge also pointed out the Justice Department, in so far as it is concerned about the integrity of elections, can, as it has been doing in recent days, prosecute individuals who violate the federal statute that makes it a misdemeanor for noncitizens to vote. Carter’s ruling comes after the Ninth Circuit on October 26 threw out the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to force California to set aside votes by residents who the administration maintains might not be U.S. citizens. The three-judge panel issued a decision the day after it held an unusual Sunday hearing. In a per curium order, the panel said it had no jurisdiction over the case because the federal government gave the trial judge just 15 hours to consider its expedited request for a temporary restraining order before filing its appeal. “The United States’ claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” the panel wrote. “At least part of the delay here is attributable to the United States’ own delay in filing suit, in realizing that existing California state law governs the issuance and processing of ballots, in recognizing that California has millions of registered voters and processes ballots on a schedule aligned with that scale, and in communicating to the court its desired relief.” The appellate panel granted the request by the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk to dismiss the appeal.
Georgia: A class-action lawsuit filed by a Cobb County voter claims that a vendor’s delays in sending out absentee ballots could disenfranchise thousands of the county’s voters. Michael Olaribigbe filed the lawsuit in Cobb County Superior Court on Tuesday naming members of the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registrations and asking the court to grant him and around 2,900 other voters emergency relief. According to the lawsuit, the vendor the county has hired to process and send mail-in ballots has failed to follow Georgia law that requires it to mail or issue ballots within “three days after receiving a timely application for an absentee ballot.” The vendor, New York-based Fort Orange Press, is accused in the lawsuit of delaying mailing absentee ballots for up to almost two weeks, saying that the same vendor was responsible for similar delays in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Absentee ballots are due by the time polls close on Election Day, which is 7 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2026, for the upcoming midterm election. If you have not received your ballot, you can head to the polls on Election Day to vote in person, however, you will have to sign a document attesting that you are only voting once in the election. Olaribigbe said that he won’t be in Georgia on Tuesday and hadn’t received his ballot by Monday, meaning that he would not be able to vote if relief isn’t granted.
Kentucky: Jeffery Woodard, 62, of Shepherdsville, has been indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on five counts of Wrongful Registration (Class D Felony), three counts of Convicted Felon Voting (Class D Felony) and one count of being a Persistent Felony Offender, Second Degree. According to the indictment, Woodard unlawfully registered to vote on five separate occasions between 2023-2026, despite being a convicted felon. Woodard also illegally voted in the November General Elections in 2023 and 2024 as well as the May 2026 Primary Election. A Franklin County judge set Woodard’s bond at $25,000. He was taken into custody October 21.
I
ndiana: Marion County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Harrison has ruled that the Indiana Election Commission doesn’t have to consider the validity of campaign misconduct allegations ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. The decision was made following a lawsuit filed by Lincoln Party secretary of state candidate Greg Ballard, who asked the judge to order that the commission hold a meeting regarding campaign finance complaints against Republican candidate Max Engling and Democrat Beau Bayh. Harrison said in her decision that Ballard had “failed to identify any concrete, actual harm” from the commission waiting until its scheduled Nov. 20 meeting. “He instead presents hypothetical harm with no support that if Defendants meet before November 3, it will affect voter decision-making in the Secretary of State race,” Harrison wrote. Ballard said in a statement that he was “exploring our legal options to compel the commission to perform its statutory duty to meet.”
Michigan: A Court of Claims ruling this week granted a temporary restraining order instructing local clerks across Michigan to maintain the electronic pollbooks created in the Nov. 3 General Election until an underlying lawsuit brought by Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer and the Michigan Republican Party can be resolved. The electronic pollbook, or EPB, is “used for processing voters, generating precinct reports, and recording voter history at in-person polling places,” according to a manual for election officials published in 2024 by the Michigan Department of State. Under current Michigan election rules, “electronic pollbook software and associated files must be deleted from all devices by the seventh day following the final canvass and certification of the election,” unless there is a pending recount or audit. McQueer’s lawsuit centers on that rule and what she sees as its potential conflict with federal law, which states that election officers for any federal election must retain “all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election” for 22 months after any general, special or primary election. “Defendants are directed to instruct all local election officials to retain the EPBs from the November 3 General Election,” the court order states. “The instructions must direct those officials to transfer the EPB from the precinct laptops onto the encrypted flash drives and then to securely store those flash drives until further order of this Court.”
Minnesota: Hennepin County prosecutors on October 28 said they charged conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and another man with felonies for unlawful voting and identity theft for filming themselves misrepresenting their identities to election judges during the Minnesota Aug. 11 primary. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said they were alerted by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office that James O’Keefe, Cameron Higby and others were trying to undermine the state’s vouching system. Videos posted by O’Keefe’s operation show them wearing burkas outside precincts during the primary. Moriarty said the voter names they used included some residents who were dead and at least one who voted. While neither man signed the oath to vouch for the other would-be voter — an act Moriarty said would have been felony perjury — “you cannot give somebody else’s name and misrepresent yourself as you go through the process.” An initial court appearance for O’Keefe and Higby has been set for Nov. 16.
Missouri: Newton County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Selby has issued a temporary restraining order against the county commission, blocking plans to relocate election equipment and renovate an election room just days before the midterms. Selby granted the order following legal action by County Clerk Tami Owens, who argued the commission’s plans threatened election security and could disrupt voting operations. The lawsuit names Presiding Commissioner Daniel Swem, District 1 Commissioner Mark Knight and District 2 Commissioner Ron Wallace in their official capacities. The dispute centers on a former courtroom inside the old Newton County Courthouse that has served as the county’s election room for years. The space is used to store voting equipment and conduct election functions, including ballot tabulation and recounts. The commissioners notified Owens in an October 21 letter that they intended to convert the election room into a conference room, with completion planned for December 1. Owens was instructed to select a new location for the election equipment by October 23 or face the possibility of commissioners beginning the relocation process themselves. In granting the restraining order, the judge determined that moving equipment during an active election could cause immediate and irreparable harm. The court cited potential disruptions to election operations, compromised ballot security and confusion surrounding the handling and location of election materials. The judge also warned that such disruptions could undermine public confidence and potentially disenfranchise thousands of Newton County voters.
New Hampshire: The Supreme Court issued an emergency order October 22 permitting Republican officials to ban New Hampshire voters from using student identification cards to vote in the November election. The justices granted the application to pause a lower court’s injunction that required New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan to revise guidance he issued announcing that student IDs could no longer be used for any purpose at all. The stay will remain pending the disposition of the appeal in the First Circuit. “This court has repeatedly emphasized that lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election,” the court wrote in the order. “Here, the district court did not point to anything that would justify deviating from that principle.” The Supreme Court has ruled against making changes to election rules too close to an election in order to avoid potential voter confusion. But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote this particular case is slightly different because the state left its election rules untouched and was attempting to elucidate public confusion. “Here, the district court made a (certainly not clearly erroneous) determination that correcting a publicized misstatement about what New Hampshire’s election rules require was necessary to ensure that certain citizens were not unduly burdened in their exercise of the fundamental right to vote,” she wrote.
New Jersey: The Atlantic County Board of Elections is deadlocked over whether to count three cure letters deposited in a secure ballot drop box, leaving Superior Court Judge Susan Sheppard to decide the tie-breaker. Deputy Attorney General Andrew Hedin told Sheppard that the statute allows voters to return cure letters to the Board of Elections in person, or by mail, fax, or email – but not to a drop box owned and operated by election officials to accept ballots. “The statute is silent,” Hedin said. Two Democratic commissioners voted to accept the cure letters, but the two Republicans said no. After a break in a hearing that began this morning, Hedin said the two parties could not reach a resolution and the board “is still in deadlock.” Sheppard said she needs more information about the issue – nothing was submitted in writing – before she makes the call. “It looks like the voters went beyond in a good faith attempt to make sure that they were able to vote, and I don’t want in any way to disenfranchise them without having some sort of certification on the record and some sort of factual analysis, so I can make some findings of fact and conclusions of law,” she said. “As it stands right now, I’m unable to do that.” Hedin said the Board of Elections still has “a fair amount of time within early voting.” Assignment Judge Susan Sheppard approved using a secure ballot drop box to receive the cure letters.
Superior Court Judge William G. Mennen IV has ruled that an elderly Somerset County woman will be allowed to vote in this year’s midterm election The woman, who moved to the county, filed a voter registration form on time with help from her niece but forgot to check two boxes: one stating she was a U.S. citizen and the other stating she was at least 17 years old. “It was a mistake,” she said. Mennen noted that the voter also listed her date of birth on her voter registration form and signed a declaration stating she was at least 17 and a U.S. citizen. He noted that the same questions appear at least twice on the same form. “The form is cured in the eyes of the court, and as a result, this voter should be permitted to vote based upon her stated preference,” Mennen stated. “She will be permitted to vote by machine.”
New Mexico: Robert Johnson, 63, of Annapolis, Maryland has been indicted by a federal grand jury and accused of fraudulently submitting a voter registration application in New Mexico. is charged with procurement and submission of materially false, fictitious and fraudulent voter registration. His attorney did not respond to calls for comment. Johnson was arrested in Milwaukee on October 26 and made his initial appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He was released on bond pending further proceedings in New Mexico. Johnson allegedly submitted a voter registration application to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office Bureau of Elections on Sept. 18, 2022, according to the indictment. The indictment did not give further information.
North Carolina: Josh Stein (D) has filed an appeal to reverse a law passed by the General Assembly, which shifted power away from the governor to the state auditor to appoint members of the NC State Board of Elections. Stein has previously made requests to block the enforcement of the law. Stein is now appealing the Court of Appeals’ judgement that Senate Bill 382 did not violate the separation of powers by depriving the governor of control over the enforcement and execution of North Carolina Election Law. He argues that the governor is the state’s chief executive while members of the council of state execute executive power in specific areas. The supervision of NC’s election laws by the auditor is inconsistent with that officer’s constitutional role and prevents the governor from fulfilling his duties described by the constitution. In the appeal, the governor asks that the Court of Appeal’s judgement be placed under discretionary review.
The NAACP took its challenge to North Carolina’s voter ID law to the state Court of Appeals this week, arguing that the law is unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. The appeal follows a federal district court judge’s ruling against the lawsuit earlier this year. The NAACP is asking a three-judge appellate panel to return the case to a single judge so the group can present evidence supporting its claims. The NAACP first filed the lawsuit after North Carolina’s voter ID law took effect in 2023. The group argues that the law discriminates against Black and other minority voters, who it alleges are less likely to have state-issued identification. The lawsuit also challenges the 2018 constitutional amendment that established the voter ID requirement, arguing that it was approved by a legislature shaped by racial gerrymandering. Supporters of voter ID laws have argued the requirements are necessary to prevent voter fraud. North Carolina voters approved the original constitutional amendment in 2018.
Pennsylvania: The Department of Justice has charged nine more Pennsylvania residents with voting as a noncitizen, according to a press release. Artur Kopacz, 50, of Philadelphia, Inna Henry, 52, of Harrisburg, were both charged with two counts of voting by an alien in the 2022 and 2024 general elections. Osmal Loy, 70, of Fountain Hill, Yehuda Peer, 30, of Merion Station, Alfredo Santiesteban, 73, of Philadelphia, Joyce Donovan, 38, of Selinsgrove, Nina Nyawara, 21, of Selinsgrove, and Joyce Pitts, 80, of Effort, were all charged with with one count of voting by an alien in the 2024 election. Nourten Kuruju, 64, of Luzerne, was charged with one count of voting by an alien in the 2022 general election. The charges announced Monday bring the total number of individuals charged with noncitizen-voting-related crimes in Pennsylvania to 20 since September. Election officials contend that while voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, does occasionally happen, it is exceedingly rare. A Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of election crimes since mid-2015 found just 176 allegedly fraudulent ballots have been cast out of more than 67 million votes cast in that period, even if these latest charges — which haven’t yet been proved — are included. If the nine individuals charged Friday are found to have illegally voted, their votes would represent 0.00009% of all votes cast in those elections.
Texas: The Potter County Republican Party has asked a federal judge in Amarillo to require every Texas ballot to be hand counted before the results of the Nov. 3 midterm elections can be certified. The group’s lawsuit argues that voting machines may be susceptible to outside manipulation, but does not provide proof of vulnerabilities in equipment or the process of counting votes and certifying election results. The lawsuit specifies that it is not alleging that past Potter County or statewide election results have been altered or inaccurately reported. Instead, the lawsuit cites potential for interference from artificial intelligence programs or “malicious actors” taking advantage of voting machine “components manufactured by foreign adversaries” such as China.
Three civil rights organizations have sued Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden and Texas Department of Safety (DPS) Director Freeman F. Martin, demanding the state hand over records related to delays in processing more than 500,000 voter registration applications. The suit, now pending before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, comes amid concerns about votes being counted in this year’s unusually competitive statewide elections. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the NAACP’s Texas chapter, and the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) alleged violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, commonly known as the “Motor Voter law,” following reports that more than half a million voter registration transactions were not transmitted to counties for processing until late September 2026. Alicia Pierce, assistant secretary of state for communications, said the office cannot comment on the lawsuit, but she did issue a statement affirming that Texas counties have cleared the backlog. “We don’t know of any counties that had pending applications by the start of early voting,” Pierce said. Heard said, if the backlog has been cleared up, the state should have no problem producing the records his clients have asked for.
Utah: U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow tossed out a monthslong effort by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to obtain Utah’s entire, unredacted voter database — for now. In his ruling dismissing the lawsuit against Utah elections chief Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Barlow said the Civil Rights Act does not make the federal government entitled to all of Utah’s election records, contrary to the DOJ’s arguments. Utah’s voter database is “not a record or paper which ‘comes into [the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s] possession,’ so she need not make it ‘available for inspection, reproduction, or copying’ by the Attorney General under Title III [of the Civil Rights Act],” Barlow, a Trump nominee, wrote. The DOJ will likely appeal the ruling. It filed the lawsuit earlier this year after Henderson rejected a request to hand over the entire voter database. Doing so, she has contended, would violate state privacy laws. The database contains voters’ sensitive personal information, including addresses, birth dates and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. “We appreciate Judge Barlow’s ruling dismissing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit that sought to force us to disclose the private data of every Utah voter,” Henderson said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune. “Our office will continue to uphold the rule of law and safeguard the fundamental right to free, fair, and secure elections for the people of Utah.”
Michael H. Drucker
