1 · Justice Department sends target letters to about 20 Democrats
The Justice Department sent letters to about 20 Democrats on Tuesday in its criminal probe of how a second "Dan Sullivan" got on Alaska's Senate ballot, The New York Times reported. Election lawyer Marc Elias and at least one official at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee got them. NBC News reported the tally includes target letters and preservation requests, on top of 120 subpoenas the department had already issued. Civil Rights Division attorneys Brandon Wrobleski and Robert Keenan and the U.S. Attorney's Office for Alaska run the probe. Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee, is not reported as a recipient. Elias said: "No one should be surprised that President Trump's Department of Justice is targeting me and my law firm on Election Day." Trump, on Fox & Friends, said Elias "should go to jail, in my opinion." A target letter is not a charge. Alaska lawyer Scott Kendall told The Hill that ballot-stacking "is not illegal" under state law.
2 · Ninth Circuit lets the department threaten election officials again
A majority of the full Ninth Circuit on Tuesday afternoon restored a panel's stay of Judge Trina Thompson's Friday order, which had barred the department from threatening state and local election officials with prosecution, The Hill reported at 4:35 p.m. Eastern. The order gave no reasons. Five judges dissented. Chief Judge Mary Murguia wrote that the executive has "no right" to dictate election procedures to the states. It is Attorney General Todd Blanche's first court win in a week.
3 · The five courts that said no, Friday to Monday
Friday, Oct. 30: a Ninth Circuit panel refused 2-1 to order California's ballots set aside. Friday night: Thompson, in the Northern District of California, ordered the department not to "threaten, intimidate or coerce" election officials. Sunday, Nov. 1: Judge Sharon Gleason in Alaska dismissed U.S. v. Alaska, the suit to block certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan lost. She wrote the government had "no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots"; the department appealed within about an hour. Monday: Chief Judge James Boasberg in Washington barred DHS from demanding California segregate ballots, writing "The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause." Monday evening: the Supreme Court denied the department's request to set aside about 20,000 California mail ballots it called "likely" noncitizen votes, in one unsigned line with no noted dissent.
4 · At the polls
Toledo police said a threat emptied the Beverley Elementary polling station just before 10:30 a.m. Westchester County's scanners rejected ballots in 44 of 45 municipalities; the state Board of Elections blamed a late programming change. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Fulton County must rescan about 1,000 ballots. Flooding moved at least 18 Florida polling sites, NBC News reported. Federal prosecutors charged Robin Patrick Martin over more than 700 white-powder mailings to officials, one to the Oklahoma State Election Board; CBS said the powder was nontoxic. About 1,000 federal monitors went out; the department swore none were FBI or ICE. By 4:34 p.m. our log held 20 incidents. No federal agent touched a ballot box.
5 · What comes next
Alaska's election officials count the ranked-choice ballots Nov. 18 and aim to certify Nov. 25. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter has ordered all 50 states to keep ballots and pollbooks for 22 months: "It is a crime to willfully fail to comply." After certification, the Senate seated Jan. 3, 2027 judges the Alaska race under Article I, Section 5, and no court follows it there. Our reading: no judge let Blanche hold a ballot box, so he kept the threat letter, the records order and a criminal file in the one state whose count takes two weeks.