Photo: APK, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). File photo of the Justice Department headquarters in Washington, not a photo of a court hearing.
President Donald Trump's Justice Department has shown a willingness to intervene directly in Tuesday's midterm elections, breaking with decades of practice meant to avoid the appearance that federal law enforcement powers are being used to benefit a political party or candidate, Reuters reported on Monday, November 2, 2026.
The intervention has now run into a series of courtroom defeats. Courts have rejected the department's lawsuits against California and Alaska, but the department has appealed in Alaska and is defending its actions as lawful efforts to protect the integrity of the vote. With Americans voting on Tuesday to decide control of Congress, the fight over who runs elections — the states, under the Constitution, or Washington — has become one of the final flashpoints of the campaign.
The California ballots fight
In California, the Justice Department sought to set aside mail-in ballots from about 20,000 voters it alleges are likely non-US citizens ineligible to vote, and it demanded records in a related criminal probe. California has said it has measures to prevent voting by noncitizens and argued the department does not have the authority to block votes.
US District Judge David O. Carter rejected the department's emergency request, warning that the proposed intervention could disrupt an election already under way. On Friday, a divided federal appeals court refused to grant the administration emergency relief. In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court found that separating the disputed ballots could disrupt Tuesday's midterms and potentially prevent eligible voters from having their votes counted. One appeals judge dissented, arguing that California's refusal to separate the ballots undermined federal efforts to prevent illegal voting.
Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli has since called on California officials to use a federal citizenship database to verify voter eligibility, arguing that other states already use it and that California could quickly submit its voter rolls for review. The department's claim that more than 20,000 likely noncitizens are registered in California has not established that 20,000 illegal votes were cast, and voting by noncitizens is prohibited under US law. Independent studies and state audits have found voter fraud to be rare.
The Alaska case: two men named Dan Sullivan
In Alaska, the department intensified a criminal investigation into whether a Senate candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan entered the race to confuse voters. The New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign was involved in recruiting retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan to challenge the incumbent. Peltola has denied seeking to trick voters.
The Justice Department lawsuit, which Trump said he directed the department to file, asked a court to halt certification and order an investigation if the margin suggested voter confusion could have affected the outcome. On Sunday, US District Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage dismissed the case, finding Alaska could not conduct such a probe while preserving the secrecy of ballots. Gleason wrote that the United States had provided "no workable plan" for segregating ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan and then investigating them in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy, and that the federal government lacked standing to force Alaska to segregate ballots.
The department quickly filed a notice of appeal on Sunday. In a statement, it said the dismissal was on procedural grounds and that Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled "in an attempt to rig outcomes." Alaska's elections division welcomed the ruling, saying it rejected a last-minute federal effort to intervene and allows the state to focus on administering a fair vote while protecting ballot secrecy. The American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in support of Alaska, said the judge had rebuffed an effort to "throw out Alaska's election results before a single ballot was counted."
A wider pattern before Election Day
The two cases are part of a wider pattern in the final days of the campaign. A federal judge late on Friday imposed a sweeping emergency order restricting the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that election officials in any state segregate ballots, purge voters from voter rolls, or halt ballot processing. Separately, Reuters reported that the department plans to deploy about 1,000 monitors nationwide on Election Day, roughly triple the number used in the last midterms — a move some local officials worry could intimidate voters, although the department says those fears are baseless.
Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the department's efforts are lawful and aim to protect the integrity of the vote. "The Department isn't helping any campaign. It's enforcing the law," he said, according to Reuters. Critics say the department could accelerate any attempt by Trump to sow doubt about the midterms, which will determine control of Congress and the winners of dozens of governors' races. Trump continues to falsely assert that widespread fraud caused his 2020 election loss; outside groups aligned with him filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging that defeat, all of which were unsuccessful.
What is at stake on Tuesday
Americans vote on Tuesday, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats on the ballot. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in both the House and the Senate to overturn Republicans' narrow 218-214 and 53-47 majorities. Opinion polls favour Democrats to win the House, while the Senate remains too close to call, and the Alaska race between Peltola and Sullivan is one of a handful that could decide Senate control.
For now, the legal position is clear: the department's pre-election bids in California and Alaska have been rejected by the courts, its Alaska appeal is pending, and the votes themselves will be counted under state procedures. What is not yet clear is whether the department's interventions — and the courtroom pushback they drew — will shape how the results are received once counting begins.
Sources: Reuters, November 2, 2026; CNN, November 1-2, 2026; Nikkei Asia, November 2, 2026; New York Post, November 1, 2026. The allegation that about 20,000 California voters are likely noncitizens is the Justice Department's claim and has not established that illegal votes were cast; the account of the Peltola campaign's role in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan is as reported by the New York Times.