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79 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: September 21, 2026.
The package extends drop-box hours, lets voters return mail ballots at any polling place, expands language access and targets AI deepfake ads seven weeks before the midterms. State Sen. Aisha Wahab, who wrote the felony provision: 'This is about protecting every Californian's right to be able to vote and vote how they want.'
Four people familiar with his thinking say the former Waste Management CEO was furious after a June Senate hearing where he was called a 'pawn' in Trump's mail-ballot plan. The Supreme Court blocked key parts of that plan on Monday.
It is the first data center bill to pass the 119th Congress. The three no votes were progressives who wanted a moratorium. Nearly 70% of Americans don't want a data center near them, and the bill's Republican sponsor is in a toss-up race.
The attorney general said the Supreme Court's mail-ballot ruling changes nothing about the DOJ's election work, citing 11 illegal-voting charges in ten days. 'We're prosecutors, not regulators,' he said of AI.
WatchAn unsigned, one-paragraph order Monday left in place a Massachusetts judge's injunction against the USPS rule born of Trump's March executive order. Twenty-three states and D.C. had sued, and Justice Kavanaugh wrote that election officials 'do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.'
Padilla and Schumer say the 'Unlawful Voter Initiative' could amount to thousands of state-law violations and has already created federal law enforcement records against naturalized Americans. They gave Secretary Mullin until Sept. 21 to answer.
WatchU.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote that the rule's key portions 'exceed any conception of the outer bounds' of the Postal Service's authority. It is the second injunction in eight days against a regulation whose voter portal still does not work.
The Beechcraft K35 carrying Rep. Tiffany and his pilot lost power at about 8:50 p.m. Saturday. Both men got out as it sank. Tiffany needed stitches above his right eye, and the FAA is investigating.
The White House says enrollees in 30 HealthCare.gov states were 'wrongly overcharged' through exchange user fees under Biden. KFF says a $500 check covers roughly one month of the premium increases many of them absorbed after Congress let enhanced subsidies lapse.
WatchThe pledge came an hour into his speech at the RNC's first midterm convention in Dallas. Paying it would cost more than $1 trillion, and Congress would have to approve it.
The unsigned order, with no noted dissents, sends Missouri into November on its 2022 lines and saves Emanuel Cleaver's seat for now.
For decades the Civil Rights Division sent lawyers to polling places to protect voters from discrimination. Harmeet Dhillon is emailing staff to sign up for something broader.
The state Supreme Court reversed two lower courts that had blocked Question 3, clearing the way for Maryland Democrats to seek the power to redraw congressional maps before 2028.
An NBC News Decision Desk poll taken from Aug. 20 to Sept. 1 found opposition to local AI data centers in every party. Forty-five percent said they strongly oppose one.
The Maryland Democrat told 'Meet the Press' that impeachment is 'a critical tool in the toolbox' but not a fetish and not a panacea. Health care comes first if his party wins the House.
Federal filings show the super PAC split the money evenly between ads boosting the Texas attorney general and ads attacking Democrat James Talarico. The PAC is sitting on roughly $400 million.
Conference Chair Lisa McClain told "Face the Nation" she is standing behind the Ohio congressman despite his ex-wife's abuse allegations. Three Senate Republicans have told him to get out of the race.
WatchA new NBC News Decision Desk poll of 7,105 adults found that 69% of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war in Iran. Republicans have not left him — but the intensity behind their support is draining away with the midterms 58 days out.
WatchThe party's first-ever midterm convention opens Wednesday in Dallas with a $25,000 price of admission for House members. Three of the most endangered Republicans in the country told Politico they will campaign at home instead.
An unsigned order Friday froze a Fourth Circuit ruling that had stripped party committees of the cheapest political ad rates. Republican committees say broadcasters had already started pulling the discounts.
WatchRepublicans and Democrats are running nearly identical attacks on the warehouses powering the AI boom, and the spending is split almost evenly between the two parties.
Judge Indira Talwani said compliance was practically impossible in two months and that disenfranchisement would be practically inevitable. The Justice Department went to the Supreme Court.
A March executive order told USCIS and Social Security to build a list of every adult citizen in every state. Sixty days before the midterms, the portal still is not open.
The state's own Supreme Court threw the map out and ordered a referendum. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway called that a constitutional crisis and went straight to Washington.
The justices stayed a Fourth Circuit ruling that had blocked political parties from buying broadcast time at the discounted rate reserved for candidates. Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only noted dissent.
The court ruled that a congressional redistricting bill is an 'act' of the legislature like any other, so it can be put to a referendum. The 2020-census map stays in force for the midterms.
The emergency application landed Thursday afternoon, one day before midterm ballots begin going out. The challengers have until 10 a.m. Tuesday to respond.
Republican leaders scrapped the last two weeks of September, sending members home until after the November 3 election. Days earlier the speaker had promised the House would work every day on the calendar.
The stopgap holds agencies at current spending levels through Dec. 11 and heads to President Trump's desk. Nineteen Republicans and 29 Democrats voted against it.
The disclosure to Sen. Richard Blumenthal says a single unreadable barcode could void an entire batch of ballots, and that USPS kept building the system while a court order told it to stop.
The 90-day proclamation takes effect Sept. 1, right as ranchers head into their peak selling season. 'Most of whom are MAGA Republicans,' one GOP senator wrote.
Will Scharf, 40, moves from staff secretary to White House counsel on September 1, weeks before a midterm that could hand Democrats subpoena power.
Texas Southern University's survey puts James Talarico ahead 47% to 45%. The pollster's explanation: Paxton is holding only 85% of Republicans while independents break for the Democrat by 40 points.
Rep. John Rose spent $13 million of his own money and lost. In the redrawn 5th District, a former state agriculture commissioner backed by two ex-governors beat the incumbent Trump endorsed.
The House Ethics Committee found 'substantial reason to believe' the North Carolina Republican harassed two young female staffers and recommended censure. He is finishing his term but leaving the ballot before the September 4 deadline.
WatchSusan Collins and Patty Murray released the text of a stopgap Sunday that funds most federal agencies at current levels through the second week of December. It strips out $1 billion for 'Trump-class' battleships and blocks money from being shifted to Border Patrol.
A new Echelon Insights and Brunswick Group survey found affordability is the top concern for 41% of voters — and a CBS News poll found only about a third think either party is doing anything about it.
Emily Moreno's Cuyahoga County filing accuses the Ohio Republican of harassing and physically grabbing her attorneys after custody hearings. Miller denies all of the allegations.
WatchHomeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has refused to explain how his department matched Social Security numbers to voter files that do not contain them. California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania say they still have no idea where the number came from.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wants the justices to lift a Massachusetts judge's injunction covering 23 states and D.C. An appeals court warned the order 'would sow confusion and threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.'
An analysis of ad data shows the GOP has poured $53 million into border-security messaging across 88 races, betting that immigration is a winning issue in November.
With government funding set to lapse Sept. 30 and Speaker Mike Johnson sending the House home without a defense bill, Republicans fear another Democratic opening just weeks before the November elections.
The president removed all three remaining commissioners of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, leaving the only federal agency devoted to election administration with no one able to act.
National Democrats gave Platner an ultimatum over a sexual assault allegation, and party figures are already eyeing his spot in the marquee race against Susan Collins.
Lawmakers will convene Aug. 3 to advance a constitutional amendment that could clear the way for an 8-0 Democratic congressional map, escalating the national gerrymandering war.
Writing for the majority in NRSC v. FEC, Justice Kavanaugh said decades-old caps on coordinated party expenditures violate the First Amendment — unleashing party money months before the midterms.
WatchMarking America's 250th anniversary, the president abandoned the unifying tone of past Independence Day addresses, branding communism a bigger threat than 9/11 and the world wars.
The president called the bipartisan measure to boost home supply 'of minor importance' and refused to sign it until lawmakers deliver his sweeping elections bill, blindsiding Senate Republicans months before the midterms.
In a 6-3 order, the justices paused a ruling that had blocked Alabama's congressional map, clearing the state to use districts favoring Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
In an unsigned order, the justices paused a lower court's injunction, clearing the way for Alabama to vote under a congressional map that a three-judge panel found was tainted by intentional discrimination.
Bankhead, a Helena-based veteran and former federal investigator, captured the Democratic nomination over former state Rep. Reilly Neill, giving the party a fresh face in its bid to flip a Republican-held Senate seat.
The president faces declining public support while actively campaigning for preferred candidates in key races across multiple states.
The Department of Homeland Security has now run 67 million voter registrations through a system originally built for immigration screening, and lawsuits in five states allege the resulting cancellations are sweeping up lawful voters.
President's recent comments about economic burden of Iran conflict spark criticism that he doesn't grasp financial strain on ordinary Americans.
VP travels to Maine making midterm pitch that only Republicans can root out public benefits fraud.
The redrawn lines, passed days after the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling, dismantle districts held by Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kathy Castor.
GOP shows new bullishness after months of growing midterm fears as four states consider drawing new maps in coming weeks.
The ruling eliminates a voter-approved measure that could have given Democrats up to four additional House seats in the midterms.
White House uses rhetorical gymnastics as president tries to move past biggest political crisis of his presidency while missiles continue flying.
On CNBC, the president said Republicans are 'entitled to five more seats' in Texas alone after Callais v. Louisiana gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
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