Chapter 1
American elections are run by the states
American elections are run by the states, under federal laws that set the date and a few limits. That division is where nearly every dispute over this election has arisen: how far Washington can reach into how ballots are mailed, checked and counted, and how far a state can go on its own.
Chapter 2
The largest question was settled in June
The largest question was settled in June. Mississippi counts mail ballots postmarked by election day if they arrive within five business days. The Republican National Committee argued that the federal statutes fixing election day require ballots to be in hand by then, and a federal appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court reversed, five justices to four: the statutes, it said, say nothing about when a ballot must be received. Roughly thirty states count at least some ballots that arrive late, so the ruling left their practice standing.
Chapter 3
Two more disputes came from the executive branch’s own initiatives
Two more disputes came from the executive branch’s own initiatives. A presidential directive led the Postal Service to issue a rule in late August 2026 requiring ballot envelopes of a standard design with a barcode unique to each voter. A district court blocked it, and on 14 September the Supreme Court declined to lift the block; one justice in the majority wrote that officials simply had no time to implement it. Separately, the government expanded a federal database so that states could check registered voters’ citizenship against Social Security records. A district court struck that down in June. On 25 September the Supreme Court put the ruling on hold, so the system remains available, over a dissent that pointed to Texas voters whose registrations had been wrongly questioned. Twenty-seven states use it.
Chapter 4
What remains open is conduct rather than rules
What remains open is conduct rather than rules. The president has said he would do “anything necessary” for honest elections and has not ruled out sending federal officers to the polls; his homeland security department says it plans no operations targeting polling places. Democratic committees have asked a federal court to forbid armed officers near them. Both parties have scores of other cases pending, and election lawyers read the volume as a sign of more to come after the vote.
And now
With five days of voting left, courts are refusing to change the rules. On 22 October the Supreme Court let New Hampshire refuse student IDs at the polls, citing the principle against late changes; Justice Jackson dissented. North Carolina's absentee rules and Ohio's proof-of-citizenship requirement also stand.
The fights are over what the federal government does. On 28 October a federal judge refused the Justice Department's bid to hold back California mail ballots from 20,000 people it calls likely noncitizens, saying he could not call its matching credible; the department is appealing. It made the same demand of Washington, which refused. Where states have checked federal citizenship flags, most of those named have been citizens.
The department has also sued to stop Alaska certifying its Senate result if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses because of a second candidate with his name; President Trump says he ordered it. In Utah it lost a 27th suit for a state's voter roll, with no wins.
At the polls, the department says about 1,000 monitors will be in every state, none of them FBI or ICE employees or armed, and states are setting where they may stand.
Where it stands today →