Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Trump team sues to stop New Jersey from joining list of vote-by-mail states

Election ballot drop-off box, Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey

Gov. Phil Murphy says plenty of ballot drop boxes, like this one in Hoboken, will be an alternative to relying on the Postal Service.

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

The Trump campaign has sued to stop New Jersey from carrying out its new system for maintaining electoral democracy during the pandemic: sending all registered voters a mail-in ballot but also allowing them to easily vote in person instead.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday night, just four days after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced the plan.

It's the second time the campaign and the Republican Party have gone to federal court to fight a state's plans for switching to a mostly vote-by-mail election this year — which the president claims without evidence will guarantee widespread fraud aimed at rigging the contest against him. They sued Nevada two weeks ago.


The president has sought to draw a distinction in recent weeks between the two main forms of voting from home. He now says the most common system, the voter requesting and returning an absentee ballot, is fine by him — and in fact he did so in this week's Florida primary. But states that proactively send ballots to all voters, he alleges, will mean "millions and millions" of forms never get to a registered voter and instead will be scooped up and cast illegally. This fear has next to no basis in fact.

There has been no widespread cheating in modern American elections, and nonpartisan experts say neither party automatically benefits when states expand access to mail-in voting.

Five states were committed before the coronavirus outbreak to holding all elections mainly by mail. New Jersey and Nevada have been joined in making the switch for this year only by California, Vermont, the District of Columbia and almost all of Montana.

Trying to reverse the switch in Nevada, which Trump has a shot at carrying, has some viable political rationale because Republicans tend to do better in low-turnout contests. The same goes for Pennsylvania, where the campaign filed its first lawsuit with a different objective — trying to reverse easements to the rules for using mail-in ballots this year.

But, beyond the fact that Trump was at his New Jersey golf club as the new election plan was announced, it's not clear why his team decided to spend resources suing in one of the nation's bluest states. He got just 41 percent of the vote there last time, the seventh straight loss of the state by the GOP nominee, and in the 2018 midterm the Democrats picked up three House seats and now hold 10 of 12. Three of those congressional seats are being hard-fought this fall, but there are no state contests on the ballot.

The main legal rationale for the suit is that Murphy made a "brazen power grab" and unconstitutionally seized powers belonging only to the Legislature when he changed election procedures by executive order.

Friday's order says all 6.3 million registered voters will be sent a ballot and that plenty of secure drop boxes will be available as an alternative to mailing them back. In addition, Murphy said over the weekend, he will also order an extension so that ballots postmarked by Election Day but delayed in the mail will be tabulated.

For those who want to vote in person, at least half the normal number of polling places will be open Nov. 3, but people who show up there will generally have to cast provisional paper ballots — which won't be counted until election officials determine that a duplicate did not also arrive in the mail.

This hybrid system "will violate eligible citizens' right to vote," the GOP lawsuit alleges. "This massively increased volume of provisional ballots raises grave concerns about increased lines and wait times to vote and the state's ability to properly process each and every provisional ballot."

The suit points to the recent case of voter fraud in a municipal election this spring in the state's third largest city, Paterson. And Justin Clark, Trump's deputy campaign manager, wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal pointing to a 2016 investigation by the Asbury Park Press that found 2,460 voters on the New Jersey rolls had been dead at least five years and 60 had cast votes from the grave. The paper said, however, that clerical failures were to blame and that no fraud was suspected.

Read More

Understanding the Debate on Health Secretary Kennedy’s Vaccine Panelists

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Understanding the Debate on Health Secretary Kennedy’s Vaccine Panelists

Summary

On June 9, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Secretary Kennedy claimed the move was necessary to eliminate “conflicts of interest” and restore public trust in vaccines, which he argued had been compromised by the influence of pharmaceutical companies. However, this decision strays from precedent and has drawn significant criticism from medical experts and public health officials across the country. Some argue that this shake-up undermines scientific independence and opens the door to politicized decision-making in vaccine policy.

Background: What Is ACIP?

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a federal advisory group that helps guide national vaccine policy. Established in 1964, it has over 60 years of credibility as an evidence-based body of medical and scientific experts. ACIP makes official recommendations on vaccine schedules for both children and adults, determining which immunizations are required for school entry, covered by health insurance, and prioritized in public health programs. The committee is composed of specialists in immunology, epidemiology, pediatrics, infectious disease, and public health, all of whom are vetted for scientific rigor and ethical standards. ACIP’s guidance holds national weight, shaping both public perception of vaccines and the policies of institutions like schools, hospitals, and insurers.

Keep ReadingShow less
MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border
Way into future, RPA Airmen participate in Red Flag 16-2 > Creech ...

MQ-9 Predator Drones Hunt Migrants at the Border

FT HUACHUCA, Ariz. - Inside a windowless and dark shipping container turned into a high-tech surveillance command center, two analysts peered at their own set of six screens that showed data coming in from an MQ-9 Predator B drone. Both were looking for two adults and a child who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and had fled when a Border Patrol agent approached in a truck.

Inside the drone hangar on the other side of the Fort Huachuca base sat another former shipping container, this one occupied by a drone pilot and a camera operator who pivoted the drone's camera to scan nine square miles of shrubs and saguaros for the migrants. Like the command center, the onetime shipping container was dark, lit only by the glow of the computer screens.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Trump 2020 flag outside of a home.

As Trump’s second presidency unfolds, rural America—the foundation of his 2024 election win—is feeling the sting. From collapsing export markets to cuts in healthcare and infrastructure, those very voters are losing faith.

Getty Images, ablokhin

Trump’s 2.0 Actions Have Harmed Rural America Who Voted for Him

Daryl Royal, the 20-year University of Texas football coach, once said, “You've gotta dance with them that brung ya.” The modern adaptation of that quote is “you gotta dance with the one who brought you to the party.” The expression means you should remain loyal to the people or things that helped you succeed.

Sixty-three percent of America’s 3,144 counties are predominantly rural, and Donald Trump won 93 percent of those counties in 2024. Analyses show that rural counties have become increasingly solid Republican, and Trump’s margin of victory within rural America reached a new high in the 2024 election.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hands Off Our Elections: States and Congress, Not Presidents, Set the Rules
white concrete dome museum

Hands Off Our Elections: States and Congress, Not Presidents, Set the Rules

Trust in elections is fragile – and once lost, it is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild. While Democrats and Republicans disagree on many election policies, there is broad bipartisan agreement on one point: executive branch interference in elections undermines the constitutional authority of states and Congress to determine how elections are run.

Recent executive branch actions threaten to upend this constitutional balance, and Congress must act before it’s too late. To be clear – this is not just about the current president. Keeping the executive branch out of elections is a crucial safeguard against power grabs by any future president, Democrat or Republican.

Keep ReadingShow less