Category: Election

By Jude Joffe-Block / NPR / October 28, 2026

A federal judge has denied an unprecedented, emergency request by the Department of Justice to segregate thousands of California ballots in the midterm elections.

The Justice Department wants California election officials to stop processing ballots pertaining to 20,000 individuals that federal officials say are “likely” noncitizens.

State and local officials in California have countered that the DOJ’s list of “likely” noncitizens is unreliable, with a preliminary analysis by Los Angeles County showing that many on the list do not have active voter registrations. The officials also claim that setting aside ballots just days before Election Day, when voting and processing mailed ballots are already underway, would be unlawful and infeasible and would disenfranchise eligible voters.

In his 26-page ruling issued Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, denied the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop processing the ballots in question.

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” he wrote.

Carter also expressed concern about taking action that could disenfranchise eligible voters and create chaos.

OB Staff Report

With a week to go before the November 3 elections, the Rag is taking one last look at how much money candidates have raised in the Council District 2, 4, 6, and 8 races. The data are taken from Follow the Money.org (FTM), a self-described “coalition of non-partisan organizations working together to create transparency for campaign contributions and expenditures with local San Diego candidates.”

To help the public fully understand campaign finance, FTM, where one of the key groups is the League of Women Voters, reports what has been spent in support of a candidate (“why you should vote for X”) and what has been spent in opposition to the candidate (“why you should not vote for X”).

Money spent in support is generally considered “campaign contributions” that are given directly to the candidate or party. They are subject to contribution limits, and they must be publicly disclosed.

Money spent in opposition typically comes through “independent expenditures” by outside groups or individuals for public communications (ads or mailers) for or against a candidate. There are no spending limits, but funders must file disclosure reports and identify themselves in the materials, almost always in small print.

Here are the races:

By Thom Hartmann / The Hartmann Report / Oct. 21, 2026

Trump is empowering Putin, abandoning Ukraine, and preparing to bargain with dictators over the future of the world. The Republicans who could stop him are doing nothing…
What the hell is going on in the Republican Party?

See original for all the links

Trump gutted his own Russia sanctions law, cut a diesel deal with Putin, and is now talking about carving up the world with Putin and Xi. Congress has the power to stop him right now: why are Thune and Johnson still on vacation?

Yesterday Donald Trump told reporters he’s ready to sit down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Shenzhen next month — apparently, a modern-day Yalta conference to carve up the world — and that Ukraine’s president may not be invited to the meeting that will decide Ukraine’s fate.

That came just three days after he spit on the grave of Lindsey Graham by signing an executive order waiving every operative section of the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act that both houses of Congress had passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.

Gone are the 500 percent tariffs on Russian goods, the secondary sanctions on Putin’s oil customers, and the requirement that the sanctions stay in place until Russia made peace on terms Ukraine accepted. All destroyed on a Friday night while Congress was out of town. And now he’s publicly, shamelessly defending it and essentially daring Republicans in Congress to do anything about it.

By JW August / Special to the OB Rag

The son of a San Diego City Councilmember — who earns $181,545 a year plus benefits — was hired two years ago as a summer intern at City Hall as part of a state-financed program designed to target disadvantaged youth.

Henry Foster IV, the son of Councilmember Henry Foster III, was chosen to work in the same department — Purchasing and Contracting — where his father had served as Equal Opportunity Contracting Program manager a decade ago. The councilmember took office in April of 2024.

Revelations about the summer internship award come as Councilmember Foster is running for reelection to his District 4 seat in what is expected to be a tight race.

While the summer job raises ethical questions of nepotism, the team managing Foster’s campaign points out that the council member’s son never interned in the District 4 office. Instead he worked for a mayoral department.

The internship program, known as Employ and Empower, was launched in 2020 by Mayor Todd Gloria’s office, and it was financed with the help of $18.5 million in state funding from the California Volunteers program. The city’s website for the program states that priority will be given to applicants who “come from communities of concern who are low-income, unemployed, justice-involved, in foster care, currently or previously unhoused, military-affiliated, or have experienced substance abuse or mental health issues.”

From La Prensa San Diego / Oct. 22, 2026

The Pentagon has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a military-grade weapon known as a “heat ray” for potential use along the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting concerns from border-community advocates about the expansion of military technology in immigration enforcement.

The weapon, officially known as the Active Denial System and deployed atop an eight-wheels armored vehicle, emits an invisible beam of electromagnetic energy that heats the surface of the skin, causing an intense burning sensation intended to make people move away from the beam.

CNN reported Oct. 21 that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a seven-month loan of the system to DHS for testing and the development of tactics for possible border operations. The authorization does not mean the weapon has been approved for operational deployment.

The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC), a network of organizations advocating for border communities, condemned the decision, calling it another step toward increased militarization of the region.

According to the U.S. military, the beam can reach more than half a mile. Officials have described the resulting sensation as intense but temporary, although advocates have raised concerns about potential injuries and other health effects.

By Jan Wolfe / Reuters / Oct. 23, 2026

The US Justice Department on Thursday sued to preemptively block Alaska from certifying the results of its US Senate race if the Republican incumbent candidate loses by a narrow margin, saying voters could be confused because two Republicans on the ballot have almost identical names.

The lawsuit highlights the apparent willingness of President Donald Trump’s administration to contest the results of the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of the US Congress.

Trump’s administration has taken an increasingly aggressive approach to election oversight, pressing states for voter-registration data and arguing that stricter measures ?are needed to ensure public confidence in the vote. Critics, including both Democratic and some Republican election officials, view the moves as federal overreach.

Control of the US Senate could come down to Alaska, where incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan is running a closely contested race against Democrat Mary Peltola.

Judge: Feds Using “Flawed” Data; Likely Violating Voting Rights Act

By Jude Joffe-Block / npr / October 22, 2026

A federal judge in California is putting limits on pre-election field operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security that the agency says is aimed at trying to find noncitizens who have illegally voted in nine states.

In recent weeks, armed Homeland Security Investigations officers have carried out field operations and visited homes to interview people suspected of illegally voting as noncitizens. The targets can include people who became citizens but voted before they naturalized.

In a 19-page order late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote that the federal government was using “flawed” data in the initiative and that its efforts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which bars voter intimidation.

Martínez-Olguín referenced a disclosure last month from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services whistleblower that alleged rushed efforts to match data to create a target list of potential noncitizens on voter rolls, and that the list includes U.S. citizens. She also pointed to HSI’s social media posts, including one that showed agents handcuffing a California man accused of unlawfully registering to vote.

The judge wrote that the government’s use of unreliable and incomplete data along with highly publicized arrests “lead to an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from urging or aiding others in exercising their right to vote.”

HSI field operations were planned in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, according to documents produced in the case and CNN reporting.

by Ernie McCray

It seems to me
that the most bothersome aspect
regarding Donald J
talking out of his asshole
about Iran
taking out Los Angeles
and San Diego,
should be the cheers of support that rose
from his followers.

I mean there wasn’t a single boo
that escaped the lips
of the MAGA folks
this traitorous felon
was talking to
and that leaves one to wonder
how anybody,
with an ounce of love in their soul,
never mind their politics
or points-of-views
or personal situations,
can be okay

Immigration arrest near Lemon Grove nail salon has some in Vietnamese community on edge

From KPBS: On Saturday, community activist Arturo Gonzalez said he received a video from an employee who works at a business next to Peacock Nails in Lemon Grove. shows ICE agents arresting a woman described by firsthand witnesses as a nail tech. Gonzalez said when he arrived on scene, cars with immigration agents were already leaving. He said this arrest outside a nail salon marks the first time he’s seen ICE agents at businesses like this one since he started documenting arrests about 18 months ago.

“I have not seen anything like this in particular. But I have seen restaurant workers and hotel workers get picked up by ICE,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez said he’s been documenting ICE arrests on social media with a network of community activists in the greater San Diego area.

“That same day the woman was picked up, we got a tip almost 30 minutes later that ICE was staging in the Hazard Center plaza in Mission Valley,” he said. “When we arrived to the scene we noticed the vehicles were faced towards another nail salon.”

Alex Gibney’s documentary “Musk” shows a man who has delivered important innovations for the public good, and who now holds a dangerous concentration of power over our data, our democracy and our idea of what it means to be human.

By Rev. Michael J. Christensen

My tech friend Michael Dotson and I watched Alex Gibney’s new documentary “Musk” at Fashion Valley last weekend, so you won’t have to. It runs nearly four hours. It is meticulously researched and theologically provocative. Musk did not cooperate, though his father and other family members did, so Gibney uses an AI-generated avatar to speak Musk’s own recorded words. The effect is eerie, dare I say, demonic, and fitting for a film about a man who wants to remake humanity through technology.

The film credits what Musk has built, with help from administrations of both parties. SpaceX’s reusable rockets slashed the cost of reaching orbit and now carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. Tesla pushed the auto industry toward electric vehicles. Starlink connects rural communities and disaster zones, and it has been a lifeline for Ukraine since 2022.

But the film also catalogs promises that never arrived: a crewed Mars mission by 2024, a million robotaxis by 2020, and fully self-driving cars that are still “next year.” And it shows a growing pattern of social and political control.

This morning, Tuesday, a Rag reader was leaving one of the local dog parks and saw these signs posted illegally on Nimitz by the dog park in the OB / Point Loma area.

The signs clearly state that “Nicole Crosby stands with MAYOR TODD GLORIA.” The small print says they’ve been paid for by the Lincoln Club Business League PAC.

Why would someone place them on the sides of local roads? Who benefits? It’s not Gloria’s supporters so it must be Crosby’s opponent in the campaign for the District 2 city council seat, Richard Bailey — or else his supporters, like the Lincoln Club. He can claim denial. They can claim they didn’t put them on the side of the road.

By Bill Eddy

Given the intense efforts by President Trump to disrupt the election process, it is not surprising that there is fear in the air that he will find a way to instigate violence and chaos on election day, November 3rd. After all, on February 3rd former Trump election adviser and conservative podcaster, Steve Bannon, said: “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.” The next day Bannon suggested that Trump should also call in the U.S. Army. He said: “You’ve got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, people … actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election.”

Later, Todd Blanche, when he was the deputy attorney general, said: “Why are there objections to sending ICE officers to polling places? Illegals can’t vote.” In May, 2026, Trump said he would do “anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections; we have to have honest elections.” This is surely a threat for a power grab as a great deal of research shows that election fraud is nearly non-existent—less than 0.0001 percent. The elections will be honest unless he disrupts them.

Trump’s voting restriction setbacks

A lot has happened since May. His efforts to get the Senate to pass the “SAVE America Act”—a nationwide law with many voting restrictions—has been permanently stalled in the Senate because of Democratic opposition and the filibuster (requiring 60 votes to pass).

In July he gave a primetime address to the nation warning of “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure” and “China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files.” Yet he provided no credible evidence in support of his false claims and his disapproval ratings continued to tank.

In September, the U. S. Supreme Court denied his efforts to block mail-in voting. He then reversed his long-standing opposition and told Republicans: “Vote early, vote by mail, or vote in person on Election Day.”