Almost every fraud claim from Trump and his allies fell apart this week once somebody actually read the paperwork.
Before we jump in, be sure to hit the ❤️ like button on this one. Then tap the two circling arrows—that’s the restack button. That’s how it reaches someone who heard the claim that Nevada had thousands of noncitizen voters but never heard how the story ended. You can deliver that to them.
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Four Voters Took On A Sheriff And Won
Chad Bianco thought he knew better than the people who count the votes.
He’s the sheriff of Riverside County, California—a MAGA Republican who ran for governor and lost. After last November’s special election, a local “election integrity” group told Bianco’s office that 45,896 ballots didn’t add up. Art Tinoco, the county’s top election official, said the real gap was only 103. The bigger number wouldn’t have even changed the outcome—everyone agreed on that fact.
But Bianco had already made up his mind. He got a judge to sign a secret search warrant the day before Tinoco spoke. And when Attorney General Rob Bonta asked Bianco to hold off, he moved his raid up by a day.
Bianco’s deputies took roughly 650,000 ballots out of the elections office and locked them where only his people could reach them. The day after Bonta took him to court, deputies came back for 11 more pallets of election materials.
Then four voters, Clarissa Cervantes among them, sued their own sheriff to get their ballots returned to the registrar. On Thursday, California’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled in their favor. “We hold that the seizure of the ballots was unlawful,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote. In a second ruling the same day, the court froze the investigation. Bianco has to hand the ballots back.
On top of the court’s rulings, California just made it a felony for any local or state official to grab ballots before the votes are made official. “Come November,” Bonta promised, “we’re ready for whatever comes our way.” Clarissa and three of her neighbors already showed how it’s done.
Nevada Called Trump’s Voter Fraud Bluff
In July, Trump went on primetime TV and claimed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found around 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote. DHS told Nevada that as many as 15,903 were on the state’s rolls. In response, state officials asked a simple question: who?
On a recorded call in August, Secretary of State chief deputy C. Murphy Hebert pressed the regime: “So what you’re saying is the 15,000 number has not been vetted?” A DHS official conceded it “hasn’t had a full manual review of each one.” DHS then sent over 185 people it said it had confirmed by hand. It had no names—just ID numbers.
This week, Nevada wrote back. According to the state’s records, all 185 are citizens. “You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise,” Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote. DHS calls Nevada’s account “false” and still hasn’t turned over its full list.
The story keeps shifting, too. In July, DHS told Nevada thousands of names matched on Social Security numbers. By September it was telling Pennsylvania, where it had made the same claim, that it hadn’t used Social Security numbers at all.
Ott said Nevada has a strong interest in preventing “the wrongful disenfranchisement of voters.” The state refuses to knock eligible voters off the rolls—especially over a number DHS can’t back up.
The Pollster Who Beat Trump In Court
Ann Selzer polled Iowa for nearly 40 years. Only days before the 2024 election, her final poll showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead by three points. Trump won Iowa by 13 points, then sued Selzer.
On Wednesday, District Judge Scott Beattie threw the case out. For argument’s sake, he assumed Trump’s wildest allegations were true: that it was a rigged sample with made-up numbers, and Selzer knew it. Trump’s lawyers called the poll a defective “product” to try and get around free speech protections. Beattie wasn’t buying it: “The rights protected by the First Amendment are not a word game.” Every claim failed.
Trump’s own words helped sink him. Two days before the election, he told NBC it was “a fake poll done by a Trump hater.” You can’t say you were fooled by a poll you were publicly calling fake, the judge reasoned.
The dismissal is with prejudice, so Trump can’t refile, and he and his two co-plaintiffs owe the court costs. His legal team says he’ll appeal to Iowa’s Supreme Court.
Beattie named the real danger in cases like this. Letting one drag on, he wrote, “can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.” Selzer refused to back down, and she won. The ruling, she said, “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”
Pritzker Didn’t Wait For Washington
On September 21, Donald Trump got on Truth Social and called the fear of artificial intelligence a “hoax.” The next day, Illinois moved anyway.
On Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an order creating an AI Cabinet, which puts together a group of health, emergency, utility and police officials, among others, to protect people from AI and the companies behind it. They’ll recommend rules to make data centers meet safety standards before they get tax breaks, keep those centers from driving up electric bills, and make AI companies pay when their products hurt someone.
In July, Pritzker signed the first law in the country that—beginning in 2028—requires large AI companies to submit to independent safety audits on a yearly basis. Starting in January 2027, they’ll also have to report any serious safety failures to the state within 72 hours, including when their own AI tries to slip past its safety controls. Break the law, and the state can fine them up to $1 million, then up to $3 million for each violation after that.
Trump built a Justice Department task force whose one job is to challenge state AI laws, and in April the department joined Elon Musk’s AI company in court to block Colorado’s. Trump keeps betting nobody will stand up to him. Illinois just did.
We’re down to only 37 days left until the midterms—five more Sundays. I know how some mornings feel—it’s a long slog. Then a week like this comes along and reminds us that we’re winning.
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And before you go, hit the ❤️ like button and restack. Four voters in Riverside took on their own sheriff and won in front of a unanimous court. Somebody out there who’s been told elections can’t be trusted needs to see that. Your restack carries it to them.
Onward!
Scott
Has anyone ever told you your vote might not count? What did you do?
If you have two minutes today, put direct pressure on their staff across these three fronts:
Force a Vote on Pete Hegseth’s Impeachment
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-pete-hegseth/
Kill the Yosemite Luxury Land Swap
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-yosemite-giveaway
Demand the Unredacted Epstein Files
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
The part I can’t shake is the timing. Warrant signed one day. County explains the real numbers the next. He already had the paper in his pocket. And four people still beat him.
Illinois didn’t wait for Washington to grow a spine on AI. Pritzker signed. That’s the model. Don’t sit around for permission from the people who called the fear a hoax.
If you’ve ever had someone talk about your vote like it was a rumor, this edition is the receipt. Hand it to them.