Leading election conspiracy theorist appointed to DHS leadership position

• Democracy Docket scoop: Heather Honey, an election conspiracy theorist tied to anti-voting lawyer Cleta Mitchell, was appointed to a new “election integrity” position at the Department of Homeland Security. 
  
  
• Honey, who Mitchell has called a “wonderful person,” boasts a long history of promoting election conspiracies and has questioned the 2020 election results.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE, faces re-deportation

• After being freed from custody last week, Kilmar Abrego Garcia — who was wrongly removed from the U.S. and imprisoned in El Salvador earlier this year — was detained by ICE once again after arriving at a required check-in at ICE’s Baltimore field office this morning.
  
  
• At a hearing this afternoon, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Abrego Garcia must remain detained in the U.S. — temporarily blocking his deportation to Uganda — until she holds an evidentiary hearing.
  
  
• “The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to coerce him is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyer said.

In attempt to expand use of troops domestically, Trump issues new EO

• Trump signed executive orders to expand the military's role in D.C., and across the country. The directives call for the preparation of national guard units in each state to be ready to "assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances."

Mississippi asks SCOTUS to restore mail-in ballot grace period 

• Mississippi’s Republican secretary of state is asking the Supreme Court to rule against the GOP and reinstate a five-day post-election grace period for late mail-in ballots struck down by a federal appeals court.
  
  
• The state says banning such ballots could jeopardize the voting rights of military and overseas voters, many of whom cast late-arriving ballots, in numerous states. 

A win for Pennsylvania voters

• The 3rd Circuit denied the RNC's request to pause a district ruling requiring Pennsylvania counties to count undated or wrongly dated ballots. Earlier this year, the district court found the state's handwritten date requirement violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
  
  
• Ahead of the 2025 general election, the RNC moved to stay this ruling. Today’s decision means counties cannot reject undated and wrongly dated ballots while the appeal continues.

Pro-voting groups sue Ohio over proof of citizenship law as Sec. of State lashes out

• Voting rights groups filed suit against Ohio Friday, warning that a new law requiring proof of citizenship for voters registering at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles threatens to disenfranchise thousands of eligible citizens.
  
  
• The proof of citizenship requirement was added back into a budget bill at the last minute after being briefly stripped out, with little debate. The filing highlights how the law will fall hardest on women, older voters and students. 

The states sending troops to DC have way worse crime problems

• A total of 53 cities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia had higher crime rates than Washington, D.C. in 2024. Despite this, these states deployed their own National Guard troops to help address D.C.'s newly declared "crime emergency."

Coming up tomorrow

• The Illinois State Board of Elections’ brief is due to SCOTUS in an appeal seeking to revive a challenge to the state’s ballot receipt deadline. This case is about the standing to challenge these election laws, not the merits.