PoliticsThe Justice Department says it is sending monitors to all 50 states for Tuesday's midterms, its largest effort ever. Hennepin and Ramsey counties turned down its request to put them inside polling places, Minnesota is sending its own observers to watch the federal teams, and a federal judge in Washington set rules for who can serve. Here's what monitors are allowed to do, what they aren't, and why each side sees them so differently.
PoliticsU.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson on Friday night ordered the Justice Department and Homeland Security not to threaten election officials with prosecution, and not to demand that they set aside, refuse or stop counting ballots, solely because the federal government alleges the voters are ineligible. Her order runs through Nov. 16. Hours earlier, a divided Ninth Circuit panel again refused to make California set aside about 20,000 mail ballots.
PoliticsSpeaking at Catholic University's law school, Justice Elena Kagan faulted the majority's rulings on partisan gerrymandering, the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance. She also pushed back on the charge that the court is a rubber stamp for President Trump.
