Eric Neff, a Republican attorney with a web of ties to election-conspiracy theorists, is the new acting chief of the voting section at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), according to the department’s website. 

Neff replaces Maureen Riordan, who spent almost two decades in the department’s voting section from 2000 to 2017. In 2021, Riordan served as litigation counsel at the anti-voting legal group the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) before she returned to DOJ when President Donald Trump returned to the White House. 

A Dec. 2 legal filing identified Riordan as a “senior counsel” in the voting section. A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry about her current role.

Times Union: "Peabody and supporters of the institution pushed for a recount shortly after the election. But that request wasn’t entertained until county election officials discovered that some results from a separate state referendum that had been printed on the back of the ballot could have been impacted by ovals improperly juxtaposed over text….Based on the document count and the discovery of a machine processing error, election officials originally agreed to digitally retabulate the contest before eventually opting for a manual recount.”

Comment: Kudos to this local Board of Elections for agreeing to a recount and then opting that the recount of the ballots be by hand.  Under current law, they didn’t have to.  They could have just run them through a different scanner that may have had the same problem with the apparently misprinted ballots.  Ask your legislators to support Amy Paulin’s bill 01918 which requires audits by hand recount . Allegra Dengler

"It rarely breaks into national headlines, but [Trumpism’s] persistent attacks on free and fair elections serve as a constant hum in the background. It remains, in my opinion, the greatest threat to democracy because it is the gravest threat to free and fair elections….Undermining free and fair elections is the central tenet of Trumpism in 2025, and it will be the leading strategy of the GOP in 2026 and beyond….

...For the next 11 months, we must approach each day with these questions: What can we do to protect free and fair elections? How can we counter what the GOP is doing? How can we advance the voting rights of every eligible citizen and ensure their ballots are accurately counted and elections properly certified?” Marc Elias

Remember last week when we covered the five fake counties in the 2024 DDHQ data feed and the millions of votes that disappeared for Vice President Harris in real time? After watching that circus play out, there was no way we were going to sleep on Tennessee. 

"Trump has made his intentions clear. At a rally last summer in West Palm Beach, Florida, he offered his supporters a promise. “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians,” he said. “We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.””
...Stopping any attempt to subvert the midterms will require courage and integrity from the courts, political leaders of both parties, and the local officials running elections….Most of all, it will depend on individual Americans to stand up for their rights and demand that their votes are counted."

CNN: "The surprise move, and a public announcement that seemingly embraced parts of Trump’s push to transform voting procedures, spooked election officials around the US, raising concerns about the future of a company that unexpectedly found itself at the center of Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss….when CNN asked Leiendecker whether his acquisition of Dominion was a MAGA takeover, he replied, “it’s not.”

Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the president has made it clear that voter suppression is a top priority. In March, Trump issued a sweeping anti-voting executive order that could disenfranchise millions. And while courts have blocked key provisions of his order, the White House promised that another order, likely targeting mail voting, is on the way. 

About 80 protesters gathered outside Huntington Town Hall Tuesday evening to bring attention to their concerns about irregularities in the recent town board election that included candidates who never campaigned ahead of Election Day.

With about six Suffolk County police officers standing watch, the people at the peaceful gathering held signs with messages that included "Voters Demand Answers" and "Stop the Steal." They also demanded free and fair elections.

"If  anything, she suspects that the internet is becoming less resilient. Recently, the Trump administration decided to dismantle the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which ran programmes that monitor foreign attempts to break into critical infrastructure like voting systems and electrical grids."

COMMENT: Many on this list have expertise in cybersecurity and tech issues in relation to elections.  Help wanted:  efforts in Westchester  and New York to plan for disruption of the grid during elections.  One of many bills sitting on desks in Albany would require automatic extension of voting hours in case of delays due to poll site closures. One of the less likely possible causes of disruption on a large scale is  a "powerful solar storm on the scale of the Carrington event.” Solar flares can disrupt GPS, cellphones, satellites and power grids. Coincidentally,, it turns out there was a major CME (Coronal Mass  Ejection) this week.  Look for Northern Lights tonight in 18 states, including New York.

The Guardian: "A year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week’s elections, Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies….The Department of Homeland Security has slashed funding and cut staff at an agency dedicated to protecting elections from physical and cybersecurity threats.”

On Thursday, November 6, 2025, the Election Truth Alliance filed its first lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeking to compel a hand-count audit of the 2024 General Election. 

The complaint asserts that late-stage software changes, documented testing failures, ballot-handling irregularities, and statistically anomalous voting patterns in Cambria, Erie, and Allegheny Counties collectively deprived voters of their constitutional right to cast a ballot and have it counted accurately.

Marly Hornik, the recently ousted co-founder of the anti-voting group Unite4Freedom, posted on X that her other group, NY Citizens Audit (NYCA), sued New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Board of Elections (NYSBE) alleging discrepancies in the state’s voter rolls. They’re asking a federal court to order an audit of the 2022 general election.

Sunday, October 19, NYCD16/15-Indivisible holds our October general meeting. Join us at the Yonkers Riverfront Library to hear NY Sen. Gustavo Rivera speak about the Trump actions against AG James, the MaskBillhe has introduced in the state senate, how to protect our immigrant neighbors, his fight for health care and much more. We'll also tackle critical election integrity issues, with Allegra Dengler of Citizens for Voter Integrity, NY.

Dominion Voting Systems, the company that makes widely used voting equipment in the United States that became synonymous with election conspiracies and Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, has been sold.

In this heightened atmosphere of threats against our elections and election workers, is New York ready to defend the vote count in 2026?  The short answer is no. Inaction by the NYS Assembly Election Law Committee puts our elections at risk.  

The  E-Voter Education Project has an analysis of what laws we need. It’s up to you and any organization you are a part of to push for the Assembly to pass these essential bills,  Our vote count is not protected.

President Donald Trump has never seen an election that he didn’t think was fixed. In each of his three runs for the presidency, he falsely claimed widespread fraud. In 2020, he tried to overturn his loss, first through the courts and then in the streets. Now back in power, and with federal troops deployed to multiple cities run by Democrats, there are mounting concerns that he could use his power as commander in chief to deploy the military during elections.

Mark Elias:   "But if I’m being honest, I’m not only furious at Trump and his sycophants. I am equally — if not more — furious at how little is being done in response to his destruction.

"Every day, I am furious at the people and institutions that loudly claimed to stand for democracy when President Joe Biden was in office but have now gone silent in their complicity and collaboration. I am furious at those who have so much yet are willing to risk nothing.

"I now understand Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning that the greatest tragedy is “not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” Except I don’t see them as good people — and instead of offering Christian forgiveness, I am filled with the fury of Ezekiel.

 "As the head of a law firm fighting for free and fair elections, I know the risks of standing up to Trump and his election-denying supporters in court….."

I recommend subscribing to Democracy Docket that sends out this newsletter with "the day’s most important voting and democracy news.”   Here is the latest issue.

Allegra Dengler

A comprehensive assessment of the post-election audits in seven swing states in 2024 found that most don’t meet baseline conditions to provide evidence-based election results, nor are they sufficient to act as safeguard against possible errors or tampering.

Appellate Division accepts arguments from Common Cause/NY et al to continue its lawsuit deciding if the State's Board of Elections decision to approve ExpressVote XL was legal; The plaintiffs argue that there is a real threat to voters because local BOEs have plans to use these machinesNEW YORK, NY (08/14/2025) (readMedia)-- Today, Common Cause/NY, The Black Institute and 5 individuals won a decision by the Third Appellate Division that their lawsuit against ExpressVote XL can continue.