US President Donald Trump late Thursday forced out the remaining three members of an independent, bipartisan commission that assists state election officials across the country, a move that critics condemned as a “pathetic power grab” ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, were fired, and Republican Commissioner Christy McCormick resigned at the White House’s request, according to ProPublica. The agency, established by Congress more than two decades ago, now lacks leadership and any ability to make decisions, just months before the 2026 elections.

"Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi created hundreds of “sock puppet” TikTok accounts in New York, Texas, and Georgia (via VPN), uploaded to them either pro-Democratic or pro-Republican videos to show their political leanings, and then watched what TikTok’s algorithm fed back to them every day over the 27 weeks leading up to Election Day….Call your senators today through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you want algorithmic transparency legislation and Section 230 reform. Make sure your voter registration is current at vote.org and start telling everyone you know that science has now proven that the 2024 election wasn’t a free and fair contest of ideas."

Even though a federal judge ruled against Trump's executive order aimed to give the USPS authority over which ballots to mail to which constituents, the Postal Service is STILL PLANNING TO IMPLEMENT TRUMP'S ORDER.

EVERY COMMENT ON THE USPS' proposed rules must, legally, be considered before the agency implements these blatantly illegal and unconstitutional rules for blatant voter suppression, for collecting all American's addresses and party affiliations .

VIDEO: Political analyst and commentator Nathan Taylor joins Wajahat Ali to examine claims, allegations, and unanswered questions surrounding the 2024 election and the role that billionaires, technology platforms, and political influence may have played. Waj and Nathan discuss election integrity, political power, social media influence, campaign spending, technology, data operations, and the growing public debate over how modern elections are shaped by wealthy individuals and powerful institutions. 

A poll worker said two federal officers visited her at a voting location during New York’s primaries to confront her about a social media post she’d written criticizing the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. Two officers gave Gonyea a written notice stating that she might be in violation of federal laws that prevent publicly posting personal information about federal officers, she said.

The Atlantic: 'The recorder’s critics fear that the fight could be used as pretext to cancel results MAGA doesn’t like in elections that could tip the balance in Congress...The conflict has already chilled participation among poll workers who are declining to work the election because “they fear the Recorder’s threats of retribution,” the attorney who represents most of the board has said."

Noble warned: “Trump’s executive order requiring the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list of verified US citizens eligible to vote and the Postal Service to limit mail-in voting, could very well disenfranchise millions of voters while doing nothing to eliminate virtually non-existent voter fraud.”

From a last-minute switch to precinct-based assigned polls in Dallas County to a sudden FBI raid of the Fulton County election office, it’s clear that the Trump administration and republican officials are gearing up for some serious shenanigans this election. Our democracy depends on every voter having an equal chance to cast a ballot and have their vote fairly counted. That’s why Indivisible is launching the Election Defense Corps.

CALL TODAY:

GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL. (518) 474-8390

ASSEMBLY SPEAKER HEASTIE: 888-997-5380

LATRICE WALKER, CHAIR,ASSEMBLY ELECTION LAW COMMITTEE 518-455-4466

Salon: "The president is pushing states to create citizenship lists to prevent non-citizens from voting...As the New York Times reported, “only about 54 percent of Americans have passports. Social Security cards, which are generally issued to Americans at birth, can also be possessed by noncitizens. Naturalized citizens do not have U.S. birth certificates, which prove citizenship by birthright. And no central index exists for naturalization records, according to the National Archives.” We don’t have a national ID card in America, but you can imagine that if this order is cleared by the Supreme Court, there would be no choice but to issue them, which would be a bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions.

 Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview is the most capable AI model ever built. Anthropic engineers with no special security training asked Mythos Preview to find security flaws and overnight it found thousands. With a simple prompt, it found vulnerabilities in every major operating system and every major web browser. All by itself.  No human guidance needed. A hacker’s dream.

AI is coming for our votes.

I don’t know how closely you follow the drama around Elon Musk’s energetic romantic life or his various baby mamas, but a new wrinkle may in particular be worth our scrutiny.

One mama, former conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, went on TikTok to mention, almost in passing and while applying her cosmetics on-camera, that Elon told her things on election night 2024 that made her believe he had helped rig Trump’s victory.

At about minute 33 of this excellent analysis of the reasons the Dems lost the 2024 presidential election (if they actually did), the Left Hook's Wajahat Ali suggests that Elon Musk may have thrown the 2024 election for Trump using electronic means - citing the same admissions we all noticed:

COMMENT::  Looking through this flawed report, I saw nothing related to the tactics used to suppress or disenfranchise voters or the threats posed to the vote count or .  There is a section on "ELECTION INTEGRITY” that relates to the vulnerability of the DNC databases, without referencing the current daily attempts by the Trump loyalists to seize control of voter databases in key states.  It is silent on the many threats to the vote count laid out in the Mueller report.  In this atmosphere of obliviousness,  New York State Democrats, specifically the Assembly Election law Committee chaired by Latrice Walker, have not advanced key legislation passed by the NY State to protect votes and voters this November in New York.  ALLEGRA DENGLER

Truthout: Whether or not they read Yarvin or Land or Thiel, they intuitively know that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The real goal is to give that clear vision to the masses of people, who may still mistake Republican tactics as politics as usual, rather than an existential threat to our way of life. …Fear is not enough. Beyond clearly seeing the danger, we also have to remember why democracy is worth everything."

MI Fair Elections: “Election infrastructure did not prepare for threats like this. ...Sophisticated cyberattacks no longer require rare experts…State and county voter roll databases face the same or even bigger risks. Hackers do not need to fake a single ballot to change results. They can alter registration data in hidden ways. This action can block real voters on a large scale or create enough confusion to destroy trust in the final count.”

The Atlantic: "Whatever the motivation (of Gov Polis) , clemency for Peters weakens the rule of law, and it will encourage those who wish to undermine elections.” The release of the local election official convicted of seven crimes is likely to encourage attacks on election integrity.

The Common Cause/ Black Institute lawsuit challenging the certification of the ExpressVote XL in New York was dismissed on Monday 5/11/26

• The judge's decision is here.

• The decision hinges on the idea that whether voters are using hand-marked paper ballots, where the voter's filled-in oval is interpreted by a scanner, or whether they are voting on an ExpressVote XL where the voter's intent is expressed first in text and then translated to a barcode - voters are still relying on the voting machine to interpret their ballot correctly. 

We know that everyone reading this email who is eligible will go out and vote or encourage others to vote. But today, we are asking you to go even further. We are asking our community to stand together and help protect those whose right to vote may be challenged here in New York State.  View a schedule of Hands Off Our Vote trainings.

This month's LNYV newsletter highlights more wins through the New York State Senate and New York City Council, busy activity in Albany, and a call to action before the 2026 Legislative Session in Albany concludes! General Coalition Updates. Plus action items.