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A sign saying "Vote here" is seen outside the Frank Brown Recreation Center in Auburn, Alabama on Nov. 3, 2026. Voters in more than 30 interviews around Alabama Tuesday cited affordability issues as a major concern, though several also brought up national concerns. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Alabamians cast ballots throughout the morning in what could be one of the more critical midterms in recent memory.  In more than 30 separate interviews in Jefferson, Montgomery, Autauga, DeKalb and Lee counties, voters choosing most frequently cited the economy as their number one concern, but national issues were also on many people’s minds. “I think making things like bare necessities accessible—diapers, formula, obviously the cost of groceries—when it comes to talking to outside of the world of babies,” said Sara Tameze-Rivas of Homewood, who voted for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Doug Jones. “But I mean, so many people are having to make decisions like ‘what am I foregoin...

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, mere hours before Election Day in the midterms that will determine control of Congress, denied the Trump administration’s final attempt to force California to set aside the ballots of 20,000 people it suspects are noncitizens. The decision marked a significant blow to President Donald Trump’s bid to control voting in the country’s most populous state and capped a whirlwind three weeks of legal war between the U.S. Department of Justice and California’s state and local election officials.  The Supreme Court’s denial also removed the possibility of a last-minute ruling that could have led to chaos if officials were forced to scramble to follow the Justice Department’s demands. The court denied the Justice Department’s request late Monday afternoon in a one-sentence  order . It noted no dissents, and offered no reasoning, as is often the case in decisions on...

President Donald Trump rallied with Iowa Republicans at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque on Nov. 1, 2026, two days before Election Day. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) American democracy faces one of its biggest stress tests of the modern era, as President Donald Trump’s sprawling campaign for power over elections encounters a firewall of judges, state election workers and voting rights leaders heading into Election Day. A cascade of courtroom losses over the weekend dealt a major blow to the Trump administration’s last-minute efforts ahead of Tuesday to assert authority over voting and hold the prospect of prosecutions over the heads of state election officials.  But another round of last-minute court hearings was set for Monday — and the U.S. Department of Justice  asked the U.S. Supreme Court to require California to set aside the ballots of 20,000 suspected noncitizens. Democrats, voting rights groups and even some former Trump administration officials ha...

Books in the young adult section of the Ozark - Dale County Library Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023 in Ozark, Ala. A lawsuit filed by three authors and a nonprofit alleges that Alabama Public Library Service administrative code changes restricting books with LGBTQ+ themes violates the First Amendment. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) Three authors and a free-speech organization Friday filed a federal civil lawsuit against the state board overseeing Alabama’s libraries, alleging  a rule that limits minors’ access to books with transgender-related content violates the First Amendment. The plaintiffs argue the code changes approved by the Alabama Public Library Service last November amount to content-based discrimination. “I think that having a small group of people decide what is right, not only for their own children but for the children and the families of every family in Alabama, is unconstitutional,” said Kit Rosewater, an author and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in an interview...

Andrew Sorrell, the Republican state auditor incumbent (left), faces Democratic nominee Violet Edwards, a Madison County commissioner, in Tuesday's election. The two candidates vying to be Alabama state auditor are focused on a unique power of the office: its role in election administration. Republican incumbent Andrew Sorrell, a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives, is seeking his second term as auditor. He faces Madison County Commissioner Violet Edwards, the Democratic nominee. The Alabama state auditor is responsible for tracking and keeping inventory of property owned by the state and audits the financial records of the Alabama Department of Finance and the Treasurer’s Office. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE But both Sorrell and Edwards highlighted its appointment power. The auditor, along with the governo...

King County, Washington, election workers dump out a bin full of ballots from a local drop box to sort ahead of the midterm election on Oct. 29, 2026, in Renton, Washington. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard) WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate. Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast,  surpassing the midterm record set in 2022, though analysts were reluctant to translate it into a Democratic wave on the way. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice continued to run  into a firewall of federal judges, losing its previous cases to take over mail-in balloting and obtain state voter rolls in advance of the midterms. The Trump DOJ actions nonetheless  rattled state officials who hold the const...