Steve Hobbs (Washington politician)

Federal prosecutors asked Washington election officials to set aside ballots from roughly 405 voters they suspect registered without citizenship, accounting for about 1,500 cast ballots, and said more names may follow before Election Day. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs confirmed his office is reviewing the demand, which follows about 60 federal subpoenas for voter records over the past month. Hobbs has called the DOJ's data "deeply flawed," noting citizens appear on the list and most flagged voters are unregistered or inactive, and says withholding ballots without individualized proof would likely be unlawful. No charges have been filed.

A similar, larger fight is underway in California, where a federal judge rejected a DOJ demand to sequester roughly 20,000 disputed ballots but appointed a special master to vet the list, which both sides agree includes citizens. The DOJ has since subpoenaed California election officials and appealed to the 9th Circuit. Alaska has faced comparable demands.

Republican state Rep. Skyler Rude of Walla Walla announced he will resign from his 16th Legislative District seat on Oct. 31, taking a job the next day as legislative director for Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs. His name will still appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot, where he faces Democratic challenger Derek Sarley.

Rude said the job offer became final only days before his announcement and he chose to disclose it before the election rather than wait, calling transparency a priority. If Rude wins, Republican precinct officers and officials across the district's four counties — Walla Walla, Franklin, Benton and Grant — would appoint his replacement, creating two vacancies to fill given the new term starts in January. If Sarley wins, Republicans could still appoint a replacement to serve out Rude's remaining term until Sarley is sworn in.

Rude, first elected in 2018, serves as assistant House floor leader and ranking Republican on the Education Committee. He urged voters who want a Republican successor to vote for him despite his departure.

Top Oregon officials are urging voters to return ballots via drop box rather than the U.S. Postal Service, after a record share of ballots in the May primary were rejected for arriving with a postmark after Election Day. Secretary of State Tobias Read said more than 13% of ballots received during the state's seven-day post-election grace period were rejected for late postmarks, a problem officials link to recent USPS processing changes that often postmark mail a day after it's sent. Read has requested $1.25 million in emergency funding to add 20 drop boxes, expand statewide ballot tracking and update the inactive voter list.

Washington is seeing a similar trend: late-postmark rejections rose to 1.1% in this year's primary, up from 0.8% in 2024, according to the secretary of state's office. Officials there, including Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and Sen. Maria Cantwell, blame the same USPS transportation changes, which they say disproportionately affect rural voters. King County has stepped up promotion of drop boxes as a result. Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether to let the Department of Homeland Security compile lists restricting which mailed ballots USPS may accept, a proposal voting rights groups say would quickly become outdated.

Washington, joined by 24 other states, filed a new federal lawsuit in Massachusetts seeking to block President Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that states could not yet prove harm since the directive hadn't taken effect. The court did not rule on the order's constitutionality. Separately, a federal judge lifted a broader injunction that had kept the order from applying before November's election.

The finalized USPS rules require a federal eligible-voter list, specific ballot envelope designs, tracking barcodes, and election officials submitting voter data to a federal portal. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and Attorney General Nick Brown said return ballots currently lack trackable barcodes, risking rejection, and warned it's nearly impossible to redesign ballots before the election. Hobbs urged voters to use drop boxes as a contingency and said the state would resist sharing private voter data while updating contingency plans regardless of the lawsuit's outcome.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs criticized a reported Department of Homeland Security effort to investigate voter fraud across multiple states, saying he learned of it through CNN rather than from federal officials directly. CNN reported that DHS's Homeland Security Investigations unit, part of ICE, is launching a "coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative" in Washington, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut, a unit that typically handles trafficking and smuggling cases rather than election matters.

Hobbs called the move wasteful, noting Washington recorded only five voter fraud cases out of 90 million ballots cast between 2008 and 2025, and warned it could sow confusion ahead of the midterms. DHS defended the initiative, citing tens of thousands of potential noncitizen voter-roll matches flagged through its SAVE verification program and reiterating Trump administration calls for stricter voter ID requirements. Experts say no evidence supports claims of widespread voter fraud, and longstanding DOJ policy discourages such probes close to elections, though DHS is not bound by that policy.

Roughly two dozen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, including Washington, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania, filed a new lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service on August 26, challenging a rule implementing President Trump's executive order limiting mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. The suit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, comes days after the Supreme Court lifted an injunction blocking part of the order, ruling the earlier Democratic challenge was premature rather than affirming its legality. California's suit followed shortly after, with Attorney General Rob Bonta calling the rule a "clear violation of the Constitution" and citing the state's heavy reliance on mail voting.

The USPS rule requires states to register mail voters into a new USPS database and get federal approval for ballot envelope designs featuring digital barcodes before ballots can be delivered; USPS says it won't deliver ballots to voters absent from the list or in noncompliant envelopes. State officials argue the rule violates the Constitution's assignment of election authority to states and risks disenfranchising voters this close to the election. The coalition seeks a temporary restraining order. Trump's original order remains blocked under a separate injunction, and the administration defends the rule as an election-security measure, though it remains unclear whether it will affect November's elections.