The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated legal and criminal interventions ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections. These actions include filing lawsuits in California and Alaska and modifying internal protocols regarding how election-corruption probes are handled. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated these efforts are intended to protect the integrity of the vote and enforce federal law.
The U.S. Constitution assigns the responsibility of administering elections to individual states. Historically, the DOJ has exercised caution in intervening before results are certified to avoid appearing partisan. During President Donald Trump's first term, department officials reportedly rejected pressure to enlist the DOJ in legal challenges to the 2020 election results.
In California, the DOJ sought to set aside approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters it alleges are likely non-citizens. California officials have argued the DOJ lacks the authority to block these votes and stated they have already implemented measures to prevent non-citizen voting. In Alaska, the department sought to block election certification if incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) narrowly loses, citing a criminal probe into whether a challenger with a similar name entered the race to confuse voters.
Internal changes at the DOJ have accompanied these cases. The administration cut the size of the Public Integrity Section, a unit of career election law experts, and suspended a requirement that federal prosecutors consult this unit on election probes. Three sources familiar with the matter said agents and prosecutors have been told that unresolved issues will now be decided by political appointees, with the Deputy Attorney General’s Office mediating disputes.
The scale of the DOJ’s actions involves multiple states and potential changes to how local U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country investigate election matters. By shifting oversight from career experts in the Public Integrity Section to political appointees in the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, the department has changed the workflow of federal prosecutors. This could lead to more immediate criminal probes or civil litigation during the voting period rather than after certification, a shift from the previous practice of waiting until results were finalized to avoid influencing the outcome.
These actions set a precedent for the federal government to play a more active role in state-run election administration. Former acting Attorney General Peter Keisler suggested this could impact public trust in the department's impartiality. In the immediate future, the DOJ has appealed a Sunday ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason that dismissed the Alaska lawsuit. Further developments are expected as the department takes its California ballot challenge to the Supreme Court. High-stakes races for control of Congress and dozens of governorships will be determined on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.