Step by Step

Election Day has passed, but the election process is far from over. Officials are still counting ballots and double-checking their work to make sure that the results are accurate.

Especially in close races, like for governor in Kansas and for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, it can take days or weeks to know who won. Even after the media declares a winner, election officials conduct audits and recounts and certify the results. That multi-step process also allows for any legal challenges to take place and for any disputes to be resolved. And all along the way, safeguards are built in to ensure the safety and security of the election process is maintained.

Those safeguards are established by state law and carefully implemented in the months and years leading up to an election to verify voter eligibility, test voting equipment for accuracy, audit election results, and more. These measures allow voters to participate in reliable and safe elections.

So, while voters’ role in this year’s elections may be over, the people behind the scenes are still at it.

➡️ MORE: Election Night Is Not the Finish Line

Trump backtracks on accepting election results
After telling news outlets last week that he would accept the results of the midterm elections, Trump took to social media to cast doubt on them. Without citing any evidence, the president questioned whether the election was “honest” and promoted false theories about voting machines and “voting ‘dumps.’”

➡️ MORE: Sharing the Facts About Voting Machines

DOJ drops one pre-election lawsuit, and loses another
After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Justice Department’s request to block California election officials from counting more than 20,000 ballots in last week’s elections, the DOJ dropped the case. A federal judge also blocked similar demands that the Trump administration made of election officials in Washington state.

“This lawsuit attempted to disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty for voters and election workers alike,” the judge overseeing the California case wrote in an order. “The right to vote is sacred. So, too, is trust in our democracy.”

➡️ MORE: Sharing the Facts About Federal Interference in the 2026 Election

White House issues a warning to the incoming Congress
In a letter to U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the likely next chair of the House Oversight Committee, White House counsel Will Scharf wrote that the Trump administration is “monitoring” statements made by members of the incoming Congress about potential investigations of the administration. Scharf claimed that some statements about investigating the administration could be criminal, and that the administration could investigate the people making such statements.

Investigations are a deeply ingrained part of Congress’s work, as it is constitutionally a co-equal branch of the federal government, along with the White House and the federal judiciary. The House Oversight Committee is one of Congress’ primary investigative arms, tasked with providing a check on other branches.

Another DOJ leader resigns
Brett Shumate, the leader of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, resigned on Monday. Shumate led the administration’s efforts to challenge state immigration and public safety policies, including those that block federal agents from wearing masks. His departure comes after three other high-level officials resigned last week, including the leader of the Civil Rights Division, who led the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain voters’ private data from states.

In Delaware, a federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence, which sought Delaware voters’ private data. It is the 28th such case to be dismissed. The Justice Department brought 31 lawsuits in total seeking voter data from states across the country; it has yet to win any of them.

➡️ MORE: Sharing the Facts About Federal Efforts to Compile State Voter Data

In Texas, Secretary of State Robert Howden announced a plan to audit and improve the functionality of the state’s new voter registration system in collaboration with county election officials.

“We need the input of our county election officials and their staff in order to ensure that the enhancements we are building into the system align with the needs of election workers,” Howden said in a statement. “With their help, we will deliver a system that makes it easier for counties to run elections.”

Reuters: ‘Trump has cost us’: After midterm losses, MAGA asks if it’s over

The Democratic ⁠sweep dealt a significant setback to the election denial movement, a central pillar of MAGA politics since Trump’s 2020 defeat. Candidates who embraced his false claims of widespread voter fraud lost heavily, including several who had worked to overturn the 2020 result. Election deniers will hold at least 41 fewer congressional and statewide offices next year, and they have lost 70% of the called races for statewide posts that oversee elections, according to States United Action, a nonprofit that tracks such candidates. Trump made no effort to contest the results and instead blamed Republicans for the defeat.

Spectrum News 1: Wisconsin concession speeches show shift away from election denial

Data from [States United Action] ahead of the 2022 midterms also suggested election denial carried political risk. Its surveys found that 43% of voters across four states said they would be less likely to vote for a so-called “election denier.”

Among independents, 34% said they would be less likely to vote for an election denier, according to the surveys.

FedScoop: House Democrats plot to make Trump’s science cuts ‘more difficult’

In September, Grant Witness and States United Democracy Center launched a tool that estimated $177 billion in federal dollars has been disrupted under the second Trump administration. Those organizations, which used public records to analyze impacted federal funding, concluded that Texas had lost the most federal funding of any state and Vermont lost the most per resident.