ProPublica

10/21/2026

Over the last year, ProPublica has published a series of in-depth investigations into the Trump administration’s attempts to assert federal control over elections, an effort that has increasingly defined Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Reporters on our election team have dug into the administration’s attempts to sharply restrict mail-in voting and interfere with the U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to deliver election mail in a timely manner, which a White House spokesperson has denied.

They’ve also brought readers inside the administration’s failed hunt for noncitizen voters and revealed how the main tool the government was using, known as SAVE, was highly inaccurate and had misidentified hundreds of eligible voters in Missouri and Texas as potential noncitizens.

The team has also examined how the Trump administration had systematically demolished the institutional guardrails that held — barely — when Trump tried to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in 2020. The Trump administration maintained that its actions would make elections fairer and more secure, keeping those prohibited from voting, especially noncitizens, from doing so.

Join our election team for a virtual event on Oct. 27 at 4 pm ET to learn how the Trump administration has dismantled safeguards meant to protect the vote and what it all means for the midterm elections.

🔗 RSVP: https://events.propublica.org/voting-guardrails/facebook

10/21/2026

Since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first declared an emergency at the border in 2021, he’s renewed or amended the proclamation at least 69 times.

The proclamation has greatly expanded his powers without going through the state Legislature.

Read more (with Texas Tribune): https://propub.li/4yzY5p9

10/21/2026

New: Colorado’s Ma*****na Enforcement Division may have put consumers at increased risk of using unsafe cannabis products, according to a state audit. The findings echo a yearlong investigation into the agency by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica. https://propub.li/47R0nWd

Colorado's Ma*****na Enforcement Division may have put consumers at increased risk of using unsafe cannabis products, according to a state audit. The findings echo a yearlong investigation into the agency by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica.

10/21/2026

Pennsylvania promises legal help to those who say they were unfairly convicted of a crime. Yet, some incarcerated people are left waiting years for their lawyers to act.

ProPublica and Philadelphia Inquirer previously reported that the state lets lawyers resolve cases quickly using a practice that is discouraged in several states: filing “no-merit” letters, also known as Finley letters, urging the judges to reject their clients’ handwritten or typed claims. In Philadelphia, dozens who had received such letters later had their convictions or sentences overturned based on issues their lawyers had rejected or overlooked.

But the problems with the system go deeper than that: The state’s loose rules and its failure to fund post-conviction work have made the type of breakdown one man encountered a recurring feature of this system.

Nolan O’Neal said he spent years trying to convince the attorney assigned to handle his claim under Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act to track down evidence that could clear him of a shooting. After nine years and 41 extensions on the case, the attorney filed a two-page petition addressing just one of the many issues O’Neal had wanted him to raise.

“It is a daunting and exhausting task to navigate this legal process and be heard,” O’Neal said in an interview. “We at times even have to fight the attorneys who are supposed to represent us.”

By filing public records requests with courts serving all 67 Pennsylvania counties and analyzing a decade of court dockets, our investigation found that the system Pennsylvania set up to protect the right to counsel instead allows, or even encourages, shoddy representation.

Read more at the link in the comments below. ⬇️

Attorney Scott Galloway, who represented O’Neal, said that his ethical obligation to confidentiality prevented him from commenting on the case. Judge George A. Pagano, who granted Galloway the extensions on the case, also declined to comment.

10/21/2026

New: After wildfires scarred the Sacramento Mountains above Ruidoso, New Mexico, the community was under heightened threat of catastrophic flooding. Officials were aware but continued to promote the town to tourists who were oblivious to the danger. https://propub.li/4yrjHnv

After wildfires scarred the Sacramento Mountains above Ruidoso, New Mexico, the community was under heightened threat of catastrophic flooding. Officials were aware but continued to promote the town to tourists who were oblivious to the danger.

10/21/2026

New: Three people died in Ruidoso on July 8, 2025, after dangerous floods swept through the New Mexico town. Despite the tragedy, first responders say the village’s leadership continues to prioritize tourism at the expense of public safety. https://propub.li/4sjEzfh

Three people died in Ruidoso on July 8, 2025, after dangerous floods swept through the New Mexico town. First responders say they were understaffed and inadequately equipped to respond to the flooding.

10/21/2026

New: The Trump administration committed the U.S. to taking a large stake in a Venezuelan company, some of whose owners and investors are shielded from public view. The exact details of the agreement over oil fields had remained unclear — until now. https://propub.li/3UdAtIG

The Trump administration committed the U.S. to taking a large stake in a Venezuelan company, some of whose owners and investors are shielded from public view. The exact details of the agreement over oil fields had remained unclear -- until now.

10/20/2026

Early into Trump’s second term, DHS officials made an unusual request of the agency that protects election systems: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.

The proposition was shocking to the career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). It typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, making employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.

“This goes against everything CISA represents,” one former official said.

CISA employees told the Trump appointees that their request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of pulling off such an operation had just been laid off by DOGE. In recent months, the Trump administration has laid off or pushed out more than 1,000 CISA employees, shrinking the agency by about one-third.

Though the DHS officials’ request was ultimately not acted upon, the saga shows the extent of how the administration has tried to use the agency for its own ends.

In the lead-up to the midterms, several state election authorities have said CISA has provided no assistance — and no explanation for its absence – during the most critical stages of election planning. Some state officials even told ProPublica they fear that what is left of the agency has been compromised by a conspiracy-obsessed presidential administration.

Read our full investigation at the link in the comments below. 👇 👇

The White House declined an interview request but said this in an emailed statement: “President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections.” DHS and CISA did not respond to interview requests or to a detailed list of questions.

10/20/2026

New Mexico has the power to regulate air quality and impose noise requirements within the state, but not at a data center being constructed a few hundred yards away in Texas.

“This is why we need federal regulation,” a New Mexico lawmaker says.

Read more (with El Paso Matters and Texas Tribune): https://propub.li/3W027tk

10/20/2026

New: An FBI anti-corruption team launched an investigation into whether South Carolina’s most powerful members of Congress were involved in a bribery scheme, ProPublica found. After Trump gutted the FBI and DOJ, the investigation went dark. https://propub.li/4yYJV1P

An FBI anti-corruption team launched an investigation into whether South Carolina's most powerful members of Congress were involved in a bribery scheme, ProPublica found. After Trump gutted the FBI and DOJ, the investigation went dark.