WASHINGTON.- The midterm campaign for control of Congress entered its final weekend on Saturday with two ballot fights converging on the courts and a record already set at the ballot box: more than 51 million Americans have voted early, in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, up from nearly 46 million before Election Day at the last midterms in 2022.
In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., to run because he shares a name with the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The closely contested race is seen as crucial to Democratic hopes of taking the Senate in Tuesday's vote, one of 35 Senate races, along with all 435 House seats, that will decide whether Donald Trump's Republicans keep control of Congress for his final two years in office. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a narrow edge in the House.
California: a 2-1 appeals ruling and a likely Supreme Court appeal
In California, a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco ruled 2-1 earlier in the week against the Justice Department's emergency bid to force the state to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the federal government alleges are likely noncitizens. The order sought by the government "might result in immense hardship to defendants and harm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy," the panel said, in a ruling joined by Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, a Biden appointee.
The administration sued California on October 15 and has sued roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking unredacted voter rolls. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told Fox News on Saturday that the California fight would likely go to the Supreme Court before Tuesday's election: "I hesitate to give a final answer, but I think probably the Supreme Court's next on this one."
Trump at Mar-a-Lago before a Sunday return to the trail
Donald Trump spent Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, after a campaign blitz across multiple states over the past month. He returns to the campaign trail on Sunday in Kansas and Iowa, the two states whose rallies he briefly cancelled and then reinstated this week. Democrats, meanwhile, have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the administration's ballot-segregation effort, calling its purported lists of noncitizens based on "shoddy" data.
Sources: Reuters via The Straits Times, Business Standard and Outlook India, October 31, 2026.