Election monitors, court challenges proliferate and more news from the states

Good evening. As the federal government plans to send more than 1,000 election monitors to states across the country on Tuesday, Colorado’s chief elections official sounded an alarm. And states continued to battle with the federal government in courts on Thursday, amid the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to assert authority over elections. 

In Utah, the state’s attorney general filed criminal charges against Kalshi and its cofounders. In Missouri, marijuana businesses are eager for clarity on new tax rules from the federal government. 

Make sure you go to the polls informed. Read all of States Newsroom’s election coverage and find a local voter guide here.

The four election monitors the U.S. Justice Department plans to send to Denver suburbs on Election Day will stay at least 100 feet from polling places after the department declined terms set by the Colorado secretary of state’s office, Colorado Newsline reports.

One of the conditions was that monitors would need to be accompanied by observers from the Colorado secretary of state’s office inside any polling location.

“My office provided reasonable restrictions on DOJ monitors, which they refused to accept,” Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement. “As a result, the DOJ will not be allowed to enter voter centers in Adams County. It is illegal for anyone, including the DOJ, to intimidate or interfere with voters outside of voter centers. My office will take any suggestion of voter intimidation seriously and will act accordingly.”

It is common for the Justice Department to assign election monitors, but the larger scale of the deployment this year is different, as is the use of employees from the criminal, rather than civil, office. The department plans to deploy around 1,000 monitors around the country. 

Adams County is the only jurisdiction in Colorado set to be observed by federal monitors on Tuesday. It is a Democratic-majority county in the state’s 8th Congressional District, site of a toss-up race that will help decide which party controls Congress.

New felony charges against Kalshi and a new federal lawsuit against Utah joined the litigation maze between the prediction market platform and the state this week, Utah News Dispatch reports. 

Kalshi and its co-founders are now facing 12 online gambling promotion felony charges, one count of pattern of unlawful activity, also a felony, and a misdemeanor charge for general gambling promotion, according to charging documents filed by Republican Attorney General Derek Brown.

“Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a ‘prediction market’ doesn’t change what it is, and being federally registered doesn’t put a company above the law,” Brown said in a statement.

Related: Prediction markets diverge from traditional polls in North Carolina races as Election Day nears

Missouri marijuana businesses had reason to celebrate in April when the federal officials moved medical marijuana into a less restrictive category of controlled substances. The federal order could also set marijuana companies on a path to substantial federal tax savings, Missouri Independent reports. 

For years, federal law has prevented many cannabis businesses from deducting ordinary expenses — including employee salaries, rent and other costs — when calculating their federal taxes.

But months after the change, Missouri businesses are still waiting for federal tax officials to explain how the new rules will work.

Missouri already allows licensed marijuana businesses to deduct expenses on their state income tax returns.

North Carolina: The race to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District, which Republicans reconfigured to benefit their party last year, is now the most expensive U.S. House general election in history, according to new ad spending data. 

Kansas: Ad spending on the U.S. Senate race has exceeded $84.5 million between the two major-party candidates, creating the most expensive election in state history. 

Alaska: In the latest twist in a toss-up U.S. Senate race, President Donald Trump called for Democratic nominee Mary Peltola to be criminally charged and removed from the ballot, following reporting that her campaign helped efforts to recruit spoiler candidates. 

Washington: The state’s top election official is calling on federal authorities to provide more evidence that the state’s voter rolls include hundreds of noncitizens, after a preliminary investigation revealed U.S. citizens are listed.

Oklahoma: The winner of the U.S. Senate race can take office once the Nov. 3 election results are certified, the Republican attorney general says, cutting short the term of the man appointed to fill a vacancy in March.

Minnesota: Right-wing influencers James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged for unlawful voting and identity theft after they pulled a dress-up stunt during the primary election, unsuccessfully trying to show that voter fraud defenses were insufficient.

North Dakota: The state Supreme Court denied an effort by GOP officials to overturn potential election victories of four legislative candidates whose paperwork they challenged.

South Dakota: Downstream Missouri River states have long worried about receiving an insufficient flow of water from upstream dams. Now they’re worried their share of water could be diminished by potential pipelines for dry Western states.

Arkansas: New data center rules will take effect in the state’s most populous county, after a local judge’s veto was overridden. 

Iowa: A case of highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in a commercial turkey flock of approximately 44,400 birds, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. 

Florida: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will be able to continue his efforts to pare back the number of vaccines children must receive to enter school or daycare before he leaves office Jan. 5, after a judge expedited hearings. 

Oregon: More than a decade after a botched rollout earned Oregon a reputation for having one of the worst state-run health insurance marketplaces in the nation, the state is poised to launch its own system once again.

The Collective Good Immigrant Pantry, a project of Indivisible Memphis, has seen a spike in requests for food since a federal law enforcement task force arrived in Tennessee. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Since the pantry started in July 2025, volunteers have made more than 3,200 deliveries to families in need, including those experiencing financial distress after a primary provider was detained or deported, or immigrant families who are afraid to leave their homes to get groceries, said Jessica Miller, co-founder of The Collective Good.

Miller said the pantry’s 1-year anniversary was a somber one. Need for the pantry had decreased over the summer before spiking in September after federal agents arrested 121 people from El Corralón night club, marking one of the largest raids since President Donald Trump began his second term in office.

In the weeks that followed, weekly delivery counts ballooned from 23 households to 74. The week of Oct. 11, pantry volunteers made 57 deliveries.

Read more from Tennessee Lookout. 

Related coverage: 

The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to combat noncitizen voting and assert authority over elections came under intense scrutiny in courtrooms across the country on Thursday, as Democrats and voting rights groups alleged federal election interference, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to either reveal by midday Friday all states where it has demanded election officials pull aside or not count ballots — or else promise it won’t direct election officials to refuse ballots from some voters.

On the West Coast, an appeals court appeared skeptical of a Trump administration request to allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to resume election-related field operations that could sweep up U.S. citizens.

In California, the Justice Department vowed to keep fighting to require election officials there to set aside the ballots of some 20,000 voters. 

And in Alaska, the DOJ kept up pressure on election officials over its U.S. Senate race.

The bevy of lawsuits and hearings underscore the high stakes of the midterm elections to determine control of Congress.

Communities throughout the country have been inundated with television ads and outside spending as politicians try to spur voter turnout in the most competitive U.S. House races in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

The focus on a short list of campaigns highlights how much power voters in a small number of congressional districts have to determine whether Republicans keep control of that chamber for the next two years or Democrats take over. 

With just days left before election officials begin counting ballots, there are just 16 House races rated as toss-ups as of Oct. 29 by at least two of the three prominent election analysts — the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, Inside Elections and Sabato’s Crystal Ball. Our D.C. Bureau compiled the list, with details on the campaigns, and links to state voter guides. 

More from the D.C. Bureau: Trump cancels weekend Kansas rally 5 days ahead of election

The Trump administration cut naturalization sharply over the past year, leading to accusations it’s holding back hundreds of thousands of people who might have voted in the midterms, Stateline reports. 

Naturalizations began dropping late last year as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started a new, longer process for applicants, including screening social media accounts for “anti-American activities,” and requirements for more English language and civics knowledge, said spokesperson Zach Kahler. 

The potential impact: Almost 380,000 immigrants might have become citizens — and therefore voters — over the past year had the approval rate stayed the same. 

In other election coverage, Stateline spoke with college students from three swing states — New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas — who are rallying against barriers to voting by students during the midterm elections. 

They are marching to the polls, organizing rides to polling sites and canvassing on Election Day. Several said they are looking to break misconceptions about Gen Z. 

“They think we don’t have a voice, so we just have to prove them wrong,” said Lathan Nance, an 18-year-old North Carolina A&T student who voted for the first time last week. 

And in Idaho, Chrissy Teigen, a former model and business owner, came to Boise to make a final push in favor of Proposition 1, the ballot measure that would restore access to abortion in the state. 

Idaho currently has a near-total ban that applies to any stage of pregnancy. The initiative, if passed, would also protect access to birth control and fertility assistance treatments such as in vitro fertilization.

Prior to a downtown rally, Teigen — who lived in Idaho Falls in the early 1990s — met privately with 12 women who have been telling their stories for the campaign.

Officials for New Mexico’s outdoor youth grant program told lawmakers this week that at its current budget level, the program could only fund approximately half of the proposals during a recent grant cycle. They hope to receive more funding during next year’s legislative session to meet growing demand, Source NM reports. 

The state’s Outdoor Equity Fund has awarded $12.8 million in grants for various outdoor youth programs across the state since it began in 2019. 

However, demand has outpaced available funding, Outdoor Recreation Division Grants Coordinator Evan Pilling told a legislative panel Tuesday. In total, the program received $7.8 million in requests last year, but had only $4.2 million in funding. 

Leerae Lester, a 17-year-old member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, told lawmakers that while his peers spend their time “on their phones and gaming,” he recently started bike mechanic training with Sugar Hill Pathways, which offers bike mechanic training and a cycling program through the grants.

The experience has taught him “how to use tools, solve problems and work with other people.” He added that he and seven other Sugar Hill members now hope to open their own community-run bike shop when they are older.

“When New Mexico invests in programs like this, you’re not only paying for an outdoor experience — you’re investing in young people who could become the mechanics, guides, business owners, trail workers and community leaders of the future,” Lester said.