No Kings rallies push early voting as Trump-era election fights deepen
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The No Kings network staged dozens of rallies across the United States on Saturday, urging voters to cast ballots early for the November 3 midterm elections and pushing back against Donald Trump's latest assaults on voting access.
Rallies organized by the No Kings network took place Saturday in multiple U.S. cities, urging voters to submit their ballots before Election Day. The events were framed as nonpartisan, but they grew out of a wave of resistance that began nearly two years ago in response to President Donald Trump's administration and its escalating attacks on democratic norms.
At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, a band performed for a crowd of several hundred people who braved cold weather while holding signs such as "VOTE EARLY" and "HANDS OFF MY VOTE!" In Atlanta, City Councilman Michael Julian Bond addressed attendees, urging them to exercise their constitutional right to vote. > "The Constitution gives you one power, right? That is the power to vote. Are you gonna use that power?" Bond said, drawing on fictional heroes to underscore how vital it is to defend democracy by voting.
President Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about mail voting and has alleged, without evidence, that fraud affected the 2020 election. On Thursday, his administration filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent California from counting mail-in ballots from individuals identified as "likely" noncitizens until their immigration status is verified. The Justice Department warned local officials that processing such ballots could expose them to criminal investigations, a move critics see as part of a broader effort to intimidate election workers and suppress turnout.
Democratic senators Alex Padilla, Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche, requesting that the Justice Department refrain from seizing ballots or other election materials before the midterms are certified.