ProPublica reporter covering voting, elections and democracy. Former @votebeatUS @azcentral @stateline_news @frednewspost. Tips: DMs open/ Signal jenafifield.01
Phoenix, AZ
Joined October 2011
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Jen Fifield retweeted
At this time of year, there's a lot of social-media chatter about voting machines flipping votes. They're not. Here's what's really happening: apnews.com/article/vote-flip…
Election consultants, researchers and former Postal Service officials say they hope the agency’s special measures will limit delays, but some said mistakes were likely.
“It isn’t a question of ‘if,’" ballots will be rejected, one said, "but a question of ‘how many.'”
Postal Service leaders have also been emphasizing that voters should put their ballot in the mail more than a week before their states' deadline.
Postal Service leaders say such delays are less likely in the Nov. 3 general election because of “extraordinary measures” the agency puts into place for these votes. Ballots meant for local election offices should be expedited and not sent to regional plants.
Want to see if your ZIP code is affected by reduced mail service?
Use our look up tool:
propublica.org/article/mail-…
Why are the cuts affecting mostly rural areas?
The USPS consolidated mail processing into larger regional plants instead of hubs closer to local post offices. Then, the agency cut the frequency of mail pickups at many of these local offices from twice a day to once.
We found that USPS cuts have caused at least a one-day delivery/postmark delay, most affecting states that allow ballots to count if they come in after Election Day as long as they’re postmarked by that day.
Rejection rates increased most in areas that voted for Trump in 2024.
Out today: U.S. Postal Service’s cost-cutting measures have endangered the validity of ballots cast in rural areas, where late-arriving ballots soared in the primaries.
With Ken Morales and @msweetharris: propublica.org/article/mail-…
At an election science conference I went to in June, a panel was lit up by claims that USPS delays in primaries were causing more ballots to arrive late. Someone asked: Has anyone done research yet to see if USPS changes are tied to ballot rejections?
So @propublica did. 🧵
Jen Fifield retweeted
USPS has instituted new policies of delaying postmarking of mail ballot and delivery.
ProPublica shows this has led more people's votes to be tossed, *&* that this is affecting disproportionately rural (red) counties with worse service to begin with.
propublica.org/article/mail-…
Scroll through timeline to see how judges - many appointed by Trump - eviscerated Trump's DOJ voter roll lawsuits, even as DOJ's argument for demanding the voter rolls changed over time: projects.propublica.org/trum…
Visual representation of the judges that have shut down the Trump administration's demands for confidential voter data.
DOJ is 0 - 26, with four pending. Eight of the judges were appointed by Trump. via @peterelkind and Lucas Waldron @propublica. 🔗 in thread.
Our story uncovered the methods that DHS is using to try to identify noncitizen voters using public voter rolls, which insiders warned would produce an "ungodly" number of false positives: propublica.org/article/nonci…
In NV, DOJ said it found 16K noncitizen voters. When NV asked for a list, DOJ sent 185. NV checked those and found all of them were actually citizens.
In CA, DOJ first said it found 190K noncitizen voters. Now, it says 20K. Told CA officials they had 48 hours to check, then sued
.@USAttyEssayli for @USAO_LosAngeles to @FoxNews on the complaint against California over its voter list: “When we're telling them you have 20,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, you're going to be diluting the votes of American citizens. Their response is, ‘It's too late; we already mailed the ballots.’ That's not how the law works, and we're going to go to court. This is a matter of law…All we are asking them to do is sequester the ballots.”
👀
Breaking: More than 100 suspicious letters were sent to state election officials and other election-adjacent people (including a pollster) across the country. votebeat.org/national/2026/1…
Jen Fifield retweeted
The Tohono O’odham Nation straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, and thousands of members live in Mexico.
The Trump administration’s 62-mile border wall would be an attack on tribal sovereignty, members and leaders say.
propublica.org/article/tohon…
