Until Trump began conspiracies about mail voting, Republicans were fully on board with GRACE PERIODS for ballots to arrive as long as postmarked by Election Day. They passed it overwhelmingly in KS, OH, & elsewhere. But now Trump hates it. So 4 red states—KS, OH, ND, UT—all banned it this year.

My favorite part of WHITE CHRISTMAS is the throwaway joke about how Republican Vermont is. “Maybe we can dig up a Democrat!” Sounds silly now, but at the time (1954), a Democrat had *never* won a presidential or Senate race in Vermont.

Checking in on @notmrtibbs.com's #HOF Tracker. With 37 ballots known, Andruw Jones & Carlos Beltrán are at 76% each. It's early, but that kind of number is not going to cut it given the dropoff we always see from public to private ballots. tracker.fyi

This seems like a steal for the White Sox. I know teams are reportedly worried about his K rate, but when has that stopped them from loading up on all-or-nothing talent?

Rough year for Stefanik…

Wyoming low-key has some of the most interesting politics around, and now they’re going to have an open Senate seat, a governor who might challenge state law to seek a third term, and a far-right House member who might leave behind an open seat to primary him.

In essence, this would put the federal government in charge of state voter rolls—a major break from precedent.

It's mailbag time! Inside Elections is doing a mailbag podcast episode before we head into the holidays. Do you have a burning question about ghosts of elections past, present, or future? Drop it below or send it to jacob@insideelections [dot] com and we'll try to answer it on the show!

The NC Board of Elections has ordered a redo of the Morehead City mayoral election. The race came down to 1 vote, but at least 2 people were improperly turned away from the polls: www.wunc.org/politics/202...

Iowa state Rep. JD Scholten is retiring from professional baseball. www.radioiowa.com/2025/12/17/s...

The players I would support in this year’s #HOF election, in order: 1. A-Rod 2. Manny 3. Utley 4. Beltrán 5. Andruw 6. Abreu 7. K-Rod 8. Hamels 9. Pettitte This is the first time since I've been following Hall elections that I'd vote for fewer than 10 candidates!

Remember the super-tight mayor's race in Hamtramck, MI? Well, we got new alleged details this week about what happened to disqualify 37 potentially decisive ballots. 🧵

Wow. Indiana's proposed congressional map goes down in flames in the state Senate, 31-19. The state's two Democratic seats will remain.

Weird quick of how the Indiana Senate votes: If the gerrymandering roll call is 25-25 today, the YES wins because the LG breaks the tie, & gets it to 26-25. But if it ends something like 25-23 for the yes... then it fails! LG cannot vote since there's no tie, & it doesn't get the 26 it needs.

CONFIRMED: Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, will be the new mayor of Miami. She'll be the city's first Democratic mayor since the 1990s. She flipped the office from Republicans, and does so easily. She leads the DeSantis-endorsed Emilio González 59/41 right now with most ballots counted.

In a stealth upset, Democrat Eric Gisler flips a GOP-held Georgia House seat spanning parts of Athens and Oconee County. Gisler won 39% of vote last November. He captured 51% tonight to defeat a Republican backed by Gov. Brian Kemp and other GOP leaders.

The Dallas County, TX, GOP says it’s going to hand-count ballots in the March primary. That’s a big deal because hand counts take much longer and are less accurate than machine counts—and #TXsen will be one of the most closely watched primaries in the country.

Important news in this piece: —Missouri organizers say they’ve collected over 300,000 signatures to block the GOP gerrymander. (They have until Thursday to submit roughly 110,000 valid ones.) —Federal judge rejects GOP lawsuit to toss the petition. missouriindependent.com/2025/12/08/f...

Indiana’s proposed GOP gerrymander has passed committee in the state Senate.

My first article for @votebeat.org is on—what else?—redistricting. www.votebeat.org/2025/12/08/2...

All three steroid-linked candidates got less than 5 votes, meaning they can’t be considered the next time this particular #HOF committee meets.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are on this ballot, though Jeff Kent or Dale Murphy are likelier inductees.

You can help Bolts continue to provide crucial coverage of local elections. Here's how: - Repost this = I donate $1. - Follow @boltsmag.org = I donate $1. - Donate (link below) + tell me how much = I match your donation. (Donate monthly = I match a year's worth)

Genuinely suspenseful whether the Indiana Senate has the votes to pass it. I’m tracking senators’ positions here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

In the NYC election that really matters, Aaron Judge got 11 write-in votes for #NYCmayor, while Pete Alonso got only 3. #Yankees #Mets vote.nyc/sites/defaul...

FL Republicans are in a tricky spot on redistricting. To guard against federal racial gerrymandering lawsuits, it’d be helpful to say they’re redistricting solely for partisan gain…

Alito says in this order that it is “indisputable” that California redistricted for partisan gain. So much for the GOP’s lawsuit against that map!

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Texas congressional map that may help the GOP win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms. A lower court found the map is likely unconstitutional. n.pr/48vTzgl

If they have enough, it would put Missouri’s new map on hold until a vote takes place.

The real question is if the map has the votes to pass the state Senate. I made a spreadsheet tracking senators' positions on redistricting (as well as if they've been the victims of threats). Input welcome: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

The AP has called the #TN07 special election for Matt Van Epps (R). But his ~6-point win still represents a big Democratic overperformance in this Trump+22 district.

With 90% of the expected vote counted, Van Epps (R) leads Behn (D) 52–47% in #TN07. Davidson County (Nashville) is pretty much fully reported, so Van Epps's margin should only grow from here.

TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there. Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.

In counties that appear fully reported: Wayne: Trump won by 77, Van Epps wins by 70 Decatur: Trump+69, Van Epps+60 Benton: Trump+65, Van Epps+56 Houston: Trump+58, Van Epps+47 Perry: Trump+69, Van Epps+55 Consistent with a Van Epps win of 10-12 pts. But much depends on Davidson

The last county, Williamson, has reported its early votes. Based on early votes everywhere and E-Day votes in a handful of counties, Van Epps (R) now leads districtwide, 49.6–49.3%. #TN07

So far we're seeing a decent-sized red shift as we go from early votes to Election Day: Decatur was R+46 in the early vote, is now R+60 with nearly everything reporting. Perry was R+41 in the early vote, is now R+52. #TN07

Annnd the red shift has begun in TN. Perry County was +41% for the GOP in the early vote, but now +51%. Hickman County went from +42% GOP to +47% GOP.

The Davidson County early vote has reported, and it goes for Behn (D) by a whopping 85–15%. She now leads districtwide 53–46% with 44% of the expected vote counted. #TN07

In the #TN07 race in 2024, Mark Green (R) won the early vote in Montgomery County by 18 points, and the Election Day vote by 24 points.

Montgomery County is the largest county reporting any votes so far. Behn (D) is outperforming Harris there by 21 points. Assuming the Election Day vote is redder, that's not a great sign for her. (Remember, she needs to outperform by at least 22 to win.)

Important context: The Election Day vote in Tennessee has, in recent cycles, been a lot redder than the early vote. We're talking quite a jump. In 2024, Harris got roughly 65% of the early/mail vote in Nashville/Davidson County & 55% of the Election Day vote.

With 26% of the vote reporting in #TN07, Matt Van Epps (R) leads Aftyn Behn (D) 57–41%. However, nothing is reporting yet from Davidson County (Nashville), the district's main source of Democratic votes.

Polls are now closed in the #TN07 special election! As a reminder, Trump won this seat by 22 points in 2024, but Dems have overperformed Harris's 2024 margin by an average of 20 points in House special elections so far this year.

the @baseballhall.org announced the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ahead of Sunday's vote in Orlando. It seems to avoid some of the glaring issues I carp about re: cronyism and includes two of the most conscientious voters I know in @jaysonst.bsky.social and @tylerkepner.bsky.social

Last month's election for mayor of Hamtramck, MI, isn't over yet. The candidate who lost by 6 votes is suing to have 37 disallowed absentee ballots counted. www.votebeat.org/michigan/202...

Sixty years ago this week in the Berkshire (MA) Eagle: "Saturday, Richard J. Robbins, 19, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Arlo Guthrie, 18, of Howard Beach, N.Y., each paid a fine of $25 in Lee District Court after pleading guilty of illegally disposing of rubbish...." web.archive.org/web/20201125... 1/2

Federal judges have OK'd North Carolina's new congressional map, allowing it to proceed. Candidate filing is next Monday. Under the new map, Republicans are likely to net an additional congressional seat that is currently held by Democratic Rep. Don Davis. #ncpol

Trump's pardon of Rudy Giuliani et al. for their 2020 election interference may have been so broadly worded that it also pardoned a man accused of voter fraud: www.votebeat.org/2025/11/25/t...

The fundamental problem with WICKED: FOR GOOD is simply that the second act of the musical is so much weaker than the first act. Which goes back to, you shouldn't have split it up in the first place!

Guy who subscribes to Telos for the articles