With moves in Alaska and California, the department has stepped up interventions in the midterm elections as the president’s instrument of unmediated executive power.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump's Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections.

Hope, dread and the final stretch to Election Day.

© The New York Times

The U.S. midterm elections come after aggressive efforts by both Democrats and Republicans to redraw district maps in their favor, a practice known as gerrymandering.

Seguir leyendo

Election officials across the state received letters from the agency saying if they fail to comply, they “risk significant federal scrutiny.”

© Philip Cheung for The New York Times