No Kings Rallies Turn Toward Early Voting Two Weeks Before the Midterms

Thousands of local events were held across the United States on Saturday under the banner of the No Kings movement, which this time paired its protest against President Donald Trump with a push to get people voting before the November 3 midterm elections.

Associated Press photographers recorded crowds at a rally in New York and demonstrators gathering near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, and the AP also reported a rally in Atlanta. A Getty Images caption showed demonstrators marching over the Memorial Bridge in Washington, and others described a rally in Brooklyn and a separate event in Dallas billed as “No Kings: Vote Early.”

Organizers presented the day as a nonpartisan exercise in voter participation rather than a march alone. According to photo captions and to reporting by the Mexican outlet UnoTV, activities included walking to polling places or ballot drop boxes, checking registrations, requesting absentee ballots and helping people make a plan to vote early in person or by mail where their state allows it. UnoTV reported that more than 3,000 events had been organized nationwide, a figure the paper could not independently confirm; the AP described hundreds of planned events.

The emphasis on early and mail voting arrived during a week dominated by a federal fight over mail ballots in California. The Justice Department sued the state and Los Angeles County, asking a federal court to keep mail ballots from about 20,000 registered voters it describes as likely noncitizens from being counted until their status is checked, NPR and Al Jazeera reported. Before filing, the department gave county officials 48 hours to review a list delivered on a thumb drive, which the county declined to open on security grounds.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has called the federal claims unsupported and likely inaccurate, and state officials say the department has not explained how its list was built. Experts interviewed by NPR were doubtful the suit would succeed, noting that the Constitution leaves the administration of elections largely to the states.

The department’s position is that it is acting to keep ineligible ballots from diluting the votes of citizens, and it has said California made no serious effort to work with federal investigators. Making sure only eligible citizens vote is a goal both parties say they share; the dispute is over whether this list, delivered three weeks before Election Day, is accurate enough to justify setting ballots aside. State officials say noncitizen voting is rare.

Mr. Trump has long questioned the security of mail voting and has made unproven claims that large numbers of noncitizens vote in Democratic-led states. Al Jazeera, citing the federal Election Assistance Commission, reported that about 30 percent of 2024 ballots were cast by mail, with higher shares in Western states such as California.

The midterms will decide control of the House and Senate, both now held by Republicans. The No Kings organizers’ bet is that the energy of street protest can be turned into ballots cast well before November 3.