Rubbish Check
Guardian US · 27 September 2026
source“Trump allies could use midterms ‘counting window’ to disrupt results, experts warn”
R4/ 10
Selective
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's claim that Trump allies "could use" the midterms counting window to disrupt results a 4/10 because the warning is accurately attributed to named, on-record experts and hedged with "could," but the headline strips out the article's own reassuring counterpoints, that voting options have never been more plentiful and that no country has ever manipulated a US vote count.
The Verdict
Selective, not fabricated. The Guardian's headline is built entirely on named, on-record sources speaking in conditional terms, so nothing here is invented or misattributed. But the piece buries its own balancing quotes, that early voting is historically easy and that foreign vote-count manipulation "didn't happen" even in 2020, deep in the body while the headline runs only with the alarm.
What actually happened
Election security experts, speaking at a Brennan Center for Justice briefing and in interviews, warned that the days-to-weeks "counting window" after the midterms is a vulnerable moment the Trump administration could exploit, especially after courts blocked its attempts to restrict mail-in voting directly. The same experts also said voting access is currently broader than ever and that no historical precedent exists for a foreign actor directly manipulating a US vote count.
Key facts
- Election experts have warned Donald Trump's administration could use the crucial hours and days after November's midterm elections to disrupt the results after struggling to enforce a crackdown on voting
- The US president's bid to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in ballots was rejected by the supreme court earlier this month, specifically a lower-court injunction on the Trump administration using the US Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security to vet mail-in ballot deliveries.
- Named, on-record sources drove every warning: Caitlin Durkovich (former DHS deputy adviser), Larry Norden (Brennan Center VP), Ben Hovland (former EAC chair), Beth Sanner (former deputy DNI), Geoff Hale (former CISA official).
- In the history of American elections in some ways, there have never been more options for the way that people can vote, and they are still in place going into this election, per Norden.
- We don't have any examples of a country trying to interfere in the electoral process, in that technical process… it didn't happen in 2020, per Sanner.
- The federal government has sharply cut staff and spending on elections security at CISA, reducing technical support to state officials, per Hale.
What to watch for
Watch whether DHS's "unlawful voter initiative," which an anonymous whistleblower told congress last week… is using "highly questionable data" and may be unlawful, produces any concrete numbers before election day. Also watch how the DOJ/FBI's absent "quiet period" plays out once ballots start closing, and whether coverage of the actual count mirrors the reassurance in this piece or only the alarm.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
