Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson

youtube.comWhat's Next After 10/17? Election DefenseYouTube video by No Kings

Tune in! www.youtube.com/live/yXOC2Ga...

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson reposted

Acyn

@acyn.bsky.social

Henderson: When we started No Kings, they said all we did was protest. And so we pivoted to talking about voting early. And then folks said, “Well, why aren’t you just protesting?”

Friends, if the thing the rightwing is spreading about your folks isn’t true…it’s a lie…it’s an attack… Then what sense does it make to keep amplifying it on your pages? Don’t be a microphone for foolishness. ❤️✌🏾✊🏾

We've gotta learn to believe these authoritarians are who they say they are the first time they tell us. Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar's home this morning. Her office says, "The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong." Here are some things I'm not seeing enough of in our online chatter. 🧵

6. The timing: three weeks before Election Day, after a June DOJ raid on an Ohio voter registration group and notices to election officials in 30 states that they're under investigation. The intended audience is voters, especially immigrant, Muslim, and Somali voters in Minnesota.

7. The goal is to make people afraid to show up. So we show up. Naturalized citizens, your vote counts just as much as mine. If early voting is open where you live, bank your vote and bring somebody with you. If you're scared to go, holler. You won't be alone.

4. What we don't know: DOJ says only that a judge authorized the warrant in an ongoing investigation. The government hasn't disclosed the judge, the case number, or the crimes the warrant lists. Everything else is from unnamed sources. I'm not repeating it. Please don't either.

5. The pattern: Protect Democracy tracks 18 elected officials targeted by this administration and marks 15 of those cases as failed. Subpoenas quashed, grand juries refusing to indict, charges dropped, and an acquittal. A search warrant is not a conviction.

2. On Sept. 22, she spoke at a Democratic forum where Renée Good's family and an eyewitness to Alex Pretti's killing testified about fatal shootings by federal immigration agents. So the agency she's been pressing for accountability is the one that searched her home.

3. Meanwhile, Protect Democracy reports that the federal agents who shot and killed Good and Pretti in Minneapolis have faced no charges.

1. The search was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, ICE's criminal investigations division. In August, Omar sent HSI an oversight letter asking why an undercover HSI agent was posted outside her Richfield town hall.

The New York Times reported this morning that Homeland Security has investigated more than 150 organizations in a hunt for groups it says may be helping noncitizens register to vote. The documents came out through a records lawsuit by Democracy Forward. Here's what's in the 166 pages. 🧵

The administration is calling for investigations and weighing undercover agents against voter registration groups. It'd be easy to let that shame us into silence. But what's real is they're the bad guys, not us.

We should keep doing what we're doing with integrity and courage. They should be ashamed, not us. Keep registering where you can. Keep checking your registration. Help 3 people check theirs. Vote early. And get ready to fight.

Get ready for what comes after the election. Nearly 100 million records, almost half from a 2020 election denier with no stated source, are being run by HSI to identify "high-value targets." That's the raw material for claiming noncitizens decided close races. Tell people now.

Remember, we keep us safe. Folks connected to this administration are targeting immigrants, our Muslim fam and other faith leaders who are registering people in marginalized and targeted communities. Don't. Take. The. Bait.

What I'm watching for: this machinery can produce claims, after the votes are counted, that noncitizens decided close races. When those claims show up, you'll already know where the numbers came from and how they were built.

As I read it, the goal is to get groups to stop registering voters before Nov. 3. These investigations are built to make us pull back. The way to make that fail is to keep registering voters wherever registration is still open: carefully, documented, and in public.

Where the voter data goes: state voter rolls get run through an HSI data lab, then entered by Palantir into ELITE, a system used by ICE's deportation office. By July, voter data from six states, including Georgia, had been processed and was waiting to be entered.

Who reads the results: HSI's weekly fraud report covering this work was prepared for a "VP Task Force" in June. In July, ICE set it up to go to White House staff.

Migliore says the state has sent her voter registration solicitations for years. One she kept, from the Louisiana Department of Health in April 2025 after she updated her Medicaid address, came with an enclosed voter registration form.

The data: HSI took in 50.6 million records from the Justice Department's voter rolls and 48.4 million more records obtained by Heather Honey, a 2020 election denier who is now DHS's point person on "election integrity," "through independent sources." The documents don't say what those are.

In NJ, ~6,600 people told the motor vehicle agency they weren't citizens. The state registered them to vote anyway, through what Gov. Sherrill called a software error. ~400 voted. A senior ICE lawyer wrote it appears it happened through "no fault of their own," and those who voted are deportable.

In Louisiana, Denise Migliore, born in Australia, has been in this country for almost three decades and says her citizenship application was pending. She checked "yes" to the citizenship question online and says she didn't know she couldn't vote. She now faces federal felony charges.

That report describes how undercover agents could contact voter registration groups and, if they find a group recruiting noncitizens to register, "gather evidence, disrupt activities, and trace financial backing." The released documents don't show a single group doing that.

Their own numbers: as of late May, HSI had opened 418 voter fraud cases, and 318 had not been referred for prosecution. When Nevada checked 185 people federal officials said were vetted and identified as noncitizens, every one was a citizen.

The groups: 82 were reviewed in Pennsylvania, about 44 in New Jersey, and 26 more were flagged through a tip line. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), ICE's investigative arm, runs the work. Orgs led by people that I love and respect are being targeted...

@mskellymhayes.bsky.social

In New Jersey, a June 1 HSI report says it checked the voter registration groups against its own databases and found "no derogatory information" on any of them. The same report still lists New Jersey, along with Pennsylvania, as a focus for possible undercover operations.

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson reposted

Puff the Magic Hater

I talked with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson about how our communities can defend the voting process this November. Some folks reached out and asked me if I could make an episode about this subject because they were tired of simply being told to vote harder and wanted to know what more we could do. ❤️

truthout.orgActivists Are Preparing to Defend Elections This November“It’s about relational organizing,” says organizer Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson.

Good mornin’, good people, Haymarket Books is offering discounted tickets to this conversation with Angela Y. Davis. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Sarah Haley, and Ula Y. Taylor about the Combahee River Collective and its legacy for activism today.

The event is at The Henry in Oakland, tonight, September 28, at 7 pm (doors at 6 pm). Holler at me if you need the discount code. You can find more events details here: ci.ovationtix.com/36995/produc... ❤️✊🏾

This whole entire thread. Read and share.

This post is unavailable.

naturesintelligence.substack.comNature Has a Framework for Democracy in CrisisWhat living systems teach us about surviving systemic breakdown, protecting essential functions, and reorganizing for what comes next.

When Stosh Cotler writes...it's a must-read and a must-share. Check out the homie's brilliance: What living systems teach us about surviving systemic breakdown, protecting essential functions, and reorganizing for what comes next.

youtube.comMass Call: Winning a Working Families Majority w/ Angie Nixon and Justin J. PearsonYouTube video by Working Families Party

17 Sept

Tune in and share! www.youtube.com/live/bwENN8Z...

"Are we solving this or admiring it?" That question, from @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram, is the reason I wrote this one. A thread on what to do during a coup, and the full essay at the end. 🧵

4. When does my county certify, and can the board refuse? 5. Who do I call if something goes wrong? For Georgia: counties certify Nov. 9 at 5 p.m.; the state certifies Nov. 20. Tennessee counties certify by Nov. 23. Congress is seated Jan. 3, 2027.

medium.comWhat To Do During A Coup“Are we solving this or admiring it?” — @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram.

Make a plan. Build a crew. Know your role and play it excellently. That's our mission. Let's see it done. Full essay, with certification guides for every state: medium.com/@ashleewooda... #ElectionProtection #VotingRights #Midterms2026

"Are we solving this or admiring it?" That question, from @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram, is the reason I wrote this one. A thread on what to do during a coup, and the full essay at the end. 🧵

Before Election Day: work the polls. On Election Day: drivers, childcare, food, de-escalators, & 866-OUR-VOTE at the ready. After polls close: a person at every handoff in the chain of custody. Until the seat's filled: be in the room when the county certifies, & on Jan. 3 when Congress is sworn in.

Five questions to get answered in writing from your county before November: 1. Can my organization credential poll watchers, or only a party? 2. Can I hand out food and water in line, and how far from the door? 3. Where do the ballots go when the polls close, and can I watch?

"Are we solving this or admiring it?" That question, from @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram, is the reason I wrote this one. A thread on what to do during a coup, and the full essay at the end. 🧵

But think about what proof actually is. A recount can move a few hundred votes. A challenge can throw out a few thousand. None of them can move a landslide. The cheapest proof there is, the kind no judge has to rule on and no board can refuse, is a margin too big to argue with.

So, the turnout program is the first line of election protection, and the election protection program is what keeps the vote from being stolen. We need both. Anybody who tells you we get to choose is asking you to lose slowly.

"Are we solving this or admiring it?" That question, from @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram, is the reason I wrote this one. A thread on what to do during a coup, and the full essay at the end. 🧵

Three in ten of us voted by mail in 2024. The president voted by mail himself in Florida this year. None of this is about fraud. It's about making enough noise before the election that regular people give up, and about making the count itself something we can be made to argue about.

Some of the smartest people I organize with say the prove-and-enforce work now matters more than turnout. They're right about half of it. For years, turnout had a budget line, and chain of custody didn't. That assumption is gone.

"Are we solving this or admiring it?" That question, from @hardhatsandheels_ on Instagram, is the reason I wrote this one. A thread on what to do during a coup, and the full essay at the end. 🧵

Let me be clear about my take on what's happening. The far right is in the early stages of a full-blown coup while screaming that there is an election security crisis, a crisis they will not admit they are creating.

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson reposted

Indivisible ❌👑

@indivisible.org

11 Sept

“You heard me. I think this will be a historic season yet again for the No Kings family and all of the movements that come together across our differences to activate on Oct. 17th” - @ashdashlee.bsky.social