Saturday rallies focus on voting

On Saturday, 17 October, No Kings rallies took place in cities and communities across the United States, about two weeks before the midterm elections on 3 November. Organizers counted more than 3,000 events and framed them as nonpartisan voter participation rather than protest. The fourth round was more subdued and in many cases smaller than earlier gatherings, and many prominent Democrats running in the most closely watched races stayed away. Instead of large flagship marches, the events included marches to polling places, car convoys with honking, concerts and neighborhood gatherings.

In Washington, a band played at the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd that appeared to number a few hundred. In Atlanta, City Councilman Michael Julian Bond urged the crowd to vote before election day.

“The constitution gives you one power, right? That is the power to vote. Are you gonna use that power?”

The organizers' statement put the same message in institutional terms.

“It's a day of nonpartisan voter participation: we are bringing our community together to make a plan to vote early”

Mail ballots and the Justice Department

On Thursday, 15 October, the Trump administration sued California election officials. It wants the state barred from tallying mail ballots of voters the federal government lists as 'likely' noncitizens, pending confirmation of their immigration status. On Friday, 16 October, the Justice Department cautioned local officials who process and tabulate such ballots that they could face criminal investigation and possible prosecution. Earlier that Friday, Senators Alex Padilla, Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to pledge that the department would not seize ballots or other election materials before the midterm results are certified. Trump has long been wary of mail voting and has asserted, without evidence, that fraud cost him the 2020 election.

Polls and the movement's record

Opinion polls cited in coverage suggest Democrats are poised to regain control of the House of Representatives, while the Senate is too close to call. The opposition has campaigned on rising living costs and the unpopular Iran war. The No Kings movement has mobilized against Trump since last year, and swissinfo reports millions of people joined its rallies three times since June 2025. The movement says at least eight million people turned out nationwide at the late March rallies.

Hands Off NYC co-founder Hae-Lin Choi, who helped organize the New York rallies, said the first three rounds set records in the city, with more people on the streets than since the Iraq war. She argued that Trump wants Americans to stop trusting their democracy. Early voting is already possible in most of the country, in some places several weeks before election day.