As issues continue to arise about the upcoming midterm elections, we invited the CEO of The League of Women Voters, Celina Stewart, to discuss their work. For over a century, they continue to rise to the challenge of protecting our right to vote.

Celina Stewart is a nationally recognized voting rights attorney, and champion of American democracy. Appointed CEO just three months before the 2024 presidential election, she guided The League of Women Voters through one of the most consequential election cycles in modern history, reaching more than 30 million voters and investing over $1 million in nonpartisan election education in her first year of leadership. She oversees The League’s operations, resources and strategies across a national network of more than 750 affiliates. We spoke with her on September 8, 2026 via Zoom.

Then, as we observe the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, we hear Wendell Berry, who recently died at the age of 92, read from his story, Making It Home.

“The Congressional elections are at hand. They occur in the most critical period our country has ever faced or is likely to face in our time. If you have approved of my leadership and wish me to continue to be your unembarrassed spokesman in affairs at home and abroad, I earnestly beg that you will express yourself unmistakably to that effect by returning a Democratic majority to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. I am your servant and will accept your judgment without cavil, but my power to administer the great trust assigned me by the Constitution would be seriously impaired should your judgment be adverse, and I must frankly tell you so because so many critical issues depend upon your verdict.”
-Woodrow Wilson, 1918

From Heather Cox Richards’ Letter from an American 9-3-26 https://substack.com/home/post/p-213960738“ in Tarrant County, Texas, county commissioners tried an even cruder way of rigging the election. As Cecelia Lenzen of the Texas Tribune reported, they voted 3–2 along party lines to get rid of 92 of the polling sites the county had in 2022 before the midterm election. In 2022 there were 316 election sites; the Republican commissioners cut that number to 224. They also cut three sites for early voting, from 50 to 47. Republicans voted for the cuts; Democrats voted against them.
“It’s not about cost. This is about power. This is very political. This is campaigning from the dais,” said Democrat Alisa Simmons. Throughout the eight-hour meeting about the cuts, speakers from the audience called on the commissioners to increase, rather than decrease, the number of voting sites for the more than 1.3 million people registered to vote in Tarrant County.
Those 1.3 million people are more than live in Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, or Montana, and about the same number of people who live in Maine or New Hampshire.
FACT CHECKED: From the Tarrant County Registrar of Voters office: 1,329,559 registered voters – 81.27% of eligible population 18+ years old

Links to articles and videos pertinent to this show:

Wendell Berry Reads Making It Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApRLCXCB80E&t=13s

Wendell Berry Reads: The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwopVR1hhMU

Wendell Berry Reads A Poem on Hope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j_r4jb9AYw

‘Led us down such a dark path’: documentary explores how 9/11 changed America https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/01/9-11-documentary-netflix-turning-point

Tarrant County removes 92 polling sites ahead of November election https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/01/tarrant-county-removes-polling-sites/

Legal veterans lead fightback against Trump’s ‘full-out assault on democracy’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/07/trump-midterm-elections-rule-of-law-democracy

The Case for Packing the Supreme Court Strict Scrutiny Kate Shaw & Jamelle Bouie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qMEp34lWQk&t=574s

Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/us/politics/whistle-blower-voting-by-mail.html

FBI Has Looked at Using Questionable AI Tech to Review Signatures on Seized Mail-In Ballots https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-2020-election-georgia-fulton-artificial-intelligence-fbi

New Mail Voting Rules Moved Forward Despite USPS Officials’ Concerns About Mass Disenfranchisement https://www.propublica.org/article/mail-voting-usps-officials-concerns-disenfranchisement

Judge Suggests Trump Mail-In Voting Rules Could Cause ‘Major Disenfranchisement’ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/us/politics/mail-ballots-usps-restraining-order.html

Trump Administration Again Asks Supreme Court to Allow Mail Voting Restrictions https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/us/politics/trump-mail-in-voting-supreme-court.html

Trump laying groundwork to impose national emergency by sowing election distrust https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/23/trump-sowing-election-distrust

A Jim Crow Voter Suppression Tool Is Back https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/jim-crow-voter-suppression-tool-back

Millions of Dollars in Secret Spending Could Upend the 2026 Midterms https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/us/politics/the-least-transparent-midterm-how-dark-money-is-washing-over-the-2026-election.html

How We Voted In 2024 MIT Election Data & Science Lab https://electionlab.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2025-07/HowWeVotedIn2024.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Tracker of Justice Department Requests for Voter Information https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/tracker-justice-department-requests-voter-information

Disbanded: Trump’s “Voter Fraud” Commission https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/disbanded-trumps-voter-fraud-commission

The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/trump-administrations-campaign-undermine-next-election

Legislators to subpoena Secretary of State on voter roll question https://dailymontanan.com/2026/09/03/legislators-to-subpoena-secretary-of-state-on-voter-roll-question/

Election experts see few legal options for Trump to meddle with polling places https://dailymontanan.com/2026/09/03/repub/election-experts-see-few-legal-options-for-trump-to-meddle-with-polling-places/

Gallatin elections are free and fair, so long as feds don’t interfere https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinion/guest-columns/gallatin-elections-are-free-and-fair-so-long-as-feds-don-t-interfere/article_7ec24265-3bbb-4ffb-b049-61ac9b1684a2.html

Razed by wildfire, erased by USPS: Hawaiians fight to restore mail delivery https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/03/hawaii-lahaina-mail-delivery-usps

Trump Puts Postal Service At Risk With His Vendetta Against Mail-In Voting, Unions Warn https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-mail-ballot-postal-service_n_6a906711e4b0a9d5e57d38cc?origin=home-latest-news-unit