Michael Grass

Our research team is doing real-time coverage of emerging news and rumors related to election integrity. We put out several outputs this week. Several of the rumors we covered are still percolating. Some of the stories may become seeds for conspiracy theories later in the cycle. Some highlights...

Grabbing a post-lapswim beer at a brewery in Downtown Tacoma, a group of costumed folks walks in. "We're here for the downtown Halloween pubcrawl!" The beertender was confused. Someone in a strange costume (a hokey farmer-scarecrow?) then said: "Guys, I think we were scammed."

Here's the latest from our @cip.uw.edu election rumor research team ... ⤵️⤵️⤵️ 🧵On Tuesday, Wedgewood Polls released a statement admitting that their polling was fake and justifying it as part of a social experiment to draw attention to low oversight in polling.

70 percent of the internet was vulnerable yesterday to very bad security flaws inside a coding language. Turns out, *one volunteer* is mostly responsible for maintaining that code & helping push updates. Yesterday Ondřej Surý saved the internet. So I called him up www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

At an election science conference I went to in June, a panel was lit up by claims that USPS delays in primaries were causing more ballots to arrive late. Someone asked: Has anyone done research yet to see if USPS changes are tied to ballot rejections? So @propublica.org did. 🧵

It's a busy week for our @cip.uw.edu election rumor research team ⤵️⤵️⤵️

Yes. This is disgusting. The Trump admin manufacturing the evidence to support their conspiracy theories of widespread non-citizen voting. They arrest a tiny number of people (arrests crafted to draw attention), at least some of whom having no idea of the crime they’ve been accused of.

this is a really great data visualization that underscores how panic over noncitizen voting depends significantly on people not comprehending how big numbers are www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Here's the latest from our @cip.uw.edu election rumor research team ...

Over on X, the “rigged election” crowd is pushing rumors around a video livestream clip of election workers, working late at night, allegedly doing something nefarious. Maricopa officials have explained that the workers are just… doing their jobs. But rumors around the video continue to swirl.

This is clearly not acceptable

Dear political pollsters in the Commonwealth of Virginia: I've never lived in Virginia, but every election season in October for the past 15 years, you text and call me about "issues important to Virginians." Why?

Our local stratovolcano looks better with more snow. PNW rainy season: It's time to do your thing!

Overheard at the airport: "She thought she was flying to Toronto but ended up in Ontario, California. It's a big mess."

I'm en route to #NewsLitCon in Salt Lake City.

Autumn colors in the Evergreen State. #Tacoma #TacomaWA #PacificNorthwest

The Ave street festival is a blast every time. Closing the street to cars is a cheat code. Especially in the U District.

Earlier this week, I agreed to interviews with two USA Today journalists. They wrote fantastic articles about the Cornell case that I'm proud to have been a part of. What I did not know is that their employer considers interviews to proprietary and opens up recordings to be used by any journalist.

I’ve come to despise overly large apples and call them “commitment apples”

U.S. border officials reportedly are questioning Canadian citizens with U.S. permanent resident status about whether they've voted in U.S. elections, using state public records to identify the alleged violations. A 61-year-old Point Roberts woman now faces an immigration hearing.

Here's the latest analysis from our @cip.uw.edu election rumor team that took shape over the weekend ...

Our local stratovolcano seems to have seen a good amount of new snow. #Tacoma #Tahoma #MtRainier

Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story. For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards. Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵

This news out of California is another troubling example of how the “rigged election” conspiracy theories have been mobilized into policy, including (illegal) ballots seizures. But it’s REALLY IMPORTANT to stress that the seized ballots are from a 2025 special election, not the current election.

Rumors about “rigged elections" are now a fixture of U.S. elections, leading to diminished trust in election results & democracy (broadly). These rumors can sometimes be hard to debunk, esp. in their early stages. Our UW team has identified the 6 common ways that election integrity rumors mislead:

Does anyone's cat like to ride the bus? We're headed to the vet for a routine check-up, but my sweet, well-mannered tabby seems to enjoy the ride and the adventure of the Route 1 bus in Tacoma.

Important: the USPS rule that SCOTUS blocked tonight was Trump’s big plan to control and restrict mail voting. But a separate policy remains in place: USPS is no longer postmarking mail as soon it gets it, which is hugely important for deadlines. So people must mail back with plenty of time.

Good evening, Tacoma!

Fielding questions re: this article w/bizarre factual errors. First, there's no "Montecito County" in CA. Second, 2 fires are actually in *Monterey,* & 3rd in *Mendocino*. Third, 60k ac have *not* burned in either fictional Montecito nor real Mendocino.🤨

NEW STORY// New Airo Trains Start Rolling on Amtrak Cascades September 30 By Ryan Packer via @theurbanist.org

New study finds the social cost of driving a car 1 km—including pollution, crashes, infrastructure, and noise—is more than *triple* the private cost paid by the car owner. doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

The latest transit data, for July, show that the Seattle urban area now has the best ridership recovery of all large US regions. That's especially true over the past few months, as the region has had routinely higher ridership than pre-pandemic. www.thetransportpolitic.com/databook/us-...

NEWS, as they say: @notus.com is no longer; say hello to The Washington Sun! 🌞 Oh, and: We’ve struck a deal to carry daily weather reports from @capitalweather.com! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/b...

It's going to a busy fall for our @cip.uw.edu team ...

It's a pleasant Saturday in Tacoma. 71° F / 22° C #PublicTransit #Tacoma

Good evening, Tacoma. The mountain is out!

The mountain may not be out tonight in Tacoma but what about this rainbow? 🌈

Great analysis by Jared Holt (@jaredlholt.bsky.social) of social media discourse around the WNBA — revealing how right wing media have converged onto the league, bringing their culture wars with them: blog.openmeasures.io/p/sophie-cun...

This is a wild statistic (from IIHS, a very reputable research org): "Cellphone use prior to crashes is undercounted in police reports by a factor of at least 7."