Election guidance urges local preparation as Democrats favored

With the 2026 U.S. midterm elections approaching, election-protection groups are urging local preparation while prediction-market participants favor Democrats to win both chambers of Congress. The forecasts and warnings describe expectations and potential risks, not election results. Hold the Line, a nonpartisan initiative, says it has updated its election-protection guide for 2026. Originally developed in 2020, the guide offers training and steps for local teams to protect voting and respond nonviolently to potential threats, according to the initiative. The guide identifies four situations that it says should prompt community action: voter disenfranchisement, election-related disinformation or interference, refusal to accept valid results, and political violence or persecution. It recommends steps such as checking voter registration, making a plan to vote, recruiting poll workers or observers, and organizing a local team. The initiative points to events in Michigan after the 2020 election as an example of community mobilization. It says residents and local groups pressed county and state canvassing boards to certify results, and both boards ultimately did so. That account is...