As the midterms get closer, President Donald Trump and his allies are kicking their efforts to suppress voting into high gear.

California was the epicenter this week. Vice President JD Vance, as Matt Cohen reported, became the latest top Republican to try to sow doubts about the state’s primary. The veep, echoing his boss, said it was “pretty shady” that a GOP candidate was in the top two early in the count — in the state’s jungle primary, the top two finishers advance to the general election — then fell away as more mail ballots were counted.

Of course, the attack on California’s election system, as Jim Saksa explained, is about laying the groundwork to subvert the midterms. Indeed, Jacob Knutson noted that Trump tapped the federal prosecutor Jay Clayton as the next director of national intelligence just days after Clayton went on cable news and spread baseless conspiracy theories about California’s vote counting. And a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney has already said he’s investigating the primary vote and expects to bring (bogus) charges in connection with it.