Welcome to Bad News Weekly, your rundown of key attacks on voting rights and independent elections across the country – it’s a way to keep up with what the opponents of democracy are up to. We’ll highlight some of the worst anti-voter efforts, with a spotlight on the South, the original frontline in the fight for voting rights, and still its fiercest.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“They needed a road map.” – Kevin Moncla, an election denier whose claims about the 2020 election have been repeatedly debunked, on sending his report outlining alleged fraud in Fulton County, Georgia’s 2020 election to the Department of Justice.
NOTABLE TRENDS
Trump Vowed “There Will Be Voter ID For the Midterm Elections, Whether Approved By Congress Or Not”: Days after the House passed the SAVE America Act, the new version of the SAVE Act that includes a voter ID requirement, President Trump said that he would issue an executive order to require voters to present ID in the midterms if Congress fails to act.
In one Truth Social post, Trump said that “if we can’t get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order.” In another post, Trump said, “There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!”
In recent weeks, Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump lawyer and the head of the Election Integrity Network, has met with White House staff about election policies, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Department of Justice Is Preparing To Give Department of Homeland Security Investigators State Voter Roll Data To Help In Search For Voter Fraud: In the face of increasing frustration from President Trump over the lack of results in his demands to prosecute noncitizen voters, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instructed its law enforcement arm Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to review all open and closed voter fraud cases and report any individuals who registered to vote before they became naturalized US citizens.
According to a Justice Department official, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to give HSI officials access to voter registration data, from state voter rolls, for suspected noncitizens. The DOJ official added that officials have so far decided against the DOJ providing all voter data to DHS because of concerns about “generating bad publicity or being difficult to defend in court.”
STATE ACTIVITY
Arizona • Senate Committee Set to Consider Proposal to Require ICE Agents At All Polling Locations: The state Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee is set to take up a strike-everything amendment to SB 1570 that would require all 15 of the state’s counties to sign an agreement with ICE “to provide for a federal immigration law enforcement presence at each location within this state where ballots are cast or deposited.” Sen. Jake Hoffman (R), the proposal’s author, claimed that it was “a commonsense measure that will help ensure only lawful ballots are cast.”
The proposal likely conflicts with federal law, which bars “any troops or armed men” who are part of “the civil, military, or naval service of the United States” from being deployed to polling locations unless it is needed to “repel armed enemies of the United States.”
Florida • State Legislative Committee Advanced Bill to Require Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote: In a party-line vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development advanced SB 1334, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Under the proposal, applicants would have to prove their citizenship with a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, birth certificate, valid passport, or other methods.
The bill would also require that the US citizenship of every Florida voter be verified through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records before their registration is considered valid.
Wisconsin • Republican Party Filed A “Disturbing Amicus Brief” Comparing Not Giving Department of Justice Voters’ Personal Data to Jim Crow: In a “disturbing amicus brief”, the Republican Party of Wisconsin urged a federal court to force the Wisconsin Elections Commission to hand over the state’s un-redacted voter rolls to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The brief framed people opposed to providing unredacted voter rolls to the DOJ as “corrupt, dishonest, or afraid of being exposed.”
It went on to compare resistance to providing unredacted voter roll data to Southern states attempting to prevent Black people from voting in the Jim Crow era, stating, “Like Alabama in the 1950s, Wisconsin attempts to use state law to obstruct the Attorney General’s investigation today.”
ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY
North Carolina • State Chapter of Election Integrity Network Pushed State Election Board to Use New Version Of Controversial Voter Challenge Software: Brian LiVecchi, chief of staff to state Elections Director Sam Hayes, agreed to witness the demonstration of a new voter roll software after receiving an email from Janet Fenstermaker, who as of last year was a board member of the North Carolina chapter of Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network. The software, ELLY, was created by Dr. Rick Richards and derived from Richards’ EagleAI, a controversial voter challenge software that's development was supported by Mitchell.
“It’s deeply troubling that anyone would consider positioning these tools alongside or as alternatives to trusted voter roll maintenance practices used by professionals,” Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight, said on LiVecchi’s agreement to see a demonstration of the software.
He can vow all he wants. When I voted in the Illinois primary last week, as I fished around for my voter card, the gentleman checking me in said, “ I don’t need that, just verify your street address. Voting must continue under state governance for innumerable reasons.
GOP state officials in all these Red/Purple states know their goose is cooked. So they are doing everything to roadblock easier voting - the place where voting legislation is determined. Democrats have played a dumb short game x years by not focusing more on state governance (as the GOP has done very well x decades). They don’t even run democratic candidates in many state races. Trump can bloviate but if he gets Red States to stack the decks against voters’ access then it’s trouble, as we are already seeing.