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
“These people are not coming with an objective frame of mind to say let’s look at the facts and see where that takes us. They have their destination in mind and cherry-pick facts to help stand up their crazy theories, so there’s nothing objective about it.” – Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado Clerks Association, on anti-voting activists in election-related positions in the Trump regime.
NOTABLE TRENDS
Prominent Election Conspiracy Theorist Appointed to DHS Suggested Trump Could Declare a “National Emergency” to Change Election Laws: At least 3 prominent anti-voting activists have recently been appointed to high-level positions in the Trump regime, according to recent reporting from the New York Times.
Heather Honey, who has been influential within the Election Integrity Network (EIN) and led the Pennsylvania chapter of the group, was appointed to be the newly created deputy assistant secretary for election integrity at the Department of Homeland Security.
On a call with anti-voting activists in March, Honey suggested that Trump could declare a “national emergency” based on an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election that showed vote “manipulation” so that they could circumvent Congress to change election rules.
Kurt Olsen, who worked on the effort to overturn the 2020 election, was appointed to be a special government employee to “work on election issues important to” Trump.
Marci McCarthy, former chair of the DeKalb County (GA) GOP who spread debunked claims about voting machines and was a contributor to EIN’s Leadership Council, was appointed to be the director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), an agency that previously played a leading role in deterring attacks on elections system and combatting voting disinformation.
Restrictive Voting Laws Enacted In 2025 “Nearly On Pace” to Match 2021, When States Enacted More Restrictive Laws Than At Any Other Point In 14 Years: According to the Brennan Center’s most recent state voting laws roundup, states are “nearly on pace” to match the number of restrictive voting laws enacted in 2021, which had more restrictive legislation than at any other point in the 14 years the Brennan Center has tracked state voting laws. As of early October 2025, 16 states had enacted 29 restrictive laws, just short of the 17 states that had enacted 32 restrictive laws in 2021.
North Carolina Became the Latest State To Enact a Gerrymandered Congressional Map: Despite impassioned protests by voters, the North Carolina House voted 66-48 to pass a gerrymandered congressional map at the expense of Black voters. Since the Senate had already approved the map and the governor does not have a role in the redistricting process, the map immediately became law with the House approval.
The new map specifically targeted a group of Black residents who are moved out of the 1st Congressional District and into the 3rd – including the district’s congressional representative, Rep. Don Davis, a Black Democrat. Voters have challenged the new map, describing it as a “surgical strike on Black political power.”
North Carolina was the third state to redraw district lines after Trump’s request to, and the fourth overall, after Utah passed a new gerrymander in part due to ongoing redistricting litigation.
STATE ACTIVITY
Arizona • Pinal County Suspended Over 1,000 Voter Registrations After State’s Error: Pinal County has suspended over 1,000 voters affected by the state’s record-keeping error who have tried to update their voter registration without providing proof of citizenship, affecting how these voters can vote in the elections scheduled for Nov 4. Counties began sending mail ballots to voters on Oct 8, but suspended Pinal County voters will not receive ballots in the mail. Those voters will have to request a provisional ballot in person to vote.
Georgia SB 202 Increased Barriers For More Than 1.6 Million Voters: New evidence filed in federal court in a case challenging Georgia’s 2021 omnibus anti-voter law, SB 202, shows that more than 1.6 million registered voters faced increased barriers due to the law and it “drastically deepened racial inequalities in voting access in the state.”
The brief showed that SB 202’s voter ID requirements for absentee ballots and the shortened request deadlines coincided with a “dramatic decline” in mail voting by nonwhite voters. The number of Black voters who voted by mail dropped from 29% in 2020 to 5% in 2024, the number of Asian Americans voting by mail fell from 40% to 7%, and the number of Latino voters voting by mail fell from 23% to 3%, in comparison to a 19% decrease among white voters.
SB 202 also severely restricted drop box use; in the eight counties where most of the state’s Black, Asian, and Latino residents live, the number of drop boxes fell by 77%. Separately, the Trump-aligned State Election Board (SEB) majority voted to recommend state legislators ban no-excuse absentee voting next year.
SEB Chair John Fervier pushed back against the effort to restrict absentee voting, stating that “There are a lot of people out there that work seven days a week to feed their families, make ends meet — especially now — and restricting their access to absentee voting is not fair to those people.”
North Carolina • State Elections Board Executive Director Requested Voters’ Full Social Security Numbers: In a letter sent to Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Paul Tine last month, State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes asked for the DMV to provide full Social Security numbers for registered voters. The State Board currently receives only the last four digits of a voter’s Social Security number or their driver’s license number.
Hayes claimed that the full Social Security numbers would allow state officials to better check voter rolls for deceased individuals, people with felony convictions, and alleged noncitizens; however, allowing the State Board to access voters’ full Social Security numbers could severely increase the risk of data breaches and misuse.
ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY
America First Legal Celebrated 350k Comments on Proof of Citizenship Petition and Support from 14 States, Members of Congress, and Anti-Voting Groups: The public comment period for America First Legal’s (AFL) petition to the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) demanding a documentary proof of citizenship requirement for federal voter registration ended on October 20. AFL celebrated the more than 350,000 comments submitted.
However, not all of the comments submitted are in support of the petition since many pro-voting organizations and elected officials submitted comments against the petition and encouraged their supporters to do the same, although it is unclear how many comments were in support or against the petition.
AFL also celebrated the support from 14 states, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, from members of Congress, and from other anti-voting organizations, including America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Election Integrity Network (EIN), Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), Republican National Committee, and Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE).
Separately, eleven Secretaries of State also urged Congress to update the federal voter registration form to require documentary proof of citizenship.
Those federal appointments really bring on a feeling of doom as they get closer and closer to permanently locking out the pesky liberals. Project 2025 could prevail. Any optimism to offer?
Is there a summary of the comments submitted Election Assistance Committee regarding the petition from America First Legal. Can the public request this information? They imply that the significant number of responses submitted were in support, but many were likely opposing the petition and there should be a public accounting of the findings.