Fair Elections Alert: April 20, 2026

Election Safeguards Eliminated. Voters Worried About Election Interference. SAVE-Style Policies Spread in States.

Welcome to Fair Elections Alert, your rundown of key attacks against voting rights and independent elections across the country over the past week. It’s a way to keep up with what the opponents of democracy are focused on. We’ll highlight critical updates you need to be aware of, with a spotlight on the South, the original frontline in the fight for voting rights.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t.” – David Yoder, a registered Utah voter, on his consideration of cancelling his voter registration to protect his privacy after changes to Utah’s voter privacy law.

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NOTABLE TRENDS

• Trump Has Eliminated Election Safeguards and Installed Loyalist Election Deniers in Key Roles: ProPublica’s new investigative report reveals that at least 75 career officials across federal agencies who played key roles in safeguarding the 2020 election have been fired, resigned, or reassigned. They have been replaced by roughly two dozen political appointees – loyalist election deniers – who Trump has installed in positions that could affect elections. 10 ten actively worked to reverse Trump’s 2020 loss and 11 have ties to Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network.

• Voters and Election Officials Worried About Federal Election Interference: Two polls released in the past week revealed that both voters and local election officials are concerned about federal election interference ahead of the midterm elections this year.

  • A new poll conducted by the States United Democracy Center found that nearly half of voters (49%) worry that federal officials will seize ballots in the upcoming midterms.

  • Separately, a new survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that 50% of local election officials are either somewhat or very worried about political leaders interfering with their work. 45% are concerned about politically motivated investigations.

• SAVE Act Style Policies Advanced in at Least 4 States:

  • Kansas state lawmakers overturned Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of the SAVE Kansas Act, HB 2437, which directs the Kasas Secretary of State to regularly check voter rolls with the error-prone SAVE database.

  • Louisiana sued the US Election Assistance Commission for its refusal to allow the state to add a proof of citizenship requirement to federal voter registration forms. The lawsuit claimed that the EAC doesn’t have the authority to decline Louisiana’s request.

    • A nearly identical attempt to require documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration was blocked in court during Trump’s first term. Courts found the move violated the National Voter Registration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, calling it an unlawful barrier to voting. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals, effectively affirming that proof-of-citizenship mandates on the federal form are illegal and unenforceable.

  • Michigan’s Republican-controlled House passed HB 4765 that would require the Michigan Secretary of State to verify the citizenship status of people who register to vote. The bill is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.

  • North Carolina’s State Election Board approved a new process where voters flagged by the error-prone SAVE database would have their eligibility challenged by election officials if the state or county found no record of their citizenship.

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STATE ACTIVITY

• Arizona • Maricopa County Election Supervisor May Have Coordinated with DOJ on 2020 Election Investigation: Records obtained by American Oversight show that Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (R) directly corresponded with the Department of Justice (DOJ) about election records and litigation last year, raising questions around his coordination with federal officials as they seek to investigate past elections.

  • In August 2025, records show Heap learned Maricopa County’s elections staff was planning to delete some records from the 2020 and 2022 elections and raised concerns with the county’s manager. Heap’s executive assistant coordinated a meeting between Heap and US Attorney Timothy Courchaine, the top federal prosecutor in Arizona.

  • Then, on September 4, Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant US Attorney General for Civil Rights, sent a letter to the State of Arizona and Maricopa County instructing them to preserve election records from 2020 to the present. Dhillon stated “it has come to [their] attention that” the county planned to delete 2020 and 2022 email records. Heap responded to Dhillon, voicing support for the DOJ’s efforts.

• Michigan • Antrim County Clerk May Have Improperly Canceled Or Changed Voter Registrations: The Michigan Elections Bureau sent a letter to Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop (R), who ran on “election integrity,” demanding an explanation from her after learning she reportedly improperly canceled or changed voters’ registrations. County clerks are barred from canceling voter registrations solely due to missing one or two elections and they are barred from unilaterally updating the state voter file.

  • The bureau learned that Bishop had allegedly:

    • Sent confirmation and cancellation notices to an unknown number of voters who did not vote in the last two major elections;

    • Did not independently verify the information used to send those notices;

    • Canged voters’ statutes in Michigan’s state voter file.

• Texas • Counties on Alert for DHS Subpoenas Seeking Individual Voter Records: At least three counties (Brazos, Lubbock, and Montgomery) have either received or were told they would soon receive administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking detailed records about some voters, including their registration applications and voter history.

  • A Homeland Security representative said “all 254 counties will be contacted.” The subpoenas appear to be connected to Texas’s transmission of the state’s voter roll to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which reportedly reached an agreement to share voter roll data with DHS.

• Utah • Voters Planning to Cancel Their Registrations After Change in Privacy Laws: Utah recently passed SB 153 to change the state’s voter privacy law to remove the option to “withhold” their voter registration data when registering to vote without a reason. About 1.3 million voters received letters explaining the changes to their voter privacy.

  • Shelly Jackson, deputy director of elections in the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s office, said she has received phone calls from voters who are planning to cancel their registrations to protect their privacy. It’s unclear exactly how many voters plan to do so.

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ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY

• Activist Group Who Inspired California Sheriff’s Seizure of 650,000 Ballots is Connected to Group that Tried to Block Election Certification: Members of the Riverside Election Integrity Team (REIT), whose claims of vote discrepancies inspired Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of over 650,000 ballots, appear to be volunteers for Unite4Freedom. They’re an organized anti-voting group that filed “borderline frivolous” federal lawsuits in at least 9 states in 2024 that sought to block election certification.

  • Greg Langworthy, the REIT member who is cited in documents behind the warrants seeking the ballots, attended a Temecula City Council meeting where he encouraged the council to sign Unite4Freedom’s draft “resolution for a legally valid 2024 election.”

• Anti-Voting Group and US Rep Tenney Demanding Records On Voter Registration Process: Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), an anti-voting organization that files lawsuits against voting access under the guise of “integrity,” is working with US Rep Claudia Tenney (R) to demand records related to how New York counties processes voter registrations.

  • The letter singles out applications missing identifying information and demands the state’s full voter registration database, as well as internal guidance and communications going back to 2021.

  • Rep. Tenney has advanced efforts to challenge elections since 2020 and has raised concerns about voter registration and election administration. Her efforts are part of a push by Republican officials and anti-voting organizations that continues to question election processes despite no evidence of widespread fraud affecting outcomes.

Paid for by Fair Fight Action.