Fair Elections Alert: July 19, 2026

SAVE Act resurrected. USPS delivery failures plague elections. Election deniers rally around Trump's "election" address.

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

“I have no fear of anything being released. We already know what happened in the 2020 election. That’s the most scrutinized election in world history...I do have a fear that the White House and the federal government has become perhaps the primary amplifier of disinformation that seeks to delegitimize American democracy in our election process.” – David Becker, former Justice Department voting rights attorney, regarding Trump election task force releasing classified intel documents.

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NOTABLE TRENDS

• House Republicans Resurrect SAVE Act: On Wednesday, House Republicans unveiled a $95 billion blueprint for a new spending package that would include $73 billion in new funds for defense and intelligence operations over the next 10 years. The 47-page budget resolution would also authorize decade-long expenditures of $10 billion to incentivize states to implement portions of Trump’s SAVE America Act and $12 billion for agriculture.

  • House Republican leaders hope to use reconciliation to pass portions of the SAVE America Act, a package of election restrictions Democrats strongly oppose. The Republican strategy is to offer states grant money as an ⁠incentive to adopt its measures.

• Ballot Processing Errors Continues:

  • Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Elections is considering decertifying its primary election results after it noticed processing errors affecting 19 ballots related to the state’s larger 400,000 mail ballot misprint in May.

  • Meanwhile, Tennessee’s Shelby County saw both the Democratic and Republican parties issue a joint statement calling for transparency after a processing error led to hundreds of incomplete absentee ballots being distributed.

• USPS Delivery Failures Plague States: Postal Services delivery failures affected multiple states this week.

  • In Nevada, 34 mail ballots cast before Election Day were delivered to the wrong office and went uncounted, prompting U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen to demand a formal USPS investigation.

  • In New Jersey, 24 Atlantic County ballots sat undelivered at a USPS facility over a disputed $66,000 bill from 2020. In Utah, nearly 300 registered voters in Utah County reported never receiving their primary ballots.

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STATE ACTIVITY

• Illinois • Officials Discuss Foreign Interference and Disinformation: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s staff met with governors’ offices to discuss protections against foreign election interference and disinformation, shortly before federal cybersecurity officials warned of efforts by the Russian intelligence branch to gain access to critical systems in Illinois and nationwide. The warning carries added significance given Russia’s infiltration of the Illinois State Board of Elections in July 2016.

• Kentucky • Jefferson County Clerk Faces Scrutiny After Questionable Hires: Jefferson County Clerk David Yates is under scrutiny for hiring his friend and business partner Troy LeBlanc as chief operating officer at $153,000, despite LeBlanc having no prior experience in elections or government IT. The hire followed a no-bid $3,000-a-week consulting contract award to LeBlanc’s mother, who then recommended the COO position. While nothing in the Louisville Metro Code of Ethics prohibits Yates from hiring a business partner, ethics experts say the arrangement raises public trust concerns.

• North Carolina • Officials Attempt To Influence Early Voting Sites: New records show State Auditor Dave Boliek actively pushed for early voting sites in Republican-leaning areas and sought to boost GOP turnout in smaller counties. In Granville County, the elections board again deadlocked 2-2 on an early voting plan with the GOP plan to keep close a library site used by more than 70% of early voters since 2020, a decision critics say will disproportionately affect Black voters and those without transportation. Without a unanimous plan, the state board of elections Republican majority (3-2) will decide the county’s early voting schedule.

• Pennsylvania • 2025 Homeland Security Funds Withheld By Trump Administration: The Trump administration is withholding nearly half of Pennsylvania’s allocated 2025 Homeland Security dollars, with future grants tied to new election-related requirements — a part of a broader federal effort to pressure states on voting procedures.

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ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY

• California Voter ID Ballot Measure Backed By Republican Megadonors & Election Deniers: Proposition 39, which would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote, has raised more than $10 million, largely from billionaire donors with Republican ties.

  • The top donor is Richard Uihlein, a Republican megadonor who contributed $4 million and whose backing of candidates promoting false 2020 election claims was documented in a 2022 ProPublica investigation.

  • The fundraising committee is run by Julie Luckey, mother of tech billionaire and Trump supporter Palmer Luckey.

• Election Denier Groups Rally Behind Trump’s Election Interference Claims, Push Save Act: Following Trump’s address on Thursday, election denier Cleta Mitchell and the Election Integrity Network posted statements echoing Trump’s claim on election interference, while the RNC applauded the address and used the moment to renew pressure on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.

Paid for by Fair Fight Action.