This week at Democracy Docket: A good week for fair elections

From California to Virginia, this was a good week for voting rights and fair elections. And we kept you up to date on all of it.

As Democracy Docket’s Yunior Rivas reported, Democrats in the Old Dominion struck another major blow against President Donald Trump’s bid to rig the midterms, quickly moving a constitutional amendment on redistricting through the legislature. If now approved by voters, the measure will allow lawmakers to draw a new congressional map to counter GOP gerrymanders in Texas and other states. Dems are signalling that they may go for a map that would give them as many as four new seats.

There was more good news on the redistricting front from California. As Democracy Docket’s Jen Rice reported, a panel of federal judges rejected a GOP effort to block the Golden State’s new Democratic-drawn map, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last fall. Republicans have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Beyond the redistricting wars, Yunior and Democracy Docket’s Jim Saksa brought us news of the first two rulings in the slew of lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking access to state voter rolls. In a powerful decision that could reverberate nationwide, a federal judge in California rejected DOJ’s demand, finding that it “threatens the right to vote, which is the cornerstone of American democracy.” Another judge likewise dismissed the department’s claim against Oregon.

It wasn’t all positive news: As Jen reported, Republicans on North Carolina’s election board declined to put a polling place on the campus of the nation’s largest HBCU, ignoring silent protests by Black students at the board meeting. It was the kind of local but still shocking assault on voting rights that we’re committed to covering – in part because few other national outlets will.

We also stayed on top of developments in Washington, D.C. The legacy media shrugged, or perhaps didn’t notice, when Trump told an interviewer: “We shouldn’t even have an election.” Call us crazy, but we think when the president casually muses about canceling elections, it’s something our readers deserve to know about — even, or maybe especially, if he’s said similar things before. 

It seems like you agree: The story was one of our most popular ever. And we followed up when the White House claimed Trump was “simply joking.”

There was also news from the Supreme Court, which ruled that candidates now have standing to challenge election rules that disadvantage them. As Jim explained, it isn’t certain which way the decision will cut, politically. But it looks likely to open the election litigation floodgates — which should keep us busy at Democracy Docket, if nothing else!

Meanwhile, Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen spent much of his week on the phone with state election officials. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) told him that the state’s governor should resist Trump’s pressure campaign to free Tina Peters, the former county clerk and election denier who’s in prison for her role in a 2021 voting system breach. Peters’ criminal act “placed the security of … all of our elections at risk,” Griswold said. 

And, in her own interview with Matt, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) pushed back over recent claims made by a local GOP election official — who also happens to be running for her job — about noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. It isn’t clear, Benson said, that “the data has been clearly and rigorously analyzed to ensure the allegations that he’s making have any merit.”

Finally, Democracy Docket’s Jacob Knutson picked up on the latest court filing made by Lindsey Halligan, the Trump loyalist named an acting U.S. attorney in order to bring bogus prosecutions against the president’s perceived enemies. Halligan accused a judge of a “gross abuse of power” for asking her to explain why she continues to use the U.S. attorney title in filings, even after a court found she had been improperly appointed and disqualified her from the post. 

It’s a stark example of the Trump administration’s contempt for the federal judiciary — as well as for the rule of law and anyone who tries to uphold it.