This is, IMO, going to be a big topic in the coming year. Republicans have stated their aim to make voting more restrictive in just about every state where they have the means to do so. Democrats would like to pass the Voting Rights Bill named after John Lewis. I’m going to go look up the map of all the states which have pending legislation to restrict voting. Now that we have the election in the rear view, I thought we could try to make this a general discussion thread, where people who have concerns about voting abuses can post as well and we can discuss it from both sides. Please keep memes out of this thread and put them in the boards where we go to talk about the other side, lol.
Voting Law Proposals and Voting Rights Efforts (1 Viewer)
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J-DONK
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The big issue now is all the gerrymandered districts. Some of these are as low as +3 R using the 2024 election. I saw a breakdown of how Republicans are likely going to lose 2 of the new 5 Texas seats.
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I sure hope they do, and that Dems gerrymandering works as intended.
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A year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week’s elections, Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies.
While Democratic leaders continue to invest their hopes in a “blue wave” to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate next year, Trump and some prominent supporters have sought to discredit the possibility that Republicans could lose in a fair fight and are using that premise to justify demands for a drastically different kind of electoral system.
This is not the first time Trump has questioned the credibility of US elections – he did it almost as vigorously in 2016 and 2024, when he won his bids for the White House, as he did in 2020, when he did not – but now the president’s confidants are threatening emergency powers to seize control of a process over which presidents ordinarily have no control.
Trump’s former chief political adviser, Steve Bannon, is urging him to get the elections “squared away” even before the voters have a chance to weigh in.
Former legal advisers have suggested the electoral system is in itself an emergency justifying extraordinary intervention, possibly including federal agents and the military stationed outside polling stations.
When Bannon was asked whether voters might find this intimidating, he replied: “You’re damn right.”……..
Trump’s assault on voting intensifies as midterms loom: ‘A wholesale attack on free and fair elections’
The White House is manipulating voting system, from redistricting to rule changes, to affect the midterms
LA 2 L.A.
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When someone resorts to intimidation, it shows they know intimidation is the only power they have. It's a bluff. If the majority of us stand up to and push through their bluff, they will lose. Don't be intimidated. Don't let your fear blind you to your power and strength. Be afraid, but still do what you know you can and want to do.When Bannon was asked whether voters might find this intimidating, he replied: “You’re damn right.”……..
Trump’s assault on voting intensifies as midterms loom: ‘A wholesale attack on free and fair elections’
The White House is manipulating voting system, from redistricting to rule changes, to affect the midtermswww.theguardian.com
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superchuck500
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The 3-judge apportionment panel at federal court in Texas today blocked Texas's redistricting plan - largely based on how the Trump administration directed it and made clear it had a racial basis. Abbott says they're going to file for emergency relief from SCOTUS.
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This sure seems like a case the Court would rather punt on. I’m guessing they’ll either decline to hear it or affirm the lower court ruling. Overturning the decision would cause some serious chaos imo.
That said, no way I’m putting anything past this Court.
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The people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have more power than ever – and they plan to use it.
Bolstered by the president, they have prominent roles in key parts of the federal government. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who helped advanceDonald Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, now leads the civil rights division of the justice department.
An election denier, Heather Honey, now serves as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department of homeland security.
Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in the “stop the steal” movement, is now a special government employee investigating the 2020 election.
A movement that once pressured elected officials to bend to its whims is now part of the government.
“The call is literally coming from inside the house,” said Joanna Lydgate, co-founder and chief executive officer of the States United Democracy Center. “Now it has its tentacles in the White House, in Congress and federal agencies, and with outside groups really feeding into that infrastructure.”
The Trump administration is going after states with dubious requests for voter data that could ensnare qualified voters and will serve as an underpinning for future claims of fraud.
They are working to install rules that limit voter access or sow seeds of distrust in who can vote and how. Trump has put federal agents in cities around the country, raising fears that officers could be tapped for election purposes.
“All of this, while focused on past elections, is misdirection about what the actual intention likely is, which is to interfere with the 2026 elections and attempt to delegitimize them if the president’s party doesn’t do well,” said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
The results of the 2025 off-year elections, in which Democrats saw big wins, likely “strengthen the administration’s resolve to interfere in state elections and to further spread doubt about outcomes”, he said.
Some state and local elections officials say they no longer have working relationships with the federal government and do not trust the expertise they used to tap into on election security.
“The federal government is no longer a trusted partner in democracy,” Jena Griswold, the Democratic secretary of state in Colorado, told the Guardian.
Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said: “There would have to be a significant shift in the rhetoric and the attitude coming out of senior leadership in the administration before I open my door and say, ‘Yeah, you guys, come on in.’ It’d be foolish of me to let the fox into the hen house.”
Asked for comment, the White House did not address questions about what authority Trump believes he has over elections or whether he would use emergency powers to take control of elections, as election experts fear he may.……..
www.theguardian.com
Bolstered by the president, they have prominent roles in key parts of the federal government. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who helped advanceDonald Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, now leads the civil rights division of the justice department.
An election denier, Heather Honey, now serves as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the department of homeland security.
Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in the “stop the steal” movement, is now a special government employee investigating the 2020 election.
A movement that once pressured elected officials to bend to its whims is now part of the government.
“The call is literally coming from inside the house,” said Joanna Lydgate, co-founder and chief executive officer of the States United Democracy Center. “Now it has its tentacles in the White House, in Congress and federal agencies, and with outside groups really feeding into that infrastructure.”
The Trump administration is going after states with dubious requests for voter data that could ensnare qualified voters and will serve as an underpinning for future claims of fraud.
They are working to install rules that limit voter access or sow seeds of distrust in who can vote and how. Trump has put federal agents in cities around the country, raising fears that officers could be tapped for election purposes.
“All of this, while focused on past elections, is misdirection about what the actual intention likely is, which is to interfere with the 2026 elections and attempt to delegitimize them if the president’s party doesn’t do well,” said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
The results of the 2025 off-year elections, in which Democrats saw big wins, likely “strengthen the administration’s resolve to interfere in state elections and to further spread doubt about outcomes”, he said.
Some state and local elections officials say they no longer have working relationships with the federal government and do not trust the expertise they used to tap into on election security.
“The federal government is no longer a trusted partner in democracy,” Jena Griswold, the Democratic secretary of state in Colorado, told the Guardian.
Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, said: “There would have to be a significant shift in the rhetoric and the attitude coming out of senior leadership in the administration before I open my door and say, ‘Yeah, you guys, come on in.’ It’d be foolish of me to let the fox into the hen house.”
Asked for comment, the White House did not address questions about what authority Trump believes he has over elections or whether he would use emergency powers to take control of elections, as election experts fear he may.……..
They tried to overturn the 2020 US election. Now, they hold power in Trump’s Washington
Those who tried to overturn the 2020 election now occupy key federal roles, shaping rules and sowing doubt for 2026
zztop
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John Roberts’s Dream Is Finally Coming True
The chief justice has been working to neuter the Voting Rights Act since the beginning of his career.
In 1982, when the Voting Rights Act was up for reauthorization, the Reagan Justice Department had a goal: preserve the VRA in name only, while rendering it unenforceable in practice. A young John Roberts was the architect of that campaign. He may soon get to finish what he started.
Last month, at the oral argument in Louisiana v. Callais, a majority of the conservative justices seemed to signal their willingness to forbid any use of race data in redistricting. That could lead to the end of the VRA’s Section 2 protections for minority voters, and allow states across the South to redraw congressional districts currently represented by Black Democrats into whiter, more rural, and more conservative seats, potentially before the 2026 midterms.
Optimus Prime
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The number of states that will accept late-arriving mail-in ballots during next year’s critical midterm elections continues to dwindle, as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine “reluctantly” signed new restrictions into law Friday, citing the uncertainty of pending litigation to ban the counting of such ballots in his state.
President Donald Trump has also moved to eliminate the practice nationally.
DeWine, a term-limited Republican, had warnedOhio’s GOP-led Legislature in 2023 that a sweeping package of election law changes he signed that year would likely be the last voting restrictions he would let past his veto pen. Election integrity in the state, he said, had been amply assured.
But, despite having reservations, DeWine on Friday signed legislation eliminating Ohio’s four-day grace period for absentee ballots and making other voting changes.
“I believe that this four-day grace period is reasonable, and I think for many reasons it makes a lot of sense,” he told reporters. “Therefore, I normally would veto a repeal of this four-day grace period. And, frankly, that’s what I wish I could do.”………..
apnews.com
President Donald Trump has also moved to eliminate the practice nationally.
DeWine, a term-limited Republican, had warnedOhio’s GOP-led Legislature in 2023 that a sweeping package of election law changes he signed that year would likely be the last voting restrictions he would let past his veto pen. Election integrity in the state, he said, had been amply assured.
But, despite having reservations, DeWine on Friday signed legislation eliminating Ohio’s four-day grace period for absentee ballots and making other voting changes.
“I believe that this four-day grace period is reasonable, and I think for many reasons it makes a lot of sense,” he told reporters. “Therefore, I normally would veto a repeal of this four-day grace period. And, frankly, that’s what I wish I could do.”………..
Ohio governor 'reluctantly' signs bill eliminating grace period for late ballots
Gov. Mike DeWine has signed legislation eliminating Ohio's four-day grace period for late-arriving mail-in ballots.
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DaveXA
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This is going to be a forking mess. And another thing to consider for those who mail their taxes. And there’s no good reason for this change other than shenanigans.I saw this change, but hadn’t realized the possible consequences.
zztop
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Justice Department sues Connecticut and Arizona over voter data | AP News https://share.google/GFE6ITUP6Gyaji6dH
“Pound sand,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced this week it was suing Connecticut and Arizona for failing to comply with its requests, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has sued to obtain the data. It also has filed suit against the District of Columbia
“Pound sand,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced this week it was suing Connecticut and Arizona for failing to comply with its requests, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has sued to obtain the data. It also has filed suit against the District of Columbia
zztop
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I got a bad feeling about this...
A Supreme Court ruling could bring historic drop in Black representation in Congress
at an October hearing last year for the redistricting case about Louisiana's congressional map, the Supreme Court's conservative majority appeared inclined to issue this year another in a series of decisions that have weakened the Voting Rights Act — this time its Section 2 protections in redistricting.
That kind of ruling could put at risk at least 15 House districts currently represented by a Black member of Congress, an NPR analysis has found. Each of those districts has a sizable racial-minority population, is in a state where Republican lawmakers control redistricting and, for now at least, is likely protected by Section 2. Factoring in newly redrawn districts in Missouri and Texas, which were not included in NPR's analysis, could raise the tally of at-risk districts higher.
A Supreme Court ruling could bring historic drop in Black representation in Congress
at an October hearing last year for the redistricting case about Louisiana's congressional map, the Supreme Court's conservative majority appeared inclined to issue this year another in a series of decisions that have weakened the Voting Rights Act — this time its Section 2 protections in redistricting.
That kind of ruling could put at risk at least 15 House districts currently represented by a Black member of Congress, an NPR analysis has found. Each of those districts has a sizable racial-minority population, is in a state where Republican lawmakers control redistricting and, for now at least, is likely protected by Section 2. Factoring in newly redrawn districts in Missouri and Texas, which were not included in NPR's analysis, could raise the tally of at-risk districts higher.
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