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THIS WEEK

• North Carolina Supreme Court greenlights GOP takeover of state elections board
  
  
• Trump administration files anti-voting lawsuit in North Carolina
  
  
• Montana sued over law that rejects absentee ballots for minor date errors
  

NORTH CAROLINA 

The state supreme court hands a strategic victory to Republicans

The North Carolina Supreme Court has said Republicans can keep control of the state’s election board, at least for now. The dispute over the board could have far-reaching consequences for how future elections are run in the battleground state.

GOP state legislators passed a law last year stripping the Democratic governor of his power to appoint members of the State Board of Elections and transferring that authority to the Republican state auditor.

A lower court found the law “unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt,” but an appeals court blocked the ruling. The North Carolina Supreme Court then, along party lines, rejected a Democratic bid to block the law from going into effect. 

Still, the court did not rule on the law’s constitutionality, and the litigation is ongoing. The case remains with the appeals court. 

In her dissent, Justice Anita Earls (D) rebuked the GOP for its maneuver: “The General Assembly may not grab power over enforcement of election laws by shuttling the Board between statewide elected officials until it finds one willing to do its bidding.”

Even before the high court weighed in, the partisan power grab had already transformed election administration. Earlier this month, newly appointed Republican members commandeered the majority on the board and immediately installed a new executive director who previously served as general counsel for the North Carolina Speaker of the House, cementing the General Assembly’s takeover of the election board.

The changes could have serious implications for future elections in North Carolina. The board has the authority to investigate alleged election irregularities, remove county election board members and make rules and regulations related to primaries and elections. Read more about the North Carolina power grab here.

VOTER ROLLS

The Trump administration files anti-voting lawsuit in North Carolina

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its first voting lawsuit under the Trump administration, and it’s a sharp departure from the agency’s history. 

Under normal presidents, the Justice Department has pursued cases that protect voting rights. Now, the DOJ’s voting section – or at least, what’s left of it – is carrying out President Donald Trump’s agenda by flipping enforcement of federal voting laws in an effort to disenfranchise voters, rather than protect them.

North Carolina just concluded a drawn-out legal battle in which a losing Republican candidate failed to overturn an election after challenging around 60,000 votes, citing incomplete information on registration forms. 

The DOJ lawsuit picks up where that saga ended, with the federal government accusing North Carolina of failing to maintain accurate voter lists. Thousands of voters who were nearly disenfranchised in the November 2024 election will now be required to provide additional information. 

Defendants in the case include the North Carolina State Board of Elections – the agency that Republicans just seized control of this month and that we discussed above. Sam Hayes, the newly appointed executive director, has made it clear he’s siding with the Trump administration. 

“[T]he failure to collect the information required by HAVA has been well documented,” Hayes told a local news outlet. “Rest assured that I am committed to bringing North Carolina into compliance with federal law.” Read more about the Trump DOJ lawsuit here.

MONTANA 

A Montana lawsuit aims to make it easier to vote 

Republicans across the country are fighting to make it harder to vote by mail. Now, their attempt to do that in Montana is being challenged in court.

Voting rights groups are challenging a new law that requires Montana voters to include their date of birth on both their absentee ballot application and the ballot envelope, or risk having their vote rejected.

The plaintiffs argue the additional complication is not just unnecessary – it’s harmful. National data shows rejection rates soar in states that require birthdate matching, which could have a serious impact in Montana, where a majority of voters use absentee ballots.

Montana’s new law is just the latest development in the GOP’s expanding effort to throw out mail ballots. Republicans are also fighting on several fronts to reject mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive later – another gambit that disenfranchises their own voters along with Democrats.

If the plaintiffs in Montana are successful, a state court could strike down the new measure before it can harm voters in the 2026 election cycle. There’s reason to hope they’ll prevail. In March, a federal judge ruled that a Pennsylvania law rejecting undated or wrongly dated mail-in ballots was unconstitutional. Read more about what’s next in Montana.

OPINION

Trump’s Drive for Power Threatens Local Sovereignty 

New Jersey elected officials have faced steep consequences for visiting an immigration detention facility earlier this month. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who has argued the facility does not have the required city permits to house people, was arrested and charged with trespassing. Those charges were later dropped. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) has been charged with assault against a federal officer who was blocking the entrance to the facility. 

They’re just two of the officials at every level of government who have been threatened to comply with the Trump administration’s agenda, independent journalist and lawyer Jessica Pishko writes in an opinion piece.

“We are accustomed to Trump flouting and subverting the law, but perhaps less observed are the ways in which his administration seems determined to shut down local sovereignty,” Pishko writes. Read more here.

NEW VIDEO

The Fight for a Pro-Democracy Agenda | Rep. Ritchie Torres

Trump is a grave threat to our freedom and due process. New York Congressman Ritchie Torres sits down with Marc Elias to discuss the GOP’s threat to his district, the importance of passing the SAFE Act and expanding our pro-democracy agenda. Watch on YouTube here.

What We’re Doing

The Democracy Docket team is laser focused on the U.S. Supreme Court as we’re waiting for some key opinions to be released. One case we’re closely monitoring is a Louisiana redistricting case in which 12 “non-African American” voters are challenging the state’s 2024 congressional map. How SCOTUS rules could have major implications for the ability of the Voting Rights Act to protect the right of minority voters to fair representation.