| Welcome to Bad News Weekly, your rundown of key attacks on voting rights and independent elections across the country – it’s a way to keep up with what the opponents of democracy are up to. We’ll highlight some of the worst anti-voter efforts, with a spotlight on the South, the original frontline in the fight for voting rights, and still its fiercest. “The current presidential administration has a long track record of seeking to, and in some cases, succeeding in, interfering in the operation of elections and sowing seeds of distrust between the general voting public and the very election processes that maintain and further our democracy.” – Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore (D) on the decision to reject the DOJ’s request for the state’s voter list containing sensitive information.
DOJ Escalates Effort to Gather Voter Data By Suing Maine and Oregon: The Department of Justice (DOJ) escalated its effort to gather voter data by suing Maine and Oregon for refusing to turn over their voter registration data, claiming that the states were violating federal law by not providing the voter lists. During a press conference in response to the lawsuit, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) suggested that the DOJ was deliberately going after Democratic election officials, stating “Our neighbors in New Hampshire also rejected the Department of Justice’s voter request…Why aren’t they targeting New Hampshire or Pennsylvania, who have Republican secretaries of state who have said no?” At least four states with Republican chief election officials have provided public voter data but not the sensitive information sought by the DOJ. At least one state, Indiana, provided all of the information the DOJ sought, including sensitive information, and another state, South Carolina, will likely turn over its voter data after the state supreme court recently cleared the way.
Missouri • Proposed Constitutional Amendment Would Effectively End the Citizen Ballot Initiative Process: The state legislature recently advanced a proposed constitutional amendment, which will go before voters for approval in 2026. It would significantly raise the threshold for a citizen-led ballot initiative to pass by requiring citizen-led initiatives to win majorities in each of the state’s eight congressional districts as well as the currently required statewide majority to pass. No other state currently requires ballot measures to win a concurrent majority to pass, meaning majorities in multiple districts in addition to a statewide majority. Mallory Rusch, executive director of the advocacy group Empower Missouri, stated that the proposal would mean the end of citizen-led initiatives in the state. According to an analysis by Bolts magazine, all five of the initiatives that voters approved since 2020 would have failed under the proposed rule. Texas • Dallas County GOP Plan to Hand-Count March Primary Election Day Ballots and Will Be Largest U.S. Jurisdiction to Hand-Count Paper Ballots: The Dallas County Republican Party, which decides how ballots are marked and counted for Republican primaries, voted to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day for the March 3 primary. The hand-counting plan is contingent upon “securing sufficient staffing, funding and project management” as state law requires vote totals to be submitted to the state 24 hours after polls close. More than 49,000 Republican ballots are expected to be cast on Election Day for the primary, making Dallas County the largest jurisdiction known to implement hand-counting of ballots.
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America First Legal and Election Integrity Network Affiliates Push to Require Documentary Proof of Citizenship on Voter Registration Form: In July, after federal courts blocked President Trump from directly ordering the US Election Administration Commission (EAC) from requiring documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form, America First Legal (AFL), a right-wing legal group founded by Stephen Miller (Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff), petitioned the EAC to add the requirement to the form. The EAC opened the petition for public comment on August 21 and it will close on October 20. AFL has encouraged its supporters and allies, including the Election Integrity Network (EIN), to submit comments supporting the petition and there have been over 1,000 public comments as of September 15. According to a review by Democracy Docket, a number of prominent anti-voting activists at the state level, including the heads of EIN state chapters in Michigan and North Carolina, were among the comments.
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