Bad News Weekly: January 25, 2026

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.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” – President Donald Trump on potential prosecutions related to his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

NOTABLE TRENDS

• 2025 Saw the Second Highest Total Number Of Restrictive Voting Laws Enacted Since 2011: According to the Brennan Center’s 2025 state voting law roundup, state legislatures enacted at least 31 restrictive voting laws, the second highest total since the Brennan Center began tracking this legislation in 2011. The highest total was in 2021 with 32 laws enacted. The restrictive laws enacted in 2025 featured trends including tightening existing ID requirements, restricting mail voting, and expanding the risk of faulty voter purges. All of these laws except for one will be in effect for the 2026 midterms.

• Efforts to Revive and “Strengthen” SAVE Act Ramped Up: In the past week, right-wing leaders have escalated their calls to revive the SAVE Act and pass it through the Senate while others have called for a new version of the bill that includes photo ID requirements. Rep Anna Paulina Luna (R) stated that she has enough voters from other members of the House to shut down the floor if the Senate does not pass or schedule a vote for the SAVE Act by the time the House returns.

  • In an appearance on Fox News, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R) hinted at plans to “strengthen” the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act by adding photo ID requirements, called the “SAVE Act Plus.

  • Elon Musk called for the filibuster to be waived to pass an “election integrity act into law” that included “visual ID that proves citizenship” and later tweeted in support of Scalise’s comments.

  • Senator Mike Lee (R), a sponsor of the bill, stated that he was working with other legislators to draft a new “and even stronger” version of the SAVE Act. The timeline for the new bill is unclear.

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STATE ACTIVITY

• Utah • House Committee Passed Bill to Require Documentary Proof of Citizenship: The House Government Operations Committee passed HB 209 that would create a “bifurcated” election system, requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to vote in state elections; otherwise, they would only be allowed to vote in federal elections. The bill would also require county clerks to check the state’s voter rolls for non-citizens and provide voters a chance to dispute the findings. It is unclear whether HB 209 would require voters updating their voter registration to provide documented proof of citizenship or if it only applies to new registrations.

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ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY

• Unidentified Anti-Voting “Advocacy Group” Asked DOGE to Analyze State Voter Rolls: In a recent court filing, the Justice Department revealed that two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration (SSA) were secretly in touch with an unidentified “political advocacy group” about analyzing voter rolls. According to the filing, in March 2025, the group contacted the two DOGE members with “a request to analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired” with a stated aim to “find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states.”

  • The group also may have asked the DOGE members to assist the group by accessing SSA data to match the voter rolls. It’s unclear if any data was shared with the group. Although the anti-voting group is not identified, Democracy Docket pointed out that, in March 2025, True the Vote publicly appealed to DOGE to investigate “the nation’s voter registration systems” and added that they could identify “discrepancies” by combining DOGE’s access to federal databases with their “assembled voter roll information.”

Paid for by Fair Fight Action.