Trump and His Four Indictments Are a Cog in the Republican Anti-Democracy Machine

On Monday night, a Fulton County grand jury charged current 2024 GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump — along with 18 others including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Mark Meadows — for attempting to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The 98-page indictment was returned after more than two years of investigation by the district attorney’s office and includes 41 total counts. 

• The indictment also lists 30 unindicted, unnamed co-conspirators. Arrest warrants were issued for those who were named and charged, but the defendants have until Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender. Trump is expected to plead not guilty.

• An evidentiary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 28 on Mark Meadows' request to move his Fulton County, Georgia charges to federal court. Meadows was indicted on charges of violating the Georgia RICO Act and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. Aug. 28 is the same day that a status conference is scheduled in Trump's Washington, D.C. election subversion case.

The 161 acts in the indictment outline Trump and his associates’ plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and other states including but not limited to Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. 

“Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states,” the indictment reads. 

• No matter how the case shakes out, Trump’s corrosive impact on our democracy cannot be easily repaired. As Marc wrote this week, “Trump has converted the entire GOP into an anti-democracy machine spewing hate and disinformation.” From scores of new restrictive election laws to gerrymandered maps, the attacks on our democracy continue.

In the Lone Star State, A Major Victory for Voters

Yesterday, a federal judge struck down portions of Texas’ 2021 omnibus voter suppression law, Senate Bill 1, for violating the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act. The Materiality Provision protects against disenfranchisement on the basis of trivial errors unrelated to a voter’s eligibility. 

The order invalidates provisions of S.B. 1 that required clerks to reject mail-in ballot applications and completed mail-in ballots if they did not include a voter identification number — either a voter’s driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number — that matched the identification number used on an individual’s original voter registration application.

• According to reporting from the Associated Press, the now struck-down provisions of S.B. 1 contributed to the rejection of nearly 23,000 mail-in ballots in Texas’ 2022 primary election. Mail-in ballots cast by voters of color were rejected at disproportionately high rates and a significant portion of rejected mail-in ballots were cast in Houston, home to the heavily Democratic and diverse Harris County. 

As the staggering rates of mail-in ballot rejections demonstrate, the pernicious effects of S.B. 1’s anti-voting provisions have had tangible and far-reaching consequences for Texas voters.

In another court decision out of Texas, a judge temporarily blocked a law that would abolish the nonpartisan election administrator position in Harris County from going into effect as litigation continues. State Republicans have already appealed this victory, which pauses the ruling. Harris County officials allege the law violates the Texas Constitution.

Redistricting in Florida Is as Winding and Gator-Infested as the Everglades

Last Friday, parties in a state-level lawsuit challenging Florida’s congressional map entered into an agreement that paves the way for the state to potentially resurrect a Black-performing district in northern Florida before the 2024 primary elections. This agreement comes after many map proposals, during which, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) intervened — in an unprecedented move — last year to further gerrymander the state’s maps. 

As the Florida Legislature, with DeSantis’ support, tried to push through unfair maps at the beginning of 2022, former Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.) told a local news outlet that it was “evident that DeSantis [was] trying to restrict minority representation, specifically African American voters.”

While the joint stipulation does not guarantee the reinstatement of a Black-performing congressional district in North Florida, pro-voting advocates are optimistic that the agreement is a step in the right direction. 

“This settlement agreement works towards limiting the damage done by the Governor and legislature when they chose to disregard standards set forth by the highest court of the state of Florida, our State Supreme Court. In essence, this agreement establishes a path forward toward the revitalization of the voices of Florida’s citizens,” stated Cecile M. Scoon, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Florida in a press release. 

Trial is set for next Thursday, Aug. 24. After holding arguments, a Florida judge will decide whether or not to strike down the state’s current congressional map.

Gosh Darnit, Ohioans Seek Democracy Whether Their Lawmakers Like It Or Not

In Ohio, voters resoundingly rejected the anti-democratic, Republican-backed Issue 1 last week in a controversial special election. As Democracy Docket contributor Katy Shanahan wrote this week, “Ohioans support a people-powered democracy and it shows.”

So, it’s not exactly surprising to see Ohio continuing to lead the ballot measure trend given how hellbent Republicans are on keeping citizens out of the electoral process in the Buckeye State. 

This week, Ohio groups have started collecting signatures for a state constitutional amendment to have a citizen-led bipartisan redistricting commission draw the state’s congressional and legislative maps. While Ohio technically has had a redistricting commission since 2018, it has not produced fair maps. 

• Republicans on the commission, who outnumber Democrats, rammed through gerrymandered maps that were repeatedly ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. The current commission is a political one, with all members either being elected officials or individuals appointed by elected officials. Republicans hold a 5-2 majority.

Though Republicans keep producing obstacles to direct democracy, voters keep showing up in Ohio. 

After abortion rights advocates more than successfully cleared the signature requirement necessary to appear on the November ballot, a legal challenge to block the constitutional measure entirely was filed by the GOP. 

• But, last Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court, with its 5-4 conservative majority, unanimously rejected the lawsuit seeking to disqualify an abortion rights amendment from the November ballot. This decision makes certain that voters will have the chance to enshrine reproductive freedom in the Ohio Constitution.

Republicans in North Carolina Pass Omnibus Voter Suppression Bill

On Wednesday night, Republicans approved omnibus voter suppression bill Senate Bill 747, sending it to Gov. Roy Cooper (D) for his signature or veto.

S.B. 747 would enact numerous new voting restrictions in the state and represents the most significant move North Carolina Republicans have taken to meddle with elections this year. Drafted with input from election-denying Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell, the bill would impose a variety of election restrictions, including:

• Banning private funding for election administration,

• Shortening the timeline to return absentee ballots from three days after Election Day to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day,

• Extending the deadline for challenging to mail-in ballots from Election Day to five business days after Election Day and

• Requiring same-day registrants during the early voting period to vote on a “retrievable” ballot after providing required documentation at the polls. These votes will only be counted if the U.S. Postal Service is able to verify the voter’s address via a deliverable notice prior to the start of county canvass, which begins 10 business days after Election Day.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has expressed opposition to the bill that suggests he will veto it. However, state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who ran as a Democrat in the Democratic-stronghold of Mecklenburg County, switched party membership earlier this year. This alarming move has given North Carolina Republicans the requisite numbers to override Cooper’s veto.

• The passage of S.B. 747 comes one day after the North Carolina Legislature overrode six of the Democratic governor's vetoes, enacting three bills that target transgender youth. These six vetoes were made possible by Cotham’s defection to the GOP.

Red, White and Blue: Wisconsin’s Absentee Ballots Get a Helpful, Colorful Makeover 

Earlier this month, the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) unanimously approved changes to the state’s absentee ballot certification envelope that are intended to improve the mail-in process for voters and clerks. 

The changes came after the review of statewide feedback from the many stakeholders that have to interact with each absentee ballot. WEC believes this color-coding will help the state’s more than 1,800 election clerks and their staff keep track of the ballots during the busy election cycle. Eighteen other states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, already use this color-coding system. 

Wisconsin’s absentee ballot has been the subject of multiple lawsuits following razor-thin presidential election margins in 2020 that were within the state’s typical absentee ballot rejection rate. Litigation has included how the ballot is returned, how the witness address is completed and, most recently, who is required to witness the ballot. 

Last month, a lawsuit was filed by pro-voting plaintiffs that challenges three of Wisconsin’s rules regulating absentee voting procedures, including the absentee ballot witness requirement.

More News

• In a win for voters, a federal judge struck down Washington state's legislative districts, ruling they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of Latinos in the Yakima Valley region.

• In Virginia, the Chesapeake City Council voted to approve just four early voting satellite locations, cutting the total number of locations by two and eliminating a community center location in a heavily-Black area.

• In a blow to voting access a federal appeals court upheld an Indiana law that requires voters under the age of 65 to have an excuse to vote by mail. A lawsuit argued that the law discriminates against younger voters and violates the 26th Amendment.

OPINION: Much to the GOP’s Chagrin, Majority Still Rules in Ohio 

By Katy Shanahan, an attorney and activist in her home state of Ohio where she continues to fight for fair maps and expansive voting laws in the Buckeye State. As a contributor to Democracy Docket, Shanahan writes about the state of voting rights in Ohio as well as redistricting both in Ohio and across the country.  Read more ➡️

We are reading Ballotpedia’s new breakdown of data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) biannual Election Administration and Voting Survey that details the absentee and mail-in ballot rejection rate across the country in the 2022 midterms. A total of 549,824 ballots — or 1.5% of all ballots cast — were rejected. 

The percentage seems small at first glance, however, races are increasingly decided by razor-thin margins, sometimes even by just one vote. The 10 battleground states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — were all within that 549,824 margin with President Joe Biden winning five of those critical battleground states by a few ten thousand votes in 2020.  More simply, however, every vote cast by an eligible voter deserves to be counted.

We are also reading more about the new GOP-backed program, EagleAI, that Republican-led states may use after leaving the voter roll program, ERIC. Pro-democracy advocates are worried about right-wing, voter-roll vigilantes overwhelming election officials with bogus challenges. 

It’s summer break for our podcast, Defending Democracy! So, there won’t be a new episode until after Labor Day. But, it’s the perfect time to catch up on everything that has been covered so far this year. Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.