Much to the GOP's Chagrin, Majority Still Rules In Ohio

Here are some recent updates.

• In a win for voters, a federal court temporarily blocked part of Georgia voter suppression law Senate Bill 202 for violating the Civil Rights Act's Materiality Provision, ruling that officials cannot reject an absentee ballot simply because the return envelope lacks the voter's birth date.

  • Doubling up on the victory, the other blocked provision prohibited individuals from handing out food and water to voters within 25 feet of a voter standing in line to vote at a polling place and imposed criminal penalties on those who violated this rule.

• Mississippi's Republican secretary of state asked for the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision from a three-judge panel that struck down the state's lifetime ban on voting for individuals convicted of certain felonies. The decision earlier this month opened up the possible re-enfranchisement of tens of thousands of Mississippians. 

• Former President Donald Trump asked for trial to begin in April 2026 for his Washington, D.C. Jan. 6 case because the Department of Justice's proposed trial date of Jan. 2, 2024 conflicts with proceedings in Trump's other pending legal matters. Stay up to speed with the indictment here.

• There was a hearing on appropriate relief in an Iowa lawsuit that was decided in June. In a victory for voters, it was ruled that the state’s English-only law does not apply to voting materials and dissolved the previous injunction that prohibited the Iowa secretary of state from providing non-English voter registration forms.

• A state court in Washington held a hearing in a lawsuit challenging the state's signature matching process for mail-in ballots. Plaintiffs argue that the process can lead to unjust voter disenfranchisement.