In Georgia, Trump and his partners-in-crime turn themselves in.

[link removed]
08/25/2023

For better or worse, election deniers are in the limelight this week. From the debate stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the Fulton County Jail in Georgia, Republicans cannot help but justify suppressing voters and defending a four-time indicted former president.

In Arizona, election denialism is thriving and, in Atlanta, the city’s Democrats are taking a page out of conservatives’ playbook. In Wisconsin, Republicans are not happy with attempts to fight for fair maps and the right to absentee voting.

On the brighter side, however, North Carolina’s latest voter suppression is vetoed — for now. In Georgia, a win for voters came late last week, when a judge temporarily blocked a ban on line warming.

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The Debate? A Mess. Republican Candidates Just Can’t Walk Away From Trump.
** ([link removed])

On Wednesday night, the Republican presidential candidates ** met ([link removed])
on the debate stage for the first time. That is, all eight qualifying candidates: Gov. Ron DeSantis (Fla.), former Vice President Mike Pence, former Gov. Nikki Haley (S.C.), former Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), Vivek Ramaswamy, former Gov. Doug Burgum (N.D.) and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (Ark.).

One big name that we are all too familiar with did not appear with the rest of the presidential hopefuls, however. Former President Donald Trump nixed the debate and instead opted to do a pre-recorded ** interview ([link removed])
with disgraced, former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The two competing stages had to cover a lot of ground. While we might be a bit biased, we were surprised at the lack of questions about voting and elections, given how committed the candidates are to suppressing voters. But one thing everyone did get a chance to debate is where they stand on Jan. 6 and Trump’s culpability.

On the debate stage, candidates were ** asked ([link removed])
to raise their hands as to whether they would pardon Trump if he is convicted for any of his 91 criminal charges. Six of them — DeSantis, Burgum, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy and Scott — confirmed, once again, that they would pardon Trump. Only Christie and Hutchinson stood their ground against the looming, but absent, presence of the four-time-indicted former president.
** ([link removed])

** A Stain Not Easily Removed ([link removed])

By Marc Elias

Amongst other topics, like the alleged decline of cable TV and the Panama Canal, Trump reiterated to Carlson his beliefs that the 2020 election was rigged and that “Mike Pence had the absolute right to send the votes back to the legislatures.”

The former president also went after mail-in voting, despite appearing in a ** Republican National Committee (RNC) ad ([link removed])
on Wednesday endorsing the voting practice: “We could go back, and we should go back, to all paper ballots, voter ID, same-day voting… Anytime you have mail-in ballots you’re going to have massive cheating on your elections.”

Though a lot is unclear right now about who stands to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, one thing is abundantly clear: Every candidate, regardless of whether they appeared on a cable network or in a pre-taped video, stands on the ** wrong side ([link removed])
of democracy. From an insurrection to disenfranchising Native voters by the thousands and young voters by the millions, restrictive photo ID requirements and gerrymandering galore, each one of these candidates gives us pause. ** Read more about their voting rights records and plans for the nation here. ([link removed])

Smile for the Camera, Y’all

Today is the ** deadline ([link removed])
for Trump and the other defendants in the Fulton County, Georgia election subversion ** indictment ([link removed])
to turn themselves over to authorities. Like every other alleged criminal, the indicted will be arrested and arraigned with their mugshots taken.

Always one for theatrics, Trump’s lawyers ** negotiated ([link removed])
a booking time during evening prime time hours on Thursday.

The other defendants trickled into the Fulton County Jail throughout the week. On midday Tuesday, ** John Eastman ([link removed])
, one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys, ** surrendered ([link removed])
, as one the first of the big names to turn themselves in. ** Kenneth Chesebro ([link removed])
, Jenna Ellis and ** Sidney Powell ([link removed])
all followed suit on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Jeffrey Clark and Mark Meadows’ ** requests ([link removed])
to block their arrests were both ** denied ([link removed])
by a federal judge. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) ** responded ([link removed])
to Clark’s request to block his arrest saying that Clark “seeks to avoid the inconvenience and unpleasantness of being arrested...but provides this Court with no legal basis to justify those ends." Both defendants had until 12 p.m. EDT today to surrender at the Fulton County Jail. Meadows ** surrendered ([link removed])
yesterday afternoon. ** Stay up to date on the Georgia indictment here. ([link removed])

Voter Suppression Bill Senate Bill 747 Vetoed in North Carolina

Yesterday, Gov. Roy Cooper (D) ** vetoed ([link removed])
S.B. 747, an omnibus voter suppression law. In ** announcing his veto ([link removed])
, Cooper slammed against the Republicans who advanced the bill, calling out their thinly veiled goals and stating, “Right now, legislative Republicans in North Carolina are pushing an all-out assault on the right to vote, using the advice of Trump’s hand-picked election denier ** Cleta Mitchell ([link removed])
who was on the call trying to help him overturn the election in Georgia.”

S.B. 747 would create a myriad of new voting restrictions. Critically, Republicans crammed in two proposals that Cooper previously vetoed: banning private grants for election administration and moving up the deadline to receive mail-in ballots from three days after Election Day to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Drastically shortening the mail-in ballot return window could ** disenfranchise over 10,000 voters ([link removed])
.

Next week, Cooper’s veto is likely to be overridden by Republicans, who have a
** veto-proof supermajority ([link removed])
after Rep. Tricia Cotham, elected just last year as a Democrat, ** defected ([link removed])
to the Republican Party, betraying the nearly ** 16,000 ([link removed])
constituents who voted for her.

In Georgia, Line Warming Is Okay More Than 150 Feet From the Polling Place

Last Friday, in a major win for voters in Georgia, a federal court temporarily ** blocked ([link removed])
part of voter suppression law ** Senate Bill 202 ([link removed])
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 court also blocked another provision that 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. The practice, known as line warming, is now allowed if the voter is further than 150 feet from the polling place. Supporting voters is especially important in places, like Georgia, where lines to vote are often long as a result of other Republican policies, like ** closing polling locations ([link removed])
.

The Peddlers of “2000 Mules” Face Consequences

Yesterday, the debunked election propaganda movie “2000 Mules” ** headed ([link removed])
to federal court. A Georgia voter sued the movie's creator Dinesh D’Souza and others, arguing that he was defamed and illegally intimidated by being falsely portrayed as a "ballot mule."
* The lawsuit notes that despite being publicly exonerated back in May 2022, the voter continues to be portrayed by D’Souza and other right-wing groups as a “criminal mule,” resulting in him and his family receiving threats and "living in fear."

The harmful disinformation and rhetoric in “2000 Mules” did not just impact Georgia voters. During the 2022 midterms, ** armed vigilantes ([link removed])
in Arizona staked out drop boxes in search of these so-called ballot mules, though a federal judge was able to limit the vigilantes' activities.

And in Arizona, election denialism continues to thrive. Earlier this week, two Arizona voters ** filed ([link removed])
a fringe ** lawsuit ([link removed])
seeking to invalidate the results of the 2022 midterm election results, 255 days after Arizona ** certified ([link removed].)
the election. The plaintiffs, including one Cochise County official, are no strangers to election ** subversion ([link removed])
.

Conspiracy theories about mail-in voting contributed to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Media like “2000 Mules” has only fueled these baseless right-wing conspiracies that run rampant among the Republican Party today.

Those conspiracies might begin to see some consequences, however, as yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court ** sanctioned ([link removed])
the RNC and election denier and failed 2022 attorney general candidate ** Abe Hamadeh ([link removed])
for misrepresenting facts in a petition to the court.

Anyone Can Use Suppressive Voting Tactics! Atlanta Democrats Come Under Fire for “Cop City” Signature Verification

On Tuesday, more than 25 Georgia-based voting rights organizations ** signed ([link removed])
a ** letter ([link removed])
calling on Atlanta Democrats to abandon their plan to utilize signature matching in the validation process for a referendum on the building of the controversial "Cop City" in Atlanta, Georgia.

Why are voting rights groups up in arms? Signature matching is a ** notoriously ([link removed])
fickle practice that, as Fair Fight ** argued ([link removed])
on Monday, “disproportionately impacts ** voters of color ([link removed])
, and is biased against ** disabled ([link removed])
and elderly voters.” Republicans interested in restricting access to the ballot have pushed the practice more and more in recent years, from Florida to, most recently, ** North Carolina ([link removed])
.

To Recuse or Not to Recuse, Wisconsin Battles Are Waged

Wisconsin Republican lawmakers ** asked ([link removed])
for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who was sworn in earlier this month, to be recused from a lawsuit alleging that the state's legislative maps are gerrymandered to unfairly benefit the GOP. In 2017, when the conservatives still held the majority, the justices ** rejected ([link removed])
a ** recusal requirement ([link removed])
as it did not stand to benefit them.
* Also in Wisconsin this week, the Republican-controlled Legislature ** moved ([link removed])
to defend the state's restrictive absentee ballot rules from a lawsuit arguing that the requirements violate the state constitution. In the intervention, the conservative lawmakers ** continue ([link removed])
to maintain that absentee voting is a privilege and not a right.

More News
* The Texas Supreme Court ** denied ([link removed])
Harris County's request to stop the enforcement of Senate Bill 1750 as litigation continues. The law eliminates Harris County’s appointed election administrator and splits election duties between the county clerk and tax assessor's offices, both of which are elected positions.
* Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) ** rejected ([link removed])
ballot language submitted by a pro-voting group seeking to implement a citizen-led redistricting commission. Yost claimed the summary was not a “fair and truthful representation of the proposed amendment.” The pro-voting group can revise the language and re-submit it after gathering 1,000 new signatures.
* The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ** scheduled ([link removed])
oral argument for Oct. 6 in an appeal of a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map. The state’s congressional map — which was ** blocked ([link removed])
in June 2022 for likely violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — remains blocked as litigation continues.

OPINION: How Ohioans Saved Direct Democracy for Us All
** ([link removed])

By Sarah Walker, the policy and legal advocacy director for the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC). ** Read more ([link removed])
➡️
What We're Doing

This Saturday, the 19th Amendment turns 103! The path to women’s suffrage was ** fraught ([link removed])
and it would be remiss of us to not acknowledge the ** racism ([link removed])
of the suffragettes. In the century and three years since women gained the right to vote, rights have been gained — and lost.

Last year, in his majority opinion of ** Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ([link removed])
, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Women are not without electoral or political power,” daring them to reclaim their right to bodily autonomy. So, to celebrate the 19th Amendment, we are reminding folks that abortion rights have ** won in every election ([link removed])
since Dobbs.

If you are in the Washington, D.C. area, you can also ** join the commemoration ([link removed])
of the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington. Six decades later and the fight for freedom, justice and equality is not over.
** ([link removed])

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
Hurry to claim your free koozie with the stay groovy summer bundle!

** Head to the shop here ([link removed])
.

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 ([link removed])
, ** Spotify ([link removed])
or ** wherever you get your podcasts ([link removed])
.
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