Representative and Accessible Democracy, Who?

It was a wildly busy week in North Carolina with new district maps released and two more lawsuits filed challenging the suppressive laws enacted just over a week ago.

On Wednesday afternoon, North Carolina Republicans unveiled new congressional and legislative draft maps as well as a county board of commissioners map. Since the maps were drawn behind closed doors, it was the first time that anyone besides the Republican legislators had seen them.

The remedial congressional map from 2022 yielded a 7-7 split; the two proposed maps — constructed solely by Republicans — were drawn to dramatically shift the balance of power to favor conservatives. One version, titled CBP-5, is drawn with an aggressive 11-3 Republican advantage and another version, titled CCJ-1, is drawn with a 10-3-1 Republican advantage. With either proposed map, a handful of duly elected members of Congress will be drawn out of their seats. The state’s legislative maps are similarly expected to deeply favor Republicans. 

Votes on the new maps will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. 

Earlier in the week, two new lawsuits were filed challenging two recently enacted laws: Senate Bills 747 and 749. For our readers keeping track, this brings the total number of lawsuits challenging the nine-day-old laws to four. 

• Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit challenging S.B. 749, arguing that the law — which removes the governor’s ability to appoint members to boards of election and hands that power to the Legislature instead — prevents him from exercising his constitutional duties and violates the state constitution.

• Democracy North Carolina, North Carolina Black Alliance and League of Women Voters of North Carolina filed a lawsuit challenging S.B. 747's provision that targets same-day voter registration alleging it discriminates against young voters, who disproportionately rely on this type of registration.

“The Kraken” Lawyer Sidney Powell Pleaded Guilty and Has To Apologize to Georgians

Yesterday, Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors in the Fulton County, Georgia election subversion case. 

Powell, who served as an attorney for former President Donald Trump during his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, will serve six years probation, pay a $6,000 fine, owe $2,700 in restitution, write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia and testify against co-defendants in the case in future proceedings. Learn more about Powell’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election here.

Kari “Never Back Down” Lake Loses in Court Again

On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of an Arizona lawsuit brought by current U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) and failed secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem (R) that challenged the use of electronic voting machines in Arizona and sought to ban them in the 2022 midterm elections — yes, the 2022 midterms, that’s how long this has going on. 

In the now firmly rejected lawsuit, Lake and Finchem alleged that Arizona’s use of electronic voting machines violated their right to vote under the U.S. Constitution and Arizona law because the machines are “inherently vulnerable” to cyberattacks and voter fraud and could not be relied on to yield objective and accurate vote tallies. 

Their arguments were based on meritless claims of rampant fraud throughout the 2020 election and centered on the use of Dominion voting machines, a major focal point of “Big Lie” proponents following the 2020 election. 

Despite still challenging her gubernatorial loss from 2022, for better or worse, Lake is not one to give up her pursuit of power. Just last week, she launched her campaign for U.S. Senate.

Like Lake, election denier Abe Hamadeh is once again seeking office. On Tuesday, Hamadeh announced he’s running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District.

Also in Arizona this week, an Arizona appellate court affirmed a lower court ruling that determined that Cochise County could not conduct a hand count audit of all early ballots for the 2022 midterm elections. As Cochise County has indicated it would conduct future hand count audits, this ruling bars those as well. 

• Hand counting is less accurate, more costly and more time-consuming than electronic tabulation. This often leads to a delay in the certification of election results for the entire state. Read more about the process here.

Local Redistricting Wins Matter, Too 

In a win for Texas voters, a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down the districts for Galveston County, Texas’ commissioners court — the county’s primary governing body — for diluting Black and Latino voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). 

Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown found that the “the enacted plan illegally dilutes the voting power of Galveston County’s Black and Latino voters by dismantling Precinct 3, the county’s historic and sole majority-minority commissioners precinct,” which remained in place from 1991-2021.  

Brown ordered the commissioners court to submit a new map that contains at least one majority-minority precinct by Oct. 20. If the commissioners do not, a map already reviewed by the federal court will be enacted on Nov. 8.

Since no good decision for voting rights could go unchallenged, Galveston officials appealed the decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the previous map. The 5th Circuit expedited the appeal given upcoming election deadlines and temporarily paused the lower court's decision until Nov. 2, while the Galveston officials' request for a long-term pause is considered. This means the blocked map is temporarily back in place.

Duck, Duck, Wolfe

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Republicans admitted that they do not have the power to remove the state's top election official, Meagan Wolfe, and their vote to do so was only "symbolic." Ducking potential legal ramifications, they conceded in a court filing that Wolfe is still "lawfully" holding office. Learn more about Republicans’ efforts to remove the state’s top election official here.

It couldn’t ever be just good news out of Wisconsin, however. That same day, the Wisconsin Senate successfully voted to remove Democratic appointee Joseph Czarnezki from the Wisconsin Elections Commission due to his refusal to vote on Wolfe’s appointment in June. Within an hour, Gov. Tony Evers (D) appointed another Democratic member to the bipartisan commission. 

• Also this week, the Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Republican Party moved to defend the state's requirement that absentee ballots be completed in the presence of a witness. Voters allege that this requirement violates the VRA.

Landry, Landry Quite Contrary Clinches Louisiana Governorship

Trump-endorsed Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) won the state’s election for governor last Saturday. With 547,828 votes, Landry won the governorship through the support of only 18% of Louisiana’s registered voters. The outgoing Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) was term-limited and unable to run for re-election. 

Taking after Trump, the soon-to-be Louisiana governor has a history of undemocratic behavior. In 2020, as attorney general, he supported a post-election lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s election. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Landry is also currently defending the state's congressional and legislative maps in court. Black voters and civil rights groups argue that the maps violate Section 2 of the VRA by diluting Black voting power.

• You might be wondering what this partisan shift in the governor’s mansion might mean for Louisiana’s ongoing redistricting litigation. Yes, the Louisiana governor has veto power over the redistricting process — in theory. However, the state Legislature has a veto-proof majority. Regardless, a court order does not change even if there is a new governor. 

• In the same low-turnout election, Louisiana voters approved an amendment to ban private funding for already chronically underfunded election offices, an increasing trend in Republican-led states.

More News

• A lawsuit alleging that former President Donald Trump, his campaign and the RNC tried to disenfranchise Black voters during the 2020 election has been randomly reassigned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, the same judge in Trump's Washington, D.C. election subversion case.

• The U.S. Supreme Court will not reverse a decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals canceling a hearing on the creation of a new congressional map in Louisiana. However, the district court can still reschedule the hearing on creating a new, fair map for 2024. Read more about the decision here.

• Two lawsuits challenging Georgia's congressional and legislative maps will head to trial, a federal judge ruled. The cases argue that the districts are racially gerrymandered and dilute the voting strength of communities of color. Oral arguments in the two consolidated cases challenging Georgia's congressional and legislative maps will be held on Nov. 13.

FROM OUR DESK: Michigan Republicans Resurrect Right-Wing Legal Theory Rejected by Supreme Court Last Summer

By Rachel Selzer, a senior case coordinator at Democracy Docket. Selzer tracks and reports on a wide range of voting rights and election-related litigation. Read more ➡️

We are diving into ProPublica’s latest — this time on gerrymandering and legislators covering their tracks. In Texas, former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell has aided Republican lawmakers’ efforts to conceal the decisions behind the map drawing and, ultimately, stall redistricting litigation.   

It’s always worth repeating — there are no off years and this fall is no different. There are a number of critically important elections in progress. If you’re a Virginia voter check deadlines here. In Ohio, you can find what you need to know here. If you are a Pennsylvania voter, you can find out more here.

A new episode of Defending Democracy dropped this morning! On this week’s episode, Marc and Paige talk about redistricting. Specifically, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina are all still facing redistricting litigation as 2024 looms. Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.