New maps, a new lawsuit and the kick-off to a long-awaited trial in Georgia.

• A federal judge ordered Georgia to enact new maps with an additional majority-Black congressional district and seven additional majority-Black state legislative districts by Dec. 8. If the Legislature does not enact fair districts, the court will. The judge ruled that the current maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by diluting Black voting power. In response, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has scheduled a special legislative session to begin on Nov. 29 to enact new maps.

• Theater employee union members sued over Georgia’s absentee ballot deadline. The VRA says that voters can ask for a ballot up to seven days before a presidential election, but Georgia requires absentee ballots to be requested 11 days beforehand.

• Also in Georgia, trial began in a lawsuit challenging True the Vote’s alleged voter intimidation tactics in the state. Plaintiffs argue that the organization's actions violate the VRA.

  • True the Vote is a Texas-based right-wing group whose mission is “to train citizens to protect election integrity at the polls.” In 2020, the group launched the largest mass voter challenge in Georgia history by contesting the eligibility of over 364,000 voters.

Here are a couple of updates from Ohio.

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) canceled over 26,000 voter registrations six days after voters began receiving ballots for the upcoming November elections.

• The constitutional amendment to establish an independent redistricting commission ballot initiative in Ohio suffered a setback after a single typo was discovered in the summary. The group must collect another 1,000 signatures and resubmit the language for approval to get on the 2024 ballot.