The RNC is inflating its legal attack on voting rights

We got our hands on the RNC’s litigation memo and found they’ve been inflating their numbers.

The Republican National Committee has repeatedly claimed involvement in 78 election lawsuits in 23 states this cycle. But a recent Committee memo obtained by Democracy Docket casts doubt on the scope and extent of the RNC's role in litigation.
- Based on the memo, it's clear that the group includes closed cases and amicus briefs submitted in that count. The RNC said at least once that it's "filed" 78 lawsuits, a much more proactive posture than laid out in the memo.
- While the memo's numbers are questionable, it does lay out the GOP's plan to ramp up involvement in efforts to restrict mail-in voting and ballot access this year. Read the full story here.
- Ronna McDaniel, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, cited the number just last week on Meet the Press. The number of lawsuits isn't the only thing she lied about during that infamous interview. Upgrade now to get Marc’s breakdown of the other lies Ronna spewed last week straight to your inbox.

Here are some other updates.

An Arizona judge dismissed yet another lawsuit trying to overturn the state's 2022 midterm election results and sanctioned failed Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, saying the lawsuit was "groundless" and "not brought in good faith."
The federal judge who blocked New Jersey’s controversial “county line” ballot design clarified that the order only applies to New Jersey's Democratic primary election. A group of county clerks then appealed this decision to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A federal court ruled that a right-wing organization is entitled to personal voter information after finding that New Mexico’s voter data usage policies violate the National Voter Registration Act. Some claims in the lawsuit will proceed to trial.
Conservatives appealed a conspiracy theory-riddled lawsuit that seeks to dismantle Oregon's mail-in voting system and ban electronic vote tabulators to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lower courts dismissed the case.
Gerrymandering has led to extreme abortion restrictions. But when abortion access is directly on the ballot, voters support reproductive health. We saw it in Kansas and Ohio — and Florida is next, after the state Supreme Court ruled a ballot measure to expand abortion access can be placed on the ballot. Learn more about the connection between abortion and voting in our Defending Democracy podcast.
Last week, the Supreme Court considered whether the Federal Drug Association's rules governing the abortion medication mifepristone were legal. This case marks the beginning of a new assault on reproductive freedom and fundamental rights, Rakim Brooks argues. Read it here.

ICYMI, on Friday, we dropped our latest episode of Defending Democracy where writer and political commentator Molly Jong-Fast joins Marc to discuss how a second Trump term would be different, the myth of the "moderate" Republican and the media's role in all of this. Watch it here and subscribe to our channel here — we are trying to hit 100,000 subscribers!