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Republicans have peddled so many lies about voting and elections that it is sometimes hard to keep track of them all. There are the big lies, like that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, that are so deeply ingrained in the party’s DNA that they are memorized and repeated as an article of faith.

Then there are the smaller, more strategic lies Republicans offer to placate their supporters and shape the national narrative. In that second bucket are two Republican talking points that we can now put to rest.

First, Republicans have tried to sell to an eager media the idea that they have learned their lesson regarding mail-in voting and Donald Trump now supports it. As I detailed recently in a piece on Democracy Docket, this is simply untrue. Donald Trump continues to attack mail-in voting and Republicans continue to spend millions on litigation aimed at crippling it.

The second narrative suggests that Democrats and progressive groups are actively using the courts to bring last minute litigation to change the rules of voting. In their telling, Republicans are the “victims” of a surge of cases aimed at upending the settled expectations of voters.

The data proves that the opposite is true. While pro-voting litigation in election years has seen a modest increase, we are witnessing an unprecedented surge of last-minute litigation from the GOP and its right-wing allies aimed at restricting voting rights and making election administration more difficult.

From January 2020 until Sept. 16, 2020, Republicans and their allies had filed 13 voting related lawsuits. During the comparable period in 2022, it grew to 41 cases — a threefold increase. This year that number doubled again to 82.

By contrast, pro-democracy groups during the same period filed 27 cases in 2020, 35 cases in 2022 and 41 pro-voting cases this year.

You're reading my monthly State of Democracy newsletter, where I share my thoughts and insights on the trends and stories that will impact the election. It is always packed with exclusive data that I break down just for members, and that you won't find anywhere else!

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As we head into the final weeks of the election, this trend is accelerating. Just in the last month, anti-voting groups have filed 21 lawsuits, with the RNC alone filing 8.

The importance of these two narratives is clear: Republicans want the public to believe that it has toned down, if not outright abandoned, election denialism. They want swing voters to think that the party has moderated on mail-in voting and is accepting the rules of free and fair elections.

The state of our democracy has revealed itself. Democrats will go into the election supporting free and fair elections while Republicans will continue to attack them. I wish it were otherwise. Perhaps if they suffer big enough losses, in two years it will be. But for now, election denialism remains firmly in control of the once grand old party.
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The top five tell the story. If you want to know when Republicans are worried, look at where they are spending money to challenge voting laws. Though they have filed lawsuits in 31 states this cycle, the bulk of them have been concentrated in five states…

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