Bad News Weekly: August 15, 2025

Welcome to Bad News Weekly, your rundown of key attacks on voting rights and independent elections across the country – it’s a way to keep up with what the opponents of democracy are up to. We’ll highlight some of the worst anti-voter efforts, with a spotlight on the South, the original frontline in the fight for voting rights, and still its fiercest.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The Supreme Court has hollowed out the VRA, stripping away the core protections Congress once put in place to defend the right to vote. With every new judicial decision, anti-voter policy has gained ground.” – Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Joyce Vance , on the damage done to the Voting Rights Act.

NOTABLE TRENDS

• U.S. Department of Justice Continues Its Effort To Access States’ Voter Data: In an appearance on the far-right One America News Network, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division, discussed the DOJ’s effort to access states’ voter rolls, claiming that “sloppy maintenance requirements” and “sloppy voter rolls” in some states has led to a lack of voter confidence and to people challenging election results.

  • In Pennsylvania, the DOJ sent a second letter requesting the state to turn over a copy of its complete voter rolls and a list of all state and local election officials responsible for voter list maintenance from November 2022 through the date the letter was received. The new letter referenced Public Interest Legal Foundation’s claim that they have found about 19,000 voter registrations with records in another state.

  • In Texas, the Secretary of State’s office received a letter requesting access to the state’s voter rolls and information on canceled voter records, records of noncitizens removed from the rolls, voter history, and a list of state and local election officials responsible for voter list maintenance since November 2022. The department gave the state 14 days to respond.

Subscribe for free to stay sharp, fight back, and never miss a beat in the battle for democracy.

Subscribed

STATE ACTIVITY

• Florida • New Driver’s Licenses Could Cause Issues With Voters Trying to Vote by Mail: In July 2024, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles began issuing new driver’s license and state ID card numbers to anyone who renewed their license or ID or requested a replacement card. However, an unknown number of voters may not have had their voter registration information updated to include the new ID number, potentially causing an issue with voting by mail. When voters request a mail ballot in Florida, they have to provide the ID number that election officials have in their records, and if it does not match, then a mail ballot application cannot be processed. “When they try to do their vote by mail (ballot) request online it’s not going to match. When that happens people get very frustrated,” Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said.

• Michigan • Former AG Candidate, Matt DePerno, Facing Felony Charges For Allegedly Tampering With Voting Machines, Is Running For State AG Again: Matt DePerno, who is facing felony charges for allegedly tampering with voting machines in a hotel room in 2020 and lost a run for AG in 2022, has filed paperwork with the state for a run for attorney general. DePerno, a prominent election conspiracy theorist in Michigan, has “boasted” about accessing voting machines outside the legal chain of custody.

ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY

• Election Integrity Network (EIN) Celebrated DOJ’s Effort To Access Voter Data: Both the Election Integrity Network (EIN) and Cleta Mitchell, the head of EIN who joined Trump’s infamous 2020 call to “find” votes he didn’t earn in Georgia, celebrated the DOJ’s effort to access states’ voter data on Twitter after Harmeet Dhillon’s One America News Network appearance. 

• EIN Started New Chapter: On August 14, EIN announced the formation of a new coalition in New England.

  Paid for by Fair Fight Action.