In a letter to California’s top elections official, obtained by Democracy Docket, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon threatened the state with legal action if it did not provide DOJ with full access to its voter registration list within seven days.
Monday, August 18
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In new letters, DOJ escalates hunt for state voter data, threatens legal action
- In a letter to California’s top elections official, obtained ([link removed] ) by Democracy Docket, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon threatened the state with legal action if it did not provide DOJ with full access to its voter registration list within seven days.
- Dhillon made a similar demand of Illinois. Though her letter didn’t threaten a lawsuit, it noted that DOJ is empowered by federal law to “bring enforcement actions” to ensure that states are maintaining accurate rolls.
- A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Democracy Docket that other states received similar letters from DOJ in the past week, escalating its effort to pressure states to hand over sensitive voter data.
Democrats return to Texas, the House reaches quorum and the GOP gerrymander is nigh
- The Texas House reached ([link removed] ) quorum for the first time since Democrats left the state to block a GOP redistricting map. With the special legislative session now restarting, the GOP looks set to pass its extreme gerrymander this week.
- Meanwhile, California Democrats unveiled a measure that, if passed by voters, would allow them to conduct their own redistricting. It’s called the “Election Rigging Response Act.”
Now that the Texas House reached quorum for the first time since Democrats fled, the GOP’s extreme gerrymander is back on track. Our 20-person team works around the clock to expose every twist of this story. Become a member to power fearless, pro-democracy reporting. ([link removed] )
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Trump promises new, blatantly unconstitutional order to end mail-in voting
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In a blatantly unconstitutional move, President Donald Trump announced ([link removed] ) plans for a new executive order aiming to eliminate mail-in voting ahead of the 2026 midterms. The Constitution grants states, not the president, the primary authority to regulate elections.
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Trump continued ([link removed] ) his tirade against mail-in voting during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spreading false claims about its integrity and arguing that ending it would prevent many Democrats from getting elected.
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“Mail in ballots are corrupt,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Mail in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots, and we as a Republican Party are going to do everything possible [to] get rid of mail-in ballots.”
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Trump even joked ([link removed] ) about starting a war in three years to allow him to cancel the next presidential election.
Red states rush to send troops for Trump’s D.C. crackdown
- Four GOP-led states will send ([link removed] ) their National Guard troops to D.C. after Trump claimed they were needed to curb out-of-control crime in the city, despite a decline in violent crime since 2023. The deployments will nearly double the current number of troops in the city.
- Troops from West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio and Mississippi will join the hundreds of Guard members Trump deployed to the nation’s capital last week.
Appeals court set to revisit Kansas anti-voting law
- Kansas' Republican secretary of state appealed ([link removed] ) a lower court ruling that struck down a state law banning voting groups from sending prefilled mail-in ballot applications to voters. The court previously said the law was unconstitutional.
- The 10th Circuit will now decide if voting groups can continue helping Kansas voters by distributing prefilled applications.
Federal court rules Florida did not racially gerrymander Tampa Bay Senate district
- In a loss for voters, a federal court sided ([link removed] ) with Florida Republicans, ruling that Senate District 16 is not a racial gerrymander.
- Voters who brought the lawsuit argued the district diluted Black voting power by packing over half of the Tampa Bay area’s Black residents into one district.
Coming up tomorrow
- A 9th Circuit panel will hear the government's appeal of an order blocking federal employee termination across six agencies.
- The Arizona Court of Appeal will hear arguments in a right-wing lawsuit ([link removed] ) challenging Arizona’s signature matching procedures.
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