Republicans have been busy attacking free and fair elections for years. In fact, I started Democracy Docket in 2020 to provide accurate news, information and analysis about these attacks and how pro-democracy groups were fighting back in court.
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August 26, 2025
Republicans have been busy attacking free and fair elections for years. In fact, I started Democracy Docket in 2020 to provide accurate news, information and analysis about these attacks and how pro-democracy groups were fighting back in court.
Now, Trump’s assault on mail-in voting is taking it up a notch. While Trump has always targeted mail-in voting, we must be ready to face the most dangerous assault on voting rights yet.
This is a scary time for our democracy, and I know we have a lot of questions, but I am here to answer them.
Now let’s get into it.
Every Tuesday, Democracy Docket founder and top voting rights attorney Marc Elias answers members’ questions in a written Q&A — giving you insight into what the news really means.
Upgrade now for $10/month to always get Marc’s full analysis, straight from your questions. ([link removed] )
Q: How can Trump stop mail-in voting when states run their own elections?
— Lauri
A: You’re right, elections are run by the states — it says so right there in the Constitution. I assume Trump has never read it.
So, while there is technically nothing Trump can legally do to stop mail-in voting, that has never stopped him before. Trump will try to intimidate state and local election boards to limit or ban mail-in voting. And, we must assume boards controlled by Republicans will capitulate. Those controlled by Democrats must stand strong.
Even if Trump can’t change the law, he hopes that his fearmongering about mail-in voting will cause a decline in the practice. People who can’t cast their ballot in-person may choose to not vote at all.
We can’t let that happen. We must defend mail-in voting in the courts and in the court of public opinion. We cannot let Trump and the vote suppressors win.
Q: Will Trump's assault on voting rights disenfranchise / block overseas (out of the country) voters from voting?
— Andrew
A: Overseas voters already face barriers to casting their ballot. They may be confused by differing state laws, have difficulty accessing the proper paperwork or face issues receiving their ballot.
Trump and the Republican Party’s assault on voting rights threatens to make it worse. We saw this when Republicans in North Carolina tried to throw out overseas ballots for voters who didn’t register with identification information — a law that wasn’t required at the time many of these voters registered. Republicans also tried to disenfranchise voters who are United States citizens, but have lived outside of the country throughout their lives — these often include military families.
We will see more attacks like this — especially as Trump ramps up his battle against mail-in voting.
Q: Please explain how the state of Texas is legally able to do what they are to Collier and her Democratic colleagues. (Holding them hostage, under surveillance silencing them etc.) What legal recourse do they have?
— Nina
A: They had no legal basis to do what they did, and it should be a bigger scandal — they illegally confined her.
Rep. Collier’s confinement was another blatant example of targeting and threatening Democrats, and while her courage and strength should not have been necessary, it was needed. We must continue to shine a light on those who stand up to these undemocratic measures.
Q: This is democracy adjacent, perhaps. But how will we ever know if various Epstein file documents were destroyed or fabricated? If redacted, at least we know those exist.
— Scott
A: We know they exist because Republicans have been scrambling to hide them. If the files were destroyed, we may not know what they said, but always assume that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
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