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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 only way that we’re going to have a fair federal election is if the president of the United States declares ... some sort of a national emergency.” – Michael Flynn, former Trump national security adviser, on how President Trump could enforce restrictive voting policies [ [link removed] ].
NOTABLE TRENDS
State Legislatures Are Preparing to Redraw Congressional Maps If The Supreme Court Guts the Voting Rights Act: Some states are preparing to redraw [ [link removed] ] Congressional maps across the country if the Supreme Court issues a ruling in Louisiana v Callais that guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“Many states across the South are already licking their chops to try and prepare to racially gerrymander maps as quickly as possible,” said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
In South Carolina, top Republican officials have stated that they are “itching” to draw out Rep Jim Clyburn’s seat, the sole Democrat representative in the state.
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis has stated that a Supreme Court ruling gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act would “necessitate new congressional redistricting,” while Louisiana has moved to adjust their 2026 election dates in anticipation of the ruling.
USPS Service Cuts Could Delay Mail, Millions of Mail Ballots At Risk Of Being Canceled In Future Elections: A new USPS policy [ [link removed] ], known as Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO), will eliminate evening mail pickups from post offices more than 50 miles away from a regional processing facility, meaning mail will be postmarked and delivered at least one day later than before.
The policy is already in effect for roughly 16% of the US population. Once fully implemented, the change will affect roughly 149 million Americans across 70% of U.S. zip codes, a vast majority of which are rural.
This policy change could put millions of mail ballots at risk of being canceled by missing ballot receipt deadlines, especially amid the ongoing multi-pronged effort to require ballots to arrive on Election Day.
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STATE ACTIVITY
California • Majority of Latino Voters Expressed Concern They Might Encounter Immigration Enforcement At Polling Places: According to a new poll [ [link removed] ] commissioned by the Latino Community Foundation, 66% of the 1,200 registered Latino voters in California who were surveyed expressed concern that they might encounter immigration enforcement at polling places during this year’s special election.
66% of all US-born Latino voters surveyed also expressed this concern. During a Reddit event, Orange County Registrar Bob Page informed voters that federal law “prohibits armed federal law enforcement activities at voting locations.”
Louisiana • Legislature Voted to Move Election Dates Ahead of Anticipated Supreme Court Ruling: The state legislature gave final approval [ [link removed] ] to an effort to move the 2026 primary election schedule back about one month. Instead of an April 18 party primary for Louisiana’s congressional races and some municipal elections, the new date would be May 16, runoffs would be moved from May 30 to June 2, and the qualifying period for the election would be adjusted from Jan 14-16 to Feb 11-13.
The election adjustment was made in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling [ [link removed] ] in Louisiana v Callais, which could allow lawmakers to remove one of both of the state’s majority Black congressional districts. The legislators appear to hope the court would issue a decision by Dec 20 that would clear the way for them to redraw the maps in an early January special session.
Ohio • State Senators Move to Eliminate Mail Ballot Grace Period Amid Pressure From Trump DOJ: Two state senators introduced [ [link removed] ] SB 293 to eliminate the mail ballot grace period that allows mail ballots postmarked by the day before Election Day to be counted if they arrive up to 4 days after Election Day. The senators stated that the bill was needed to comply with federal law ahead of a possible Supreme Court ruling on a Mississippi case after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state could not count mail ballots that arrived after Election Day in federal elections, even if they were postmarked on time.
In testimony in support of the bill, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said [ [link removed] ] that Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, had recently written a letter to Ohio’s attorney general claiming that Ohio’s current law conflicted with federal law and imploring the state “take immediate action (legislative or otherwise) to comply with federal law, and avoid costly litigation.”
ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY
Anti-Voting Activists Have Repeatedly Called for Trump to Declare a “National Emergency” to Enforce Restrictive Election Policies: Over the past few months, multiple anti-voting activists have repeatedly called for President Trump to declare a national emergency [ [link removed] ] to enforce restrictive election policies.
These activists include Garland Favorito, the co-founder of VoterGA, who said on a podcast that Trump could “execute his National Emergency Act powers” in order to ensure that election systems “comply” with federal law and Jerome Corsi, who previously worked for InfoWars, who said that a “national security emergency will allow Donald Trump to make sure that the elections in 2026 are secure even if we have to go to extreme measures and get the military involved.”
Corsi has also claimed that he and Peter Ticktin have been involved in drafting a 17-page executive order for the 2026 elections that ban the use of existing voter rolls, mandate voter ID, and require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
RNC Sued New Jersey County For Ballot Drop Box Footage: The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit [ [link removed] ] against Burlington County, New Jersey, seeking chain-of-custody logs for ballots and video recordings of drop boxes from the June primary. According to the complaint, the Burlington County Board of Elections delayed providing chain-of-custody logs and ballot storage container opening logs and denied the video footage of the Moorestown drop box that the RNC requested.
In their denial, the board claimed exemptions for sensitive information regarding the security and integrity of elections and other security measures. The RNC argued that the denial failed to state a clear rationale for the denials other than stating that the records were exempt.
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